Musings on Offa's Dyke

Total distance walked: 194 miles over 12 days

Offa's Dyke was fantastic walk, we had a great two week holiday and no major problems at all.

 

The weather was very mixed, I think we had just about everything that the Great British Summer could throw at us. When we set off it was days of 26degC or more, wall to wall sunshine and dry, dusty paths. The middle of the walk was mainly overcast but dry (better for walking but not so good for photography) and the last couple of days very wet and windy indeed - but this wasn't really a problem when staying in pubs, b&b and hotel accommodation, as you can wash and dry stuff overnight. We only met one family that were planning on doing any camping, and they were doing the trail over long weekends rather than all in one go, and we spent a good part of our last day feeling a bit sorry for them (Rob more so than me, I must confess, I was mainly of the opinion that it was their choice...but I did feel a bit guilty about that later as the awful weather reports came in.)

In the end, we walked 214 miles in total - and my Asic Trebuca's have very little by way of sole left on them. Unlike most of the other walkers we met, who had opted for the more popular sturdy, waterproof boots, we wore very light trail shoes that offered no waterproofness at all. This was fabulous during the hot weather, fine for 99% of the rest of the time, and slightly squelchy after fording the river and walking through a couple of very wet fields. I am very pleased with the way my trail shoes felt and performed (especially coming down steep slopes on wet grass, they stuck like velcro) and because they're not waterproof, they dried out reasonably quickly and with a change of socks were perfectly comfortable - well, as comfy as any shoes are after you've walked that many miles.

Having reviewed all the stuff we took with us, I think we were fairly happy with our packing. We needed more stuff like toothpaste, moisturiser, footcream and soap than we took from the start but these things are easy to get hold of along the way. I could probably have managed with one less pair of walking socks, should probably have taken liner socks instead in case I'd had to walk in my waterproof socks for any length of time and a warm hat would have been preferable rather than a spare Buff. Another couple of carrier bags would have been handy, but this was only because now in Wales you have to pay 5p for a bag, and we are a bit stingy - although I dolike this law as it has apparently cut down the number of carrier bags being used dramatically, which can only be a good thing.

The walk itself is fantastic. It has more ascent than I would have expected for a trail that doesn't really go over much very high ground, just lots of (sometimes very steep) ups and downs. Mainly the path goes through farmland countryside, sheep farming and arable fields. My usual preference for walking is high ground, moorland and fell tops, but I loved Offa's Dyke with its pretty flower-lined lanes and pastures, little towns, old woods,  castles and abbeys, and of course, the dyke itself.

My photographs have now been uploaded - you can see them here - because my new clever little camera has GPS, in each of the galleries clicking on "Map This" will show you where they were taken.

 We stayed here:

Chepstow: The Castle View Hotel
Monmouth: The Punch House (late rooms)
Pandy: Allt Yr Ynys (late rooms)
Hay On Wye: Kilverts
Kington: The Swan
Knighton: The George and Dragon
Mellington: B&B (found from Offas Dyke Association accomodation pages)
Welshpool: The Royal Oak
Llanymynech: The Bradford Arms
Llangollen: Bryn Howel Hotel
Llanferres: The Druid Inn
Bodfari: Glan Clwyd Isa B&B
Prestatyn: The Beaches

Our next challenge is to complete all the 214 Wainwrights before November 23rd 2012, which will mark ten years since we climbed up our first Lakeland fell on our first wedding anniversary - only 23 more to go...