Rhallt to Llanymynech and Ty-Coch

We never found out the names of the owners of Gungrog House, though we did discover that the man is not a farmer (so presumably someone else looks after the livestock around the house) and that the dog is called Ben. We gave Ben a fuss as we left!

We knew that today would be the 'easy' day of Offa's Dyke Path (though it turned out to be far more interesting than we'd expected it to be) so we had a leisurely start, walking down to the Montgomery Canal (an offshoot of the Shropshire Union Canal) at Buttington Wharf and sitting there for a while, watching the ducks. We then walked along the towpath, originally on an Offa's Dyke Path 'alternative route' and later following the official route. The canal-side was beautiful but the weed etc. on the canal made us speculate that it was not much used. We passed a swan with cygnets.

After Top Lock we walked up to the main road and followed this briefly for a while before turning off to follow the embankments by the (very small) River Severn. We followed the river, though not all of its meanders, for several kilometres, crossing stiles and avoiding cows on the path from time to time. The Breidden Hills were to our right; the northern end has been extensively quarried for granite roadstone and on the summit is 'Admiral Rodney's Pillar' - erected in 1781 to commemorate a naval victory. We crossed a sluice gate with no water anywhere to be seen and the 'New Cut' with very little water, though we discovered later that the River Severn and its tributary the River Vyrnwy really can flood.

We walked down to Four Crosses, stopping shortly beforehand for lunch in the shade of a tree; it was an excellent lunch stop, though we only had cereal bars and dried fruit to eat. Closer to Four Crosses, the guidebook advised us to 'keep as far away from the house as you can, and gather as little mud as possible' in crossing the farmyard at Gornal; we did this but still got followed by a horrible yappy dog - we were later told had bitten a walker's arm just a couple of days previously. However Four Crosses quickly redeemed itself with a well-stocked Spar Shop, from which we bought ice-creams, and a well-placed tree, which provided shade whilst we ate the ice-creams.

Until recently the route of the Offa's Dyke Path followed the A483 from Four Crosses to Llanymynech, passing our next B&B at Ty-Coch. However it is a busy road, so we were very happy that we only had to go a short distance along it before following the re-routed path down Parson's Lane back to the canal and thence round to Llanymynech. This section of the canal was glorious, with wildflowers, dragonflies and swans (we passed a swan's nest). We crossed the River Vyrnwy by aquaduct and then realised why there is no traffic on the canal - it is blocked off in several places. We passed a few locks and quite a number of walkers, though we didn't meet any other serious Offa's Dyke walkers today. A number of people regard this section, which doesn't have any hills, as not worth bothering with - they miss a pleasant change of pace and a lovely section of the path.

Julie Lee gave us a lift to The Punch Bowl in Llandrinio, the village where her husband was born. We remember The Punch Bowl for the straw they supplied for me to drink my cider through (because my lips were so sun burnt that I couldn't drink it in the conventional way); the straw accompanied us for the rest of the path!

Following day