Pandy to Hay-on-Wye

20 May 2010 - Pandy to Hay-on-Wye

Distance - 16.2 miles

Weather - Overcast but dry

We stayed at - Rest For The Tired, 6 Broad Street, Haye-on-Wye, Herefordshire, HR3 5DB Cost - £55.00

At breakfast the next day, the owner of the B&B said that he would show us a way through his back garden onto the Offa's Dyke path, to avoid the mile and a half or so we would otherwise have had to take to retrace our steps from last night. This involved him leading us down to the last cultivated bit of his land and pointing vaguely up a very overgrown hill and bidding us farewell, whilst advising us not to spook his neighbour's alpacas! If there was a path, we didn't see it and were left to battle through a lot of overgrown trees and grass tussocks. As the hillside was quite steep, we couldn't really see where we were making for, but eventually we came across a big chain link fence, which we managed to haul ourselves over - remember all of this was achieved with full rucksacks! From there we crossed a field of alpacas and finally met up with a gate which led us onto the Offa's Dyke path. Whilst it saved us a good mile and a half of walking, I'm still not convinced we expended any less effort by using the short cut! 

This day's walk was all about the Black Mountains, in particular Hatterrall Ridge. We had been warned that it was a very exposed section and that it ought not to be attempted if the weather was poor. Luckily for us, although the weather was a bit overcast, it was also dry and warm. 

After crossing a narrow lane, we made our way up to the Pentwyn Iron Age hill fort, followed by a large walled enclosure known as The Castle. It was then a steep climb up to the trig point at the first summit at 1,521 feet (464 metres) on Hatterrall Hill. For around seven miles we gradually climbed the long ridge until we reached a further trig point at 1,810 feet (552 metres). There were lots of cairns up here, near Black Darren and Alistair and I took turns to add our own stone to each one. We carried on walking along the ridge, marvelling at the spectacular views until we reached our highest point at 2,306 feet (703 metres), which was the highest we had climbed so far on our LEJOG. 

We gradually descended from the summit to Hay Bluff at 2,219 feet (677 metres), where we were met by spectacular views north over Hay and the Wye Valley with the South Radnorshire hills beyond. It was a truly breathtaking sight. We lingered here a while before making our very steep decent down to the car park at the base of the hill. On the way down we encountered a number of ponies, each with tiny foals in tow. We then walked to the steep west side of Cusop Dingle and finally arrived at Hay-on-Wye - every book lover's dream destination! Our guest house was a beautiful old black and white building, with the accommodation above a book shop. We were right in the eves and our room was very quaint and characterful. Once we'd deposited the rucksacks, Al and I had a look round the town, which was a mouth-watering experience for two book lovers. It was only the thought of the added weight in our rucksacks that prevented us from buying a few!