Walk 34 (OD 9) -12.2 miles - Total 444.4 miles - To Go 555.6 miles

Robin’s Walk and AXA PPP Step Up Challenge
Discoed, Evenjobb, Ditchyfield Bridge, Rushock Hill, Kington, Hergest Ridge and Gladestry.






Today is a sequence of long walks up with the following long walks down. I am trying pain meditation. We start with a one mile walk up to Granner Wood. We notice wildflowers today and record 20 different varieties in flower. We look down on Evenjobb below through the woods and as we seem to every day run out of superlatives for the scenes we see. We meet Peter and Wilda with their children Iris, Peter and Purk who have started out from Kington today. A lovely family from Eindhoven with Iris, Peter and Purk all saying how much they were enjoying the walk. Really impressive for such young children who walkers we met later tell us had walked the Pandy to Hay on Wye 17 mile section in one go and enjoyed it.


We decide we are going to stop at Ditchyfield Bridge by Knobbly Brook. The names sound too inviting and we are ready to stop for a drink. Donal, Ilene, John and Joe from Dublin and West Shannon were also resting here going the other way. It was a most idyllic spot and as you do we exchange stories about where we have been and ask what is to come.

We then head up Rushock Hill leaving Offa’s Dyke now until south of Monmouth on Monday. Rob is tearful and laments the loss in to his recording machine. It is a short 6 hour lament....sorry 6 minute...or something like that. We walk along for a while with the Leominster Rambling Club who are on a 9 mile circular walk starting and finishing in Kington. This is an impressive crowd that meet at least once a week and walk around the local area all year around. We are impressed as we imagine how challenging some of these walks must be through November to February. One of the walkers used to live in Shillington which is the village next to Pirton where I live and we talk about how he moved by steps to where he is now.


Down in to Kington where we go to the Chocolate Box for tea and lemon drizzle cake. A delightful tea shop and the cake is refreshingly delicious. We talk to Erica Cox and Amanda Ingham who are visiting Kington for lunch. Amanda runs local walks for people seeking less strenuous activities and we may be joining her after the exhaustion of our 180 mile Offa’s Dyke walk. As we leave Kington one local agrees how lovely the place is but points out that the nearest Marks and Spencers is over 40 miles away.

We start the gradual ascent of over 2 miles steady rise of 630 feet along Hergest Ridge. Lovely springy turf to walk along and again the Shropshire Hills are stunning. We get our first views of the Black Mountains and the Brecon Beacons. Our first feeling is fear knowing this is coming up in two days time and will be our highest and our longest one day section. But once again it is another amazing view and so fantastic seeing this all unfold as we walk along. There can be no better way to see the world. Flying around us are Tornadoes practicing at high speed around the hills flying low. Really impressive.


On the way down to Gladestry where we are staying at the Royal Oak tonight we meet David Bowskill, our first Australian. David is 72 next week and is walking the Dyke in around 14 days and camping along the way. His bag weighs 21 lbs and in it he has a state of the art tent called ‘the one’ which weighs just one pound. David is from Sydney and is also a lead figure at the Blue Mountain Conversation Society a range of mountains in the wild around Sydney. If you want to see what they get up to see his web site at www.bluemountains.org.au


There are periods when my left foot is throbbing with pain and I am walking through it, taking iboprufen and now am trying meditation. I have concluded pain is pain and you can’t ignore it and meditate it away. Rest and get ready for another day.

Walk 33 (OD 8) -15.0 miles - Total 432.2 miles - To Go 567.8 miles

Robin’s Walk and AXA PPP Step Up Challenge
Newcastle on Clun, Llanfair Hill, Cwm-Sanaham, Panpunton Hill, Knighton, Dolley Green and Discoed.






