Day 3: Pandy to Hay-on-Wye
17.3 miles. 57 miles in three days! At this rate, even with days odd, we’ll easily make it to the north coast and perhaps even to Angelesy. Not only that, we shall have calves of steel and quads of iron!
A long day in weather much like home – wet, windy and cool. We started with a long uphill slog to the top of Hatterrall Ridge, upon which we walked for about 10 miles. As Shari said at one point, “It ought to end soon but it there’s just moor and moor of it.” Beautiful views of England to the east and Wales to the west, though some heavy showers kept us from spending much time enjoying the scenery. The trail on the ridge is paved for much of the way with enormous slate slabs, saving us from muddy slogging through the moor. The descent from the ridge was steep, enough so that my knees, which so far hadn’t given me any trouble (yeah, Cho-Pat!) were aching a bit by the end of the day. Again, our aching feet were what gave us the most grief and prompted us to consider taking a break sooner rather than later. It must be all the pillow-walking we do in the tundra that has made our feet so sensitive to the pounding of pavement and hard-packed trails.
Found lodging at a B&B and elected to spend an additional day in Hay-on-Wye to give our feet and bodies a brief respite and allow us time to do some laundry. When I first started planning this trip I swore to Shar that we’d have sle in a pub at the end of every day’s walk – so far that’s held true. We’ve tried new brews at every pub; my favorites so far are Reverend James and Timothy something or other.
Related Images:
