the company – 25 Aug, 2018
Day 20 Land’s End to John O’Groats – Chepstow to Monmouth
Distance: 33km
Cumulative distance: 502km
Exciting times! Bird and Amy arrived late last night after a bit of bus drama from London and we’re all walking today which will be the first time so far that I’ve had company!
I took a couple of trains back into Bristol yesterday and met up with Estela who came and joined me from London. We had a cracking day, checked out the markets, had lunch down at Grain Barge then walked along a few of the old docks and went and found some Banksy artwork. It rained a bit in the arvo which put a bit of a dampener on things, but we found an awesome place for tea (the Canteen) before finally going our separate ways. Bird and Amy were booked in to stay in my dorm and by the time they walked through it was about 1am. One of the windscreen wipers had broken down en route and the driver wouldn’t continue until a replacement bus had arrived more than an hour later. Incredible scenes.
We had brekky and met a group of first-year medical students who had just begun the Wye Valley Way a day earlier, raising money for their pal Xander who last year had become paralysed after falling out of a tree. They’d come from Bristol the day before, and were aiming for Monmouth tonight. We ended up bumping into them a few times later that day as they walked.
Our plan was to take the Wye Valley Walk to Tintern, then switch to the Offa’s Dyke Path most of the way to Monmouth before turning off and forging our way to the campsite we’d picked out a few kilometres east of town. This was a welcome change up from what I’d been walking across in Somerset and into Bristol – it was super hilly and green and with a few pals alongside to boot. The Wye Valley Walk follows the Wye River (the smaller of the two I crossed on that huge bridge yesterday) all the way upstream as it snakes across Wales while the Offa’s Dyke Path, one of the more famous in the UK, goes from Chepstow all the way up to the Welsh north coast. I would be using a fair bit of it to tackle the next sector of my journey.
We set off a bit later than normal, hit the shops and met a chap from Birmingham who was also doing the Offa’s Dyke, then left town via the old castle. The challenges of the day ahead hit us pretty early with a decent slog uphill past the castle and out of town before we turned off into the forest and navigated a few small hills while keeping the river on our right hand side. After a few miles which included strolling through a gaping hole in the rock which had been blasted open many moons ago for walkers, we came to a carpark and an option for continuing – we could either go left and take the moderate path to the viewpoint up above us, or go right at take the more strenuous option which apparently included 365 steps. In this non-negotiable matter, I elected the strenuous course and we were on our way. To be fair, I’m still not convinced there were 365 steps, but it definitely was strenuous at times up to the top. I took a quick look of the view which actually wasn’t too much, just a snapshot of the river below which was still fairly brown in colour at this stage. Then I was off in the direction of Tintern – the ground had leveled out and I set a cracking pace figuring Bird and Amy would catch up. After a few km worth of this I decided to stop and wait for them just to be sure. About 15 or 20 minutes later they came by, and showed me a photo of the sign they’d made out of sticks and rocks – an arrow pointing in the direction they were headed with JB written underneath. Dead set legends those two. They’d missed the viewpoint and thought I was waiting there for them, so figured they must have gone past me. Reunited, we pressed on to Tintern and soon enough arrived at the marvelous ruined abbey. Amy dropped a cracking knowledge bomb at lunch telling us that Iron Maiden had filmed one of their music videos in the abbey. We loaded up on a solid pub feed as did about 300 other visitors who were out to visit the abbey on this glorious Saturday afternoon, then ventured off as the clock ticked over to 3pm. We were barely a third of the way through, and soon realised it was going to be a fairly long afternoon!
We trooped on through Tintern, crossed the Wye over a lovely bridge then switched course to the Offa’s Dyke Path. There were a heap of footpaths shooting off to our left and right, but we followed the signs to the Offa’s Dyke and were eventually on our way. I had a look down at the map a bit later and realised we could have cut out a bit of that section if we’d have followed a slightly different route (like maybe three or four km worth) but unfortunately I wasn’t to know until the benefit of hindsight. Let’s just keep that one from Bird and Ams if we can…
Due to the convoluted nature of the exit from Tintern, it felt like we’d gone nowhere after about an hour or so, except up a pretty chunky hill which had left us all fairly short of breath. We could still see Tintern! Once the path finally started pulling us northwards we made some decent ground across farmland and through quiet laneways, and found a stack of quaint country houses each with stunning views of the valley. Amy and Bird were starting to struggle with their own niggles at this point (bear in mind Amy had knee surgery earlier this year so this was a fair old effort on her part) but we pressed on knowing there were still many miles ahead. This was probably the nicest walking I’d done so far on the whole trip, so I was glad the long weekend had fallen now and that Bird and Amy were able to get across and do a section. We kept going and eventually had to head on downhill back to the river (as always the downhills were a right challenge), and then we headed up a road and had a little stop just before 6pm. Bird spent five minutes trying to iron out the cramps he was suffering in just about every square inch of muscle below his waist. Amy and I sat down mentally preparing for the next 8-10km, which would start by taking us up yet another hefty hill. We set off once more and Bird went into power mode, breaking clear of the pelaton and catching a break on the rest of the field. I hung back a bit with Amy who just kept putting one foot in front of the other, and we eventually reconvened up the top of the hill moments after Bird had just bumped into a couple of deer. We were surrounded by absolute beauty in this majestic forest as the sun started its descent to the horizon, sending rays of light through the trees and illuminating random patches of darkness caused by the dense canopy above. We squared off against another downhill and this one was almost the ball breaker, super super steep all the way down into the town of Redbrook. Bird took a cracking photo of me reading a map with the view in the background, and then I attempted to slide down a stair rail but only ended up falling over backwards. Thankfully I landed squarely on my pack and neck injury was avoided!
After Redbrook we had to go up AGAIN and passed a house party in full flow on our right hand side as we wound our way up to an equestrian centre. We were getting closer now according to the map, but the sun was also getting very close to its resting place along with the prospect of putting out tents up in the dark. I suspect Bird and Amy were feeling every step now as we ticked over the 30km point but they kept on trooping with barely a word of complaint. We got to the top of the hill after a horse float came past us on the tiny country lane, forcing us all to step off into the bushes on the side of the road to avoid being squished. With a sublime sunset to our left over the Brecon Beacons (I think) we crossed over a farm and at long last made it to the campsite.
I pitched up just before it went totally dark while Bird and Amy were left to figure out the tent they had borrowed, and never actually pitched up before. Every few minutes I turned around to check on their progress and all that had changed was they’d managed to move further and further away from where they were hoping to pitch. My only piece of advice turned out to be a dud, and eventually Adam and his mate came over to lend a hand with their head torches and camping expertise. Success! Soon after the tent was up, they were back again inviting us over for burgers and beers. The alternative was cooking up our packets of tortellini that we’d bought that morning from the shop. We shared one of those then headed over to their fireplace for a night of luxury. They were good lads, plus Adam’s dad was there (he provides security at the campsite) and Adam’s mate’s missus. Geez they looked after us well, and showed us the vans they had decked out as little mobile homes. I got chatting to Adam’s Dad and he gave me some decent road directions to Ross-On-Wye where we were headed for tomorrow. It’ll just me Bird and I though, poor old Amy’s taking the day off to nurse herself back into shape. Unfortunately the rain is on its way tomorrow which isn’t overly exciting.