Today we smash through 100 miles of Offa’s Dyke Walk half way down Cwm-Sanaham hill on the descent in to Knighton. But before that a tale of coincidences. Last night we stayed at the Crown in Newcastle on Clun where we were looked after like royalty by Debbie and Lyndsie. In the lounge around supper Rob and I start talking to another walker Neil and Susanne. The first coincidence is they live in Warrington where I had been campaigning for David Mowat for three days the week before. They know of David who is now the MP for Warrington South. As boys do Rob Neil and I quickly get to football and find out he is a Wolves fan and as you know Rob is a Liverpool fan and I am Arsenal. As we reminisce I report that I went to the last game of the season match between Wolves and Liverpool at Molyneux in 1976. I was at Liverpool University and regularly used to go to the Kop to watch matches and a friend drove us down to be in the Liverpool section. Wolves needed to win to stay up and Liverpool needed a draw to win the league. Keegan scored and Liverpool won the league.
Turns out Neil listened to the game on the radio as he could not get a ticket but the coincidence is that Rob also went to that game and was in the Liverpool section. So we now discover that 12 years before we met in Cleveland Ohio USA and our friendship began in 1988 we were within a few yards of each other at the same football match. Later in the evening I read out the Capello England squad for the world cup and reported that all 11 Wolves players expecting to make the starting team in June had been picked for England!

Here is some more imagery revealed to me as we began our walk out of Newcastle on Clun this morning. Rob had tickets to the 1974 Cup Final at Wembley when he was at Oxford and needed to get from Oxford to London. Even then his charitable efforts were in place and he agreed to hitch to London but dressed ‘subfusc’. This is all the garb Oxford students wear when going in to exams with mortar board and gown and sash in fact the full regalia. He stands at the start of the M40 trying to hitch a lift and has no success for an hour or so.Very understandable as most people would think how weird is that and where did he escape from? Getting the smarts he found a piece of cardboard on which he inscribed ‘FOR CHARITY’ in big letters following which he got a lift almost immediately. We continue in dialogue about whether he would be willing to walk subfusc from Coast to Coast as I point out this would get us noticed and get some reaction!

We start up towards Springfield Farm with a 600 ft steep climb. After yesterday the steep climb seems gentle but all things are relative and the thighs, knees and ankles creak at the early morning exertion. We look back on Newcastle on Clun in the valley with its houses for the mortal coil while we are on this earth and the Gothic Church at the end of the village with its graveyard facing upwards on an incline for when its all over. Laid out like some sort of scenic conveyor belt.
Rob is assaulted by a tree which reaches in to his camera bag and flings his camera twenty yards away. The lens is covered in mud and the camera stops working fully. We are worried as we really want to capture the pictures along the way. Just like tapping the telly seemed to help the valves work in the old days after a few switchings on and offs and cleaning the lens it comes back to life.


At the highest point of Offa’s Dyke (1408 feet) we meet the Clun Peramblers doing a 6.5 mile circular walk around the top along a Shropshire Walk. We walk along with them for a while and talk about the beauty of the countryside they are walking in and what a wonderful place to live. They all agree and as you will see from the pictures this is stunning countryside. Just after we leave them I turn to Rob and as the sun shone and we were on a flattish bit I say ‘at times like this it really feels like a great idea for us to have decided to take this on’. Rob records it on his machine and is now waiting for the moment when I will express another view.

As seems to be par for the course for this walk we descend and descend until we see a VERY STEEP hill and we know this must be for us. Up we go to 1357 feet to the top of Cwm-Sanaham hill. It is a tough tough climb but when we get to the top the views are even more stunning. We sit for a while and just take it all in. Every way you look is just breathtaking and all you can hear are sheep and birds around you. As we start the descent we see Knighton come in to view and half way down the hill we cross 100 miles of Offa’s Dyke.




On the last leg into Descoed we meet several people walking the dyke the other way. Firstly there is Ed and Kathy from Lancaster Pennsylvania, Amish country. They have walked coast to coast and Hadrian's wall - why come to the UK to walk when you come from such a beautiful part of the world. We reflect that we are lucky to live in the UK where we take public footpaths etc for granted. In the US you cant walk across someone else's land. Shortly behind them is John from Milton Keynes struggling up Furrows Hill carrying the biggest bag we have seen. He is walking Offa's and camping carrying a 35lb back pack!. We feel humble and embarrassed with our tiny hold alls. And just behind John is Anthony walking with his father from Abergavenny and they too are carrying huge packs and camping. Anthony's walking stick is a pole from Peru where he climbed Machupichu. We think of the Knighton switchbacks that they have in front of them are watch them in admiration walk up the hill.

