Today started well – we said goodbye to our comfortable Ludlow guest house and returned by taxi to yesterday’s finish in Orleton Common. The taxi driver cheered us on our way by saying it was already 26C at 10:15, and it didn’t get cooler.
After the first climb through unshaded fields, we were in forestry plantations for a while, which was pleasant. The path then skirted round Croft Ambrey Iron Age hill fort, with the banks to our left and a very steep scarp to our right and views over to Wigmore. We stayed just outside the conifer forest on a pleasant path through bracken before a long descent on a stony forest track. I was a little alarmed when a stile led into a field of Hereford Blacks, one with a ring in its nose, but they seemed totally uninterested in us. Down through a steep wood, across a field of cut hay, and into the middle of Aymestrey village fete!
We didn’t divert to the pub (where we are staying tonight) but pushed on as the taxi arranged for the end was scheduled rather earlier than we would have liked. So after a brief sandwich stop we continued, now alongside a small river where we might have seen otters and kingfishers if we’d had time. Then up a steep and overgrown path and onto more forest tracks, climbing all the time up Shobdon Hill. By now it was seriously hot and Ian was flagging so we took it rather more slowly and detoured on a path that missed out the worst hill.
Rejoining the trail a mile or so later, we immediately lost it again and then had to walk back up (why do I go wrong on the downhills?) to find a badly signed gate into a sheep field. There was a path of sorts, in the correct place according to GPS, but it was muddy and broken away, and it twisted its way round trees and bushes. After a while it was mostly through dense head-high bracken interlaced with brambles, nettles and goose grass, still treacherous underfoot, for the best or worst part of a mile – truly one of the most unpleasant paths I have ever walked.
It became clear we weren’t going to meet the taxi deadline so Ian tried to call him and left a message. We carried on getting more and more scratched and stung, until we finally emerged into a wood. The path was steeper but clear, and with great relief we emerged at the bottom just as the taxi driver rang back, he was still waiting for us – and keen to tell us the temperature was over 30C.
Yesterday was around 10.5 miles, today 12.4. Hope we survive the final walk tomorrow.
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