The rain – 26 aug, 2018
Day 21 Land’s End to John O’Groats – Monmouth to Ross-On-Wye
Distance: 20km
Cumulative distance: 522km
I slept pretty well last night, unsurprisingly given the amount of miles we did yesterday. I woke up and managed to pack my entire tent down before the rain started which was a huge win, before venturing over to Bird and Amy. Bird told me he’d also be taking the bus to Ross-On-Wye – despite a 45 minute stretching session in the hot shower last night, he was far too tight to get anything productive out of his body today. We walked over to breakfast…well I walked, Bird kind of limped along valiantly putting one foot in front of the other until we could collapse on a bench at the café. We met an Italian lad there who was doing the Offa’s Dyke Path and adding a little section in the middle of it all which would take him over to west Wales. He was a top chap, we had a good chat to him.
After brekky I just put my head down and went for it. The rain had started up and while it wasn’t too heavy, it looked pretty well set in and was very persistent. I had extra motivation at the end of the walk today – Mum and Dad were due to meet us all in Ross-On-Wye! I waved Bird and Amy goodbye (and later found out they’d managed to jag a lift into town after all that) and ploughed on through the rain. Same old story with my boots, my feet were completely waterlogged after 10 minutes but I didn’t really care too much. I charged along the road towards Lydbrook, turning off here and there to take quieter options. I made good time through English Bicknor and then went up and back down into Lydbrook, stopping at a little café to have a few peanut butter wraps. I got chatting to the two ladies who ran the café and they were super lovely, offering me a cuppa and chatting for about 20 minutes. One of them told me the bridge back across the Wye to resume the Wye Valley Walk was shut, so I wouldn’t be able to access the trail until a long way further upstream.
Instead I stayed on this side, and followed the bank of the river firstly by the road, then across a long and muddy field past a heap of kayakers. I crossed over finally, at Kerne Bridge, and followed the river further upstream via another muddy path which occasionally veered away from the water and took me up and down small hills through the woods. They were also quite muddy. The path eventually stopped (as did the rain) at a little glamping spot which boasted these massive white tents that looked like teepees, and each one bizarrely wearing a white top hat. I completely lost the path here, and so decided I would press on across farmer’s fields, keeping the river to my right and the main A road to my left. I had to jump a few gates here and there but it actually worked quite well, and by now I wasn’t too far from Ross-On-Wye.
The last couple of kilometres came up beside the A road, but there was a path thankfully. I eventually turned right at a roundabout, crossed a bridge over the River Wye once more and went to the pub where we’d booked a couple of rooms. It was probably 3.30pm or so, and Mum and Dad came down and met me. Woohoo! Bird and Amy were in bed trying to sleep off their aches and pains, and we didn’t see them until a bit later on. Once I was out of my soaking shoes I had a shower and my spirits soared. We checked out a bit of the town, I went and had fish and chips as a bit of a first dinner then we went and grabbed a pint where Bird and Ams joined us. We headed off up to the Royal and had a superb feed, sitting at a table with a lovely view down over the river. Dad is walking with me tomorrow! Destination Hereford.