Only about 80 to go now. Feels a great achievement so far and another notch on our 1000miles4hope stick.

Walk 32 (OD 7) -13.7 miles - Total 417.2 miles - To Go 582.8 miles

Robin’s Walk and AXA PPP Step Up Challenge
Forden, Montgomery Plain, Kerry Ridgeway, Brompton, Lower Cwm, Churchtown, Craig Hill and Newcastle on Clun.
Exhausted, exhilarated, tested to the limit, wanted to give up many times, masochistic, amazed at perseverance are all expressions appropriate today. Mouflon Rob with his Teflon thighs is robust to all this and showing incredible staying power. I am also but will admit to being stretched beyond what I think I can do on this walk. Today was tough.

We start easily enough at Forden. Forden for Karen and Rob has the notoriety of ‘I’m the other side of the bridge’ from our early London Loop days. Karen collected us from Forden yesterday. Rob and I were in Forden and Karen was in Forden and Rob’s helpful (typical male) suggestion was ‘you can’t be in Forden because we are and we can’t see you’. Eventually all was resolved when we found that Karen really was in Forden (you all knew that anyway) and we were in a small outskirt that on Rob’s map was called Forden. Anyway by this morning they are friends again and Rob now worms his way out by suggesting we were in Ffurden and Karen was in Forden and we admit we were definitely in the wrong!




The walking along the Dyke through Montgomery Plain is flat and straight. Stunning views with Corndon Hills to the left and Montgomery to the right with its impressive Hill Fort and Castle. We blast off the first 8 miles in a breeze knowing there are challenges to come.



On this section we meet Ian Griffiths from Weymouth, George Scott from Blenfield and Anthony Griffiths from Bath. They started in Knighton and are going to finish in Prestatyn and told us our next destination The Crown is a lovely place to stay. We also meet Alison Jones and Geoff Edwards from Montgomery. A little further along as the rain begins we meet Sue Leather who is walking for Alzheimer. If this is a cause important to you please give her your support via Just Giving. All of us exchange information on what is to come and we have our worst fears confirmed.





We leave Montgomery Plain behind with its canal and town and take a break in a delightful little cluster of houses called Lower Cwm settled around a sweet little dingle. We start to head up to Kerry Ridge and bump in to Geoff Montegue from Rhyll (Kimmel Bay) who tells us we are just entering in to one of the hardest stretches of the Offa’s Dyke. His partner had to miss this section with a knee problem that would not take the strains of this section. We soon start to learn what this means. We ascend and descend around 1200 feet four times in the space of a couple of miles. All are referred to as steep in the book and steep means steeper than anything you normally come across in your daily life apart from your stairs upstairs. The hill in the middle was referred to as very steep and the accumulation of steepness was just exhausting and worked hard to defeat us. Imagine the steepness of a ladder to clean your upstairs windows and it being quarter of a mile long. This is one of the toughest challenges either of us have faced (not just on this walk but ever!). Our respect for King Offa building his Dyke up and down these hills grows each section we walk. We walk almost vertically up but see the Dyke up to our left and wonder how they got the food and water to the workers and marvel at the organisation to get 5000 men to build it 1300 years ago.
When we get to flat bits after these hills they seem so much flatter and it is as if we have been wound up with elastic bands which are released as we charge across the land.


We lunch at the top of EdenHOPE hill with wonderful views all around us. I turn to Rob and say this is the best bit...why can’t we just do this bit. He rightly points out these are the best bits because of what we did before and what we have to do. So true.
Stretched, challenged and scenery straight out of Tolkein or New Zealand. Exhausted but this was wonderful.

Walk 31 (OD 6) -17.1 miles - Total 403.5 miles - To Go 596.5 miles

Robin’s Walk and AXA PPP Step Up Challenge
(AM) Buttington, Pool Quay, Four Crosses (PM) Buttington, HOPE, Beacon Rings, Offa’s Pool (400 miles...yeah) and Forden
100 miles Erith, 200 miles St James Park, 300 miles Corfe Castle and today 400 miles at Offa’s Pool. Amazing - less than 600 to go!







