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Journal: |
Had a reasonable night's sleep despite my bedroom being directly
over the bar where the Wednesday night live jazz session occurred
(actually, it was quite pleasant). I left the hotel about
8:15am and walked out through Monmouth just as all of the kids were
heading to school. There is a large (private) school right in
the middle of town and I passed by several separate campus buildings
blended in with the town.
After a quick stop at a supermarket to get some snacks, I finally
left the outskirts of town nearer 9am and began a gentle ascent away
from the Wye River. It was sunny and warm and it wasn't long
before I took my sweater off while hiking, for the first time on the
trip! The path passed across farms and through a forest and
was easy and pleasant going, without the spectacular views of
yesterday. I took a break in the shade at 10:30am and then
decided to press on to White Castle, where there was supposed to be
some kind of shop where I hoped to get something for lunch.
Unfortunately, the path across some of the farms was quite rough
underfoot and my pace slowed and my feet became sorer. Still
determined not to stop until lunch, I pressed on despite making a
navigational error that cost me 30 minutes. I started to feel
like I would never get to the Castle, and then made another
navigational error and didn't wake up until a kilometre later.
Curses! I had to take a break, and just sat down beside the
road for 10 minutes before working out how to rejoin the Path.
The way I chose looked good on paper, but ended up having me descend
into a deep and steep-sided ditch and then climb up the other side
and negotiate a four-strand barbed wire fence, all done without
incident. Maybe I'm not too old for this.
Anyway, I reached the quite impressive White Castle soon after
2pm and found the tiny kiosk there only sold a few local candies and
bottled water. I settled for a chocolate bar and two bottles
of water and dozed in the shade by the kiosk for 30 minutes. I
had overdone it in the morning and was footsore and exhausted.
I think the lady in the kiosk, who also collected admission fees to
the Castle was quite worried about me. I could see enough of
the castle without paying to go in so took some pics and hit the
Path again soon after 2:30pm with, supposedly, 5 miles to go to
Pandy, my goal for the day. The Path mostly crossed undulating
farm land and continued to be quite rough underfoot making progress
slow. I'm becoming quite despondent about my sore feet (I
hiked 20 miles a day for 2,200 miles on the Appalachian Trail with a
much heavier pack, with fewer problems). As I walked, I
decided that I would aim to have a day off in Hay-on-Wye on
Saturday, the day after tomorrow, and hope that 36 hours off my
feet, instead of 12, will do the trick. The blisters aren't so
bad today, it's more that the feet just feel pummelled.
Anyway, enough whingeing. Well, one more.
Because it was the hottest days we have had, I was sweating quite a
lot and chafing also became a problem in the afternoon (I had to
travel commando for the last 5km!). I reached Pandy, a small
village strung out along a main road, and ended up walking a
kilometre up the road to the Pandy Inn where they have a bunkhouse
which it looks like I will have to myself. The very friendly
host is looking after me and even offered to drop me off a few
kilometres up the Path tomorrow to save me climbing a big hill!
I declined. The food in the pub is excellent and, as I type
this in the bar, I'm waiting for some old friends, Jo and Richard,
who live nearby, to join me for a drink.
It's not a long day tomorrow, but I will be starting late
(breakfast not til 8:30am) and it's supposed to be even warmer.
I hope I can find a room in Hay-on-Wye for two nights on the
weekend.
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