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.