Today we went backwards from Welshpool, where we were staying, through Buttington to Four Crosses where we finished yesterday. Our super taxi Karen brought our freshly cut sandwiches and then took us back to Buttington to do the hilly section in the afternoon. Our scenery can be summarised as a stroll by the river Severn and Montgomery Canal in the morning, steep hill farmland rising rapidly over 1000 feet and then in to Pine Forest at the top and for the descent. Sensible walkers would have done the climb in the morning and the stroll by the river in the afternoon.....but we are still learning.

We were off to an early start and on our way by 8.15. At Buttington Offa’s Dyke is like a long mole hill rising a couple of feet above the ground after 1300 years of erosion. The walk by the River Severn is less dramatic than some of the scenery we have seen so Rob can actually claim to be bored by it. A little more interest along the Montgomery canal where the ingredients of garlic and nettle soup are in abundance. We know we are looking at garlic flowers when we crush the flower and smell it. We walk along and after about four miles take a rest by a bridge on the canal. As it starts to rain Rob is going to change in to his wet gear so I say I will go ahead and then take a rest while Rob catches up. My foot is in stinging pain and I am taking ibuprofen and gritting my teeth so trying to get as many rests along the way as I can. Rob tells me I must stop at the next bridge where we turn off. I march off and look back after a while and see no Rob. I go further and then very faintly I hear a voice in the distance shouting.....eeeeen. I wonder if it is Rob and try phoning him.....no answer. So I walk back a while and the Leeeeen shout gets louder. Now he tells me we should have turned off at the bridge we were on. We get back on track after a grin and a wince.

We meet a couple of Dutch walkers doing Knighton to Prestatyn having done the other half from Chepstow a couple of years ago. They do not know they are also lost off the path also so we help them back on track. Amides Daravscharten from Amsterdam and Andries Harshagen from Waardenburg in Holland are regular walkers and Andries completed the Hadrians Wall in 2005. We keep bumping in to them for the next six miles.

We are walking along by the Severn again and hear Curlews with their distinctive call. We pass a sign offering big mugs of tea for 85 p and it sounds like an offer too good to miss. We meet Graham and Wendy who serve us tea on the lawn. First a couple of hens approach Rob asking for food. Then Graham joins us and tells us all about his house. Before that he also mentions he has seen 37 species of birds in his garden in one day in June, that otters nest nearby and recently they had mink in the garden. They have Little, Barn and Tawny Owls and Sedge and Garden Warblers and in the Severn he fishes for trout, barbell, pike, roach and salmon. He tells us the story of how he bought the Boathouse next door having beat the price down to £249k and told by the Estate Agents what a bargain he had got. As he moved in the postman told him that the people in Upper House next door were moving out. Thinking this a great opportunity to offer them his removal boxes if they need them he pops in. Their sale had just fallen through that day for £300k so Graham offers them £290k and does the deal. He calls his Estate Agent to tell him to put the Boathouse up for sale and the Estate Agent true to form asks him how much he will drop his price to sell the Boathouse. Typical! Anyway he sold it for same and moved in to Upper House. So if you want a welcome cup of tea and a chat about local knowledge Graham and Wendy are your hosts at the Upper House.

After lunch we start our ascent to HOPE. This reminds us of what all the walking is about ...raising hope for people with MS. This is a tough ascent and we go up what seems like vertically over 1000 feet in no time at all. On the way we have to go through a field of bullocks who once again take interest in us. Trust us, the ‘make yourself big’ ploy does not fool them. They pursued us and at one point a grey spotted big fella charged towards Rob with its back legs kicking like a bronco. You have never seen us both move so fast to the next style.



When we get to the top the views are stunning all around. We are out of breath and the effort is etched in our faces. We notice new wild flowers we have not seen yet and I pick a particularly pretty one to take back to Karen (later she takes it and notices its lovely fragrance...something we had missed).
We bump in to the beautiful people from Pangbourne Berkshire and Norway who are doing the Knighton to Prestatyn section as our Dutch colleagues were earlier. Also at the top we see what we think are buzzards circling the high pines in wind currents and as they drop being chased away by crows.

