Newbridge-on-Wye to Rhayader, May 31

May 31

She Said:

We enjoyed the best farmhouse breakfast this morning.  Usually, we eat fairly light at breakfast (cereal, fruit, juices) even though a fully cooked breakfast is always offered.  The truth is, if we ate a fully cooked breakfast every day, even with walking 10 miles, we would still be porkers.  But, when staying at a farmhouse B+B, it is a good bet to do the fully cooked.  Everything is fresh as can be – eggs, honey, fruit, sausages and ham, etc., etc., etc.  Good, strong coffee.

Our table mates were a couple from Oxford who have been staying with Monica (our hostess) for a few days each month for the past 5 years.  His aunt lives in a nearby village, and they came up to visit and check on her regularly.  This year she has had to move into a Care Home as she is 95 and losing her marbles.  They have just finished cleaning out her house this trip, so will be less frequent visitors to Monica.  They were friendly and happy and great fun to talk with.

Today we had a much cooler start to our walk – more of what we are used to, walking in the UK – and it made for comfortable walking through fields of sheep and buttercups.  A very fine, light mist turned into a more steady light rain, but rather than putting a damper (ha!)  on things, I found it exhilarating.  It was so refreshing (after our many days of walking in hot sunshine) and wildly atmospheric.  The scenery was softened by the rain and the long views were dreamlike.  We had one good, big climb and on the way up we watched red kites hunting.

As we approached the hilltop farm, we could hear the farmer on his ATV getting closer to his herd of cows, and shouting out, loudly and steadily “up, up, up, up.”  The cows were responding and a little further up the hill the farmer’s wife was also shouting “up, up, up.”  It was a bit surreal in the rain, to hear this call.  It was not harsh or mean, but strong and repetitive.  They needed the cows to come up to the barn, and this was how they accomplished that.  It did show us again, though, the tough job of farming for a living.

(Gortex jackets are remarkable.)

We also have been cracking ourselves up, with our pronunciation of Welsh place names: Safn-y-coed, Cwmdeuddwr, Rhaedr Gwy, Llanwrthwl.

We crossed a very wobbly pedestrian suspension bridge across a smaller river and it swung sideways and up and down so much that it made me a little nauseous.  Took me about a quarter of a mile to level out!

We arrived at our accommodations for tonight, Ty Morgans, relatively early – 2:30.  Great, big bedroom and a separate sitting/TV room.  Monica packed us giant lunches, which we still have plenty of, so we will eat in our spacious room tonight, overlooking the High Street of Rhayader.

It was a big “people” day.

Human Being Watch – 10!

2 walkers

1 bicyclist

2 walkers (a couple we’ve seen before and who is staying in a cottage at Trericket Mill)

2 car drivers

1 mailman (we see a mailman nearly every day our path takes us near a road)

2 farmers (the couple calling the cows home)

Dead Animal Count – 1

1 rabbit

9.5 miles   

He Said:

Today was the kind of day were expecting for most of our walk, cool, with a light rain.

And, even though we had 1700' of climbing and descending, my feet were not so sore.  So, perhaps it was the heat for most of our walk that contributed to the sore feet.

In the cooler weather, we also are making better (faster) time, although that could be due to the fact that there was not much to see in terms of towns, and the light rain meant fewer photos taken.

We have been very lucky this trip to be able to hand wash our clothes each evening, and have them be dry by the next morning.  If we had known that, we could have brought fewer clothes, but past trips were not like this.  So we wanted to be prepared; because it's not fun to have to put on damp clothes.
Rhayader is a small crossroads town in mid Wales, but it's not bustling with traffic.  The town seems quite somber in the gray weather, not polished or freshly painted.  It looks to be a working town, not a tourist destination.  We each had a pint before dinner, then had the 2nd half of our lunch as our dinner.  Therefore, I plan on having a big breakfast to fuel the 12 mile walk to Llangurig, as we have only 2 days of our walk remaining.

Here are some of our photos:

Near the start of the walk today(before the rain started)

further along the path

The biggest climb of the day, as the light rain came in

At the suspension bridge over the river in soggy conditions

The village of Rhayader with the bridge over the river Wye

Our room in Rhayader

with the clock tower right outside our window, ding, ding, ding...