Total miles: 17.7
Elevation gain: 1,631 ft
Time walking: 9am – 7pm
Miles to date: 313.6
I cracked 300 miles! Wow! That feels pretty good. In fact, it was a reasonably momentous day in terms of the journey as a whole: I passed 300 miles (pretty much 1/4 of the way now!), crossed into Wales (then promptly back into England again!) and started my second leg.
Still tired from yesterday and with the rain starting just 5 minutes into my walk it wasn’t the most promising start to the day, however the prospect of walking across the Severn Bridge and having some friends join me gave me something to look forward to and I set off at a good pace aiming to get a few miles under my belt.
The first few miles were wet but uneventful, and then the theme of the day made itself apparent; today it was the day of the double stile! A lot of the fields were separated by a hedge and a rhine (water-filled ditch) which meant a stile, then a little bridge, then a stile. Thankfully they weren’t too overgrown but it was still tiring doing the double climb each time, especially as I had to be extra careful with the wood being slippery!
After a while the rain stopped for a bit and I had a welcome break from hood-up overheating and I did the 300 mile happy dance 🙂 Then, oh hello field of young bulls, what a surprise! These seemed fairly skittish and at first ran away from me – albeit unfortunately in exactly the direction I was headed – but they soon got more confident and there was one rather large one with horns that seemed particularly keen on getting close. Each time they got a bit closer I’d eye the big, deep ditch beside me and contemplate whether I could escape into it if necessary! Thankfully that decision didn’t need to be made and I eventually made it out of the field a little sweatier and more tired than I’d entered it, but in one piece. There were only a couple of fields to go now before I reached the pub where friends were meeting me, so I put in an order for a bowl of chips and picked up my pace. Across another watery ditch and it’s another field of bovines, females this time, with calves. I’m not too worried, even though they eye me half curiously, half warily. I’m sure if I skirt around them I’ll be fine. And then I see him. The bull. A heavy, thickset bull with horns and curly hair, and rather large, well, manly bits! He comes a bit closer to take a good look at me and keep an eye on his girls as I lean on the gate, eyeing up the distance to the gate on the opposite side of the field. Seriously, I am so over cows now! I really don’t want to go in that field with that bull! I check my map, but today there is no obvious alternative way around, without either retracing my steps completely (back through the field of young bulls) or taking a route that adds about 2 miles. I can’t even try and get through by crossing into the adjacent field thanks to the massive watery ditches in the way! I eye the bull. He eyes me. We weigh each other up. This goes on for about 10 minutes, by which time some of the cows have lost interest. I tentatively take a step or two through the gate, they all back off, including the bull. He doesn’t look terribly ill-tempered, I think he may be a dexter bull (beef, not dairy…supposedly beef bulls are friendlier…). As I move towards them they all move off and more confidently I make it halfway across the field before my back has to turn on them. They spot their chance to move in on me. I try my yelling and waving arms trick although I’m a bit nervous to yell too loudly at the bull. It seems to work and they back off a bit. It’s the same game as with the younger bulls, but my heart is pounding a lot more at the sight of the heavy bull each time he breaks into a lumbering run and I have to work very hard to not break into a run myself. “Don’t run. Whatever you do, don’t run!” I keep telling myself. About two thirds of the way across the field the cattle decide I’m probably safe now and thankfully they finally all stop and watch me make my way to the gate. I climb through gratefully, legs a little on the wobbly side, just as the heavens open. Dripping wet I wobble my way the short distance to the sanctuary of the pub in Aust. Oh happy sight!
Greeted at the pub by big hugs and cheers of welcome and congratulations, and presented with a glass of coke and a (fresh) bowl of chips, I immediately start to feel better. My t-shirt is soaking wet (not quite sure whether from the rain or sweat, or both), but I dry out soon enough while we watch the rain pelting down, thankful we aren’t out in it just yet!
Emma and Mike from Scrubditch Care Farm (one of the charities I’m supporting) have come to wish me well and brought me the first fig from the polytunnel (ohhhh it was divine!) and a bunch of sweet peas that smell heavenly as they are tucked into the side pocket of my rucksack. Then Pam, Lorraine and Ian from Watershed Riding for the Disabled (another of the charities) have come to walk over the bridge with me, braving the rain!
It was great to have company over the bridge, partly because it was a really cool thing to do and partly because it’s a surprisingly long walk from Aust to Chepstow! 6 miles! The views from the bridge were spectacular, especially with the moody clouds over the estuary and the second bridge. Sadly there was no “Welcome to Wales” sign on the footpath – it’s only on the road – so I didn’t get a picture with that one. Ah well, I know I made it to Wales! Amazingly the rain held off and we even had a little bit of sun as we crossed, and the others stripped off their waterproofs. It was too much effort for me with my pack, and I didn’t trust the looming black clouds so I kept mine on, which proved a good idea as the heavens opened again just as we walked through the thick town walls. And I’m talking monsoon-type downpour here, not just your average British summer shower! Tesco was just in front of us so we dashed down to shelter under the covered walkway, the water working its way down between my pack and my back as I hurried along. The road turned into a river and we weren’t the only ones taking shelter. It didn’t look like easing off so we downed packs and decided to wait it out. It was a good idea, as soon came the thunder and lightning, and several more heavy downpours. I was incredibly glad we weren’t still on the bridge! We ended up eating most of our picnic there under the shelter, with a beautiful view of the Tesco petrol station! Not quite what I had planned, but we all found it quite hilarious!
Once the rain finally eased off again we headed towards the old bridge to find somewhere for a hot drink, all plans of a picnic abandoned in favour of getting warm and dry. We found a nice wine and coffee bar on the river who let us bring our little dog in and we gratefully stripped off our waterproofs. I also gratefully took my boots off which I could have done with doing earlier as my feet were wet which wasn’t doing my blisters any good. Thankfully with a bit of airing and drying off, and swapping to my waterproof socks, the impact doesn’t seem to be serious or permanent!
Soon it was time to say farewell to my walking party so they could get a taxi back to the other side of the bridge and I could walk the final four miles to my bed for the night. I had originally planned to walk down to the very start of Offa’s Dyke path but I made the decision that walking the extra two miles there and back probably wasn’t a great idea given the weather and my feet and other than getting a photo at the starting point I probably wouldn’t be missing out on all that much. It was definitely the right decision as the last four miles got tough. The path was pretty at points then would return repeatedly to the road and it felt like I was doing lots of zigzags. But each time I’d be a bit higher and the views, back across the Wye in one direction and the Severn in the other, were beautiful.
The path eventually headed into the woods and picked up the actual dyke. Suddenly I realised just how high I was as the woods steeply dropped away to one side. There was a real sense of space and I didn’t envy the Welsh trying to get into England all those hundreds of years ago! From time to time I stopped to listen to the raindrops falling softly from the leaves, to land muffled on the path below. I was looking forward to walking more of the route tomorrow but first I had to take a small detour to my accommodation for the night, the parents of a friend. The highlight of the evening was discovering that my friend’s dad is a dairy farmer so the milk they have comes pretty much straight from the cow! No wonder the tea tasted so good…!
My feet are really aching tonight. I don’t have to dash off early tomorrow so I’m going to give my feet a good rest while I can. Fingers crossed they start to toughen up again!
I am so tired now so am going to publish this then come back and add photos tomorrow. Bear with me!
Night night xx
