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Thursday 6th July 2006
Walked 15 miles including 12.5 miles of Offa's Dyke Path
Click here for all our photos of this walk.
Breakfast at The Hog's Head was lovely (we were able to order exactly what we wanted) and we had a nice chat with the owners. It was raining when we left so we donned waterproofs, but we were able to take these off before White Castle. We directed some American tourists to White Castle (via the road) then climbed up a very attractive track ourselves. White Castle itself was slightly disappointing, but the walking for the rest of the day was excellent.
We walked through rolling countryside, passing a group of around 10 walkers in the middle of a field of cows, then up a steep hill to Llangattock Lingoed, with another attractive Church. It started to rain heavily whilst we were here, but it stopped a little while later, as we were climbing up a col complete with beautiful 'mother and daughter' pairs of horses.
The mist began to clear so the views both behind us and ahead of us were improving all the time and despite threatening clouds in the early afternoon it didn't rain again all day. We had lunch by the river in Pandy, between the main road and the railway line; nevertheless it was very attractive. We hadn't managed to buy lunch, so we ate from our store of cereal bars and dried fruit. Then we climbed steadily, apart from a very pretty wooded section of road, which both descended and took us in the wrong direction!
We reached Hatterrall Hill and climbed up through the bracken. We got to a trig point at 464 metres then continued along relatively level ground for about 3 km, with the views improving all the time. There was no sign of the grouse butts at which we had expected to find our path away from the ridge (and Offa's Dyke Path) but there was a clear sign indicating the point at which we were to descend, on a path towards Longtown.
We descended rapidly until we reached the track towards Great Turnant and as we walked along this track we picked up signs to Olchon Cottage. The track was extremely pleasant, with good views to Longtown Castle, though the thought of having to reclimb the ridge above us again tomorrow was a bit daunting.
We turned right along the minor metalled road and descended for another kilometre or so until we reached the drive (complete with poplar trees) to Olchon Cottage. It's a beautiful house and we had two large rooms - and a bath! We had a lovely welcome from the owner, Mrs Ivy Pritchard, who provided tea and cake and then later cooked us a lovely meal of salmon followed by pancakes and ice-cream. Mrs Pritchard explained the luggage transfer system to us (each place we stay is responsible for moving the luggage to the next place). She has met the owners of the Hog's Head several times and was able to explain that they picked up Discovery Travel's trade when the lady whose B&B they used to use in Llantilio Crossenny moved. But she reported that we are staying somewhere 'different' in Hay-on-Wye tomorrow; we wondered why.
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