The descent through the forest is enjoyable and we punctuate it with crossing 400 miles at Offa’s pond. At the end of the day well exhausted but satisfied with our efforts. Having gone this far we have to see this through now and walk step by step to the end.

Walk 30 (OD 5) -12.2 miles - Total 386.4 miles - To Go 613.6 miles

Robin’s Walk and AXA PPP Step Up Challenge
Racecourse Common, Trefonen, Treflach, Nant-Mawr, Llanymynech Hill, Llanymynech and Four Crosses.





Breakfast is fun today as the Presidente game progresses. I have also given Karen presidential powers and heard her manifesto for education and immigration. I am the representative of the people and comment on which of their policies I would vote for. Both take a view, like many politicians, that I am not informed enough to understand their ideas. I point out I am the voter and understand what I need to understand! Rob is furious with me in the night for keeping him awake with my snoring....until he realises it is not me....but cannot then understand where the noise is coming from. By deduction we discover it is Kate our hostess son Nigel in the room next door to Rob who has a farmers snore and a half.

I join Rob at Llanymynech as we wander along the Montgomery Canal. Lovely level walking with lilies beginning in the canal and a much smaller but still impressive aqueduct taking the canal over the river. My ankle is improving but painful so have taken iboprufen and am going to see how walking through pain works out.
We stay in Welshpool tonight where we find a pub showing 3D Sky Football. My first experience and amazing it was too. As an Arsenal fan and Rob as a Liverpool fan we agree that Chelsea over the season deserve it and are playing attractive football. This is better than Mourhino served up and good to see. Well done Ancelloti. Bring on next season so we can start to dream again!
We are now getting squeezed as we try to get in 15 mile a day stretches, keep the blogs up to date with pictures and play bridge matches online.

Walk 30 (OD 5) -12.2 miles - Total 386.4 miles - To Go 613.6 miles

Robin’s Walk and AXA PPP Step Up Challenge
Racecourse Common, Trefonen, Treflach, Nant-Mawr, Llanymynech Hill, Llanymynech and Four Crosses.
Breakfast is fun today as the Presidente game progresses. I have also given Karen presidential powers and heard her manifesto for education and immigration. I am the representative of the people and comment on which of their policies I would vote for. Both take a view, like many politicians, that I am not informed enough to understand their ideas. I point out I am the voter and understand what I need to understand! Rob is furious with me in the night for keeping him awake with my snoring....until he realises it is not me....but cannot then understand where the noise is coming from. By deduction we discover it is Kate our hostess son Nigel in the room next door to Rob who has a farmers snore and a half.
I join Rob at Llanymynech as we wander along the Montgomery Canal. Lovely level walking with lilies beginning in the canal and a much smaller but still impressive aqueduct taking the canal over the river. My ankle is improving but painful so have taken iboprufen and am going to see how walking through pain works out.
We stay in Welshpool tonight where we find a pub showing 3D Sky Football. My first experience and amazing it was too. As an Arsenal fan and Rob as a Liverpool fan we agree that Chelsea over the season deserve it and are playing attractive football. This is better than Mourhino served up and good to see. Well done Ancelloti. Bring on next season so we can start to dream again!
We are now getting squeezed as we try to get in 15 mile a day stretches, keep the blogs up to date with pictures and play bridge matches online.

Walk 29 (OD 4) -10.0 miles - Total 374.2 miles - To Go 625.8 miles

Robin’s Walk and AXA PPP Step Up Challenge
Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Irish Bridge, Chirk Castle, Castle Mill, Craignant, Baker’s Hill and Racecourse Common.



This morning we meet the MS Society Wrexham Branch near the amazing aqueduct near Llangolen. The Wrexham and district branch chair Helen Williams greets us with a warm smile on a cold and wet day. Helen is with her mother Jean Hughes and is joined by Ruby and Tony Blaxhill , and Jeanie and Jeanette Barton. We hear about the great work Helen and her team are doing to support local people with MS. There are 72 members and support a local help line and organise social events such as the upcoming lunch on Tuesday 25th May at the Plough in Gresford, as well as a canal boat trip over the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct on the 23rd June. Go along and give these wonderful people support. We hear yet more inspiring stories of people struggling with this disease and finding a way to be positive about life. We note how it attacks people in so many different ways affecting balance, sight and bodily functions. The only thing in common is the horror of the disease.

