I think some of you must be thinking that we’ve got lost it’s been so long since we posted an update about the Wayfarers Walk. Rest assured that we haven’t got lost and are still making good progress. Here is the next installment!
L
I think some of you must be thinking that we’ve got lost it’s been so long since we posted an update about the Wayfarers Walk. Rest assured that we haven’t got lost and are still making good progress. Here is the next installment!
L
I’m sure you will all agree that the refreshments are a very important part of any day out… and our lastest walk was planned around starting and finishing at Wilfrid’s Cafe in Droxford.
We’d discovered this community cafe before Christmas when we walked from Beaconhill Beeches – and with ample car parking in the village centre, we thought it would be a good place to start the next leg of the Wayfarer’s Walk.
L
Both the goats are looking forward to some good camping trips in 2022, and we’ll be sure to tell you all about them!
The weather is mild enough to be camping today, but sadly we aren’t! I did go for a new year’s day walk, but it wasn’t very exciting… instead I thought I’d tell you about the lastest bit of the Wayfarers which I completed before Christmas: Beaconhill beeches
If you live near enough, maybe it will inspire you of an idea where to walk this weekend.
Happy new year!
L
When we recently did the next phase of the Wayfarers Walk, we didn’t think we’d need to watch out for sharks in rural hampshire!! Read about it here: Hinton Ampner
After a bit of a break from blogging and an even longer one from the Wayfarers path, we are back on track!
We made the most of the beautiful October weather this weekend and walked the next stretch of the Wayfarers around Cheriton and Tichbourne.
L
During Lockdown it’s nice to reminisce over previous adventures. We thought you might enjoy reading this guest post from a loyal blog follower about his favourite long distance walk. On his recommendation Glyndwrs Way is on our to do list!
L & R
The UK is blessed with wonderful walks – many just the right length between incredible views and reasonable places for overnight stops. We’ve met visitors from Australia and USA who come to the UK just because such walks are not possible with their huge distances between centres of habitation. So which walk to do – mountains, or coastal paths or perhaps moorland? Having done many long distance trails, the favourite so far has been the 135 mile horseshoe shaped walk “Glyndwr’s Way” which is perhaps the least known of the 15 National Trails of England and Wales. The walk commemorates the rebellion against the English by Owain Glyndwr, proclaimed Prince of Wales in the early 15th century, and passes through much of the countryside where he fought the English.
As it is in Wales, the walk is inevitably full of hard-to-pronounce place names and comes with the continual fear of rain (although apart from one spectacular display of thunder and lightning while we were very exposed on the top of a hill, nervously holding our (conducting?) walking sticks, that fear was unfounded). You are unlikely to see many other hikers on the route and I’m afraid there aren’t many tea shops but there are plenty of sheep (Wales has 10 million sheep and only some 3 million people)!
It has varied, beautiful scenery between the charming mid-Wales towns. The trail is clearly signposted (we only got a bit lost once!) starting in Knighton literally on the Wales – England border, going all the way to Machynlleth which is not far from the Irish Sea coast, and then makes its way back to Welshpool. In fact, there are only four small towns on the entire route: Knighton, Llanidloes, Machynlleth and Welshpool.
With reasonable fitness it can be done in nine or ten days. According to the guide book the total ascent is 23,556ft and one or two bits are really quite steep!
For me the highlights were probably the reservoir Llyn Clywedog and the beautiful Lake Vyrnwy (below) with its wonderful, many arched viaduct and dam but you spend much time on the walk with spectacular scenery while crossing open moorland (with sheep), working farmland (with sheep), river valleys (with sheep) and woodlands (yes, even some sheep there!).
We took a day off at Machynlleth to visit the Dyfi Osprey Project which is well run and worth visiting.
From a practical perspective, it is worth noting that some of the campsites, pubs and B&Bs in our guidebook were no longer open so careful research is vital. However, everyone we met on the trip was friendly and helpful.
Well now you’ve found me out…I’m a few weeks behind on my blogs!! I assure you that this adventure was undertaken when COVID lockdown rules permitted!
It might not have been a long walk, but there was a lot to see. Hope you enjoy reading about it.
Hopefully we’ll be able to get back to our Wayfaring again soon.
L
Doing this trail as circular walks means we’ve done 7 sections and still have a long way to go!! But every section of the Wayfarers Walk seems to have something interesting to find – on this section we found an oversized Greek Temple and an interesting phonebox. Hope you enjoy reading about it!
L
Our latest section of the Wayfarers Walk was done by the light of a blue moon. Honestly, it really was! Read about it here.
Disappointingly she wasn’t in to receive us… in fact her house in Steveton is no longer there, but we did get to visit her father’s church! Read about this and the other places we came across on the next stage of the Wayfarer’s Walk.