Walk 35 (OD 10) -10.3 miles - Total 454.7 miles - To Go 545.3 miles

Robin’s Walk and AXA PPP Step Up Challenge
Gladestry, Newchurch, Disgwfla Hill, Bettws Dingle and Hay-on-Wye







A ‘short’ ten mile walk to Hay on Wye and one the locals say is an easy section. We have learnt that the locals are stronger than us southern softies and even the easy sections have challenging moments and this is no exception. We are finding though that muscle recovery is quicker and we are amazed that on our tenth day of walking we have no aches and pains apart from my left foot. We are definitely fitter than a year ago.

It is cold, grey and a little rain at the start. A feature of today’s walk is that as we get closer to Hay the Black Mountain gets bigger and bigger. It is fearful but we concentrate on enjoying today and leave any anxiety we need to have about that until we do it tomorrow. We move at a good pace so we can have an afternoon off in the bookshops at Hay on Wye.

Along the way Rob stops me and asks me what I notice about the field we are in. I go through the usual things like sheep, grass, hedges, trees but miss what he has noticed. There are two things. The first is the sheep are quiet and the second is there are no lambs in the field. From these two attributes Rob builds a tale of sadness about the lambs being taken away from their mothers and the mothers are now quietly expressing their sadness. A tear comes to Rob’s face as he misses the friendly lambs that have joined us on the way. Rob says he now has a much deeper understanding of the ‘Silence of the Lambs’. I need to bolster him up as this comes on top of the loss of Offa’s Dyke until south of Monmouth that he has not yet got over. This gets us talking about the psychology of noticing for a couple of miles. Always talk about what you see as it will often be different to what others see and be aware that what you see is not all there is to see!

There is an eclectic mix of people we meet along the way going North along the Offa’s Dyke path and none of them are English today. We meet Dietmar from Dortmund. We then meet Cathy, Al, Pam and Jacqueline from Yukon, Canada. Imagine that....coming from scenery and walking that must be fantastic to taste some of Wales and England. They are loving it and are full of smiles. Al gets me by telling me Friday afternoon is half day closing in Hay. I fall for it and then realise he is having me on. I tell him the rest of the walk North is pretty much flat all the way but from his laugh I think he has some idea of what is coming. We meet Paul who was born in Seattle and now lives in Oslo. We bump in to Tony Lees who should be rock climbing in Cornwall this week but his friend had to drop out with a heart problem so he decided to do some of Offa’s Dyke instead. He also has a heart problem and is finding the up sections very challenging. Tony lives in the Orkneys on Sanday Island. Another coincidence is that the group from Yukon are going up to the Orkneys next week but not to Tony’s island.
Finally we meet Johann Kikstrr from Friesland in Holland. Johann has a 17kg bag on his back with camping gear and is finding it tough to find campsites along the way. He had more weight at the start but found it too much so has posted some of his kit to the end of his route.


We arrive in Hay on Wye and settle in to the Seven Stars Hotel. We spend the afternoon browsing in the bookshops. This place is famous for its literary festival which starts in two weeks and is visited by anybody who is anybody in writing and publishing. The festival is now out of town as over 150,000 visitors come and the main street became like a football crowd before a big match.
One book shop has over 400,000 second hand books and wonderful chairs to flop down in as you make your choices.

Tomorrow is the big one with a 17 mile stretch over the Black Mountains. We will get to our highest point on the whole walk at about 2500 feet and we are told there was snow falling a couple of days ago. As I said earlier we will save anxiety for tomorrow and enjoy dinner and sleep tonight.