Day 9: Monmouth to Clytha

A shorter day thank goodness, 12.5 miles and not much over our estimate. We’re in a huge room in a quirky pub with a four-poster bed, of which we are making good use (the travel washing line is one of my favourite gadgets).

We were slow getting started this morning, having had a lovely evening with cousins Patrick, Maggie, Emily and Chloe – good company and good food. Packing took ages as everything that could be unpacked or detached from something else, had been. Nothing to do with the G&T or wine last night of course!

For the first half of the walk we were on Offa’s Dyke Path which was fully signed and really easy to follow, so the path carried us along instead of us having to stop and argue at every junction. There was a short section through woodland, mostly uphill, but yesterday’s horrible insects were having a Sunday morning lie-in.

I’d hoped for some good views but once again the trees or more hills got in the way, and it was only after we left the path, and started descending down into the Usk Valley on country lanes, that we started to get glimpses of the Brecon Beacons ahead of us. The lanes were almost deserted apart from a large bus, only slightly narrower than the road, with two people on board heading back to Monmouth.

Tonight we have daughter Zoe and her husband Charles with us, and they are barbecuing our dinner as the pub doesn’t do food on Sunday evenings – time for me to wrap this up, wrap up warm and join them!