I am gutted, frustrated and annoyed as the pain in my left ankle makes it impossible for me to walk today. I am hobbling even over short distances and in a lot of pain. I feel pathetic and cross with myself. Rob is a hero again and ordering me to rest it today and he will walk the miles for the cause. After waving goodbye to the Wrexham MS crowd we take Rob to the start of the walk today where he has to cross the Aqueduct. An amazing engineering feat that just makes you marvel at what we humans can do.


It’s me! Finally I get a chance to write something in the blog. Here goes........
The unpronounceable Aqueduct, a world heritage site, is awe inspiring. Built between 1795-1805 and standing on 18 piers, it is a working aqueduct that carries a canal 126 feet above the River Dee. The canal runs through an iron trough 1007 feet long, 12 feet wide and 5 feet deep – just enough to squeeze a barge in. I amble across admiring the fantastic views of the river, tree covered hills, broken up by the occasional field with sheep and cows, a deep green everywhere - Llangollen is a wonderful place. I stop half way over, watching canal boats coming up and down and think what vertigo man would think if he was with me – no head for heights that Williamson. Strongly suspect he’s feigning injury to avoid walking over this marvel.

Walking alone is a new experience for me. Soon I get a call from radio Wrexham Heart’s news desk who know we are in the area. I tell them about Helen and the team and about our campaign and they say they will play it over the next couple of days – the post election shenanigans condemned to the back pages.

Day 4, 2 miles into today’s walk and 43 miles since we started, finally I see Offa’s Dyke. Bit disappointing – looks like a bump in the ground with trees growing out of it. Some miles later as I am climbing a 3 mile relentless rise from Castle Mill where the trail goes literally atop the Dyke, I revise my opinion.This Dyke is no respecter of hills – no going round these; straight up and down and so goes our path. As I crawl up atop the Dyke it is now powerful and proud – on one side the ditch is 15 feet or so below me. Clearly this is the side whose occupants are meant to be kept out – I take some quick navigational readings and figure out it is the Welsh that live on that side. More about the Dyke in later blogs.


Just before I come to Chirk Castle I meet Allan Brough from the Wirral out for a day’s walk. We chat and he tells me he is an Everton fan – the second I have met today. We chat about the Moores who founded Littlewoods and were the owners of Everton for a long time until the grandson, David, bought Liverpool. It was David who sold the club to the current American owners who are drowning the club in a sea of debt – David was clearly a sleeper, a Manchurian candidate working for the Blue side of city. I tell him the story of 1000miles4hope and he tells me about his neighbour who recently died of MS and gives me a donation for our cause – thank you Allan.

This is serious sheep country – wherever I look in every direction I see fields of roaming sheep, numbers strengthened by this season’s spring lambs. Even the grounds of Chirk Castle (‘is it a fortress or a home’ asks the information board) is open range for sheep as I trek through them to see this magnificent home come fortress atop a hill. As I climb the 3 miles of the Dyke on the other side of the valley, I stop every now again to get my heart below 200 beats per second and admire this wonderful construction perched on its own little moel.


On one of these many stops up the Dyke I meet John, Pauline and Allison resting on the Dyke having a lunch break. They are enjoying a weekend break from their home in Winchester. I take pictures of them with their camera and set off again.



Up, up, up, interminably up, over ubiquitous stiles that turn this climb into an obstacle course. This is as tough as the worst sections of Day 2. Finally I come out at the top and enjoy the gentle downhill slopes towards Oswestry old racecourse where I have summoned Karen and Len to pick me up, disturbing them from their snooze at the Royal Hotel, reading papers and enjoying tea and cakes.

A tough day, a lonely day – I hope Len’s foot gets better soon; who else can I talk politics too in these uncertain times. And then what about the football ........