"Up The Dyke" Day 4 - July 16th 2002, Pandy to Hay-on-Wye "Observations From a Hill"
Day	Date	Start	Finish	Approx. Miles	Hours	Accommodation
4	Tue. 16th July	Pandy	Hay-on-Wye	17	6¼	Bob Crook, La Fosse Guest House, Oxford Road, Hay-on-Wye, Herefords, HR3 5AJ, Tel. 01497 820613

Click on any picture to go to a larger version or to go to the full set of Offa's Dyke photographs for this day.

The title of today's walk was easy to choose but if you can name the band who used it as a song title mail me!

I set off from Keith White's place, Brynhonddu Country House after the best breakfast of the journey so far. Keith, who a couple of years ago got a degree in environmental philosophy, is a fascinating guy and told us all about the geology of the area, the beers available in the local pubs and the day's walk ahead of us. His and Carol's house is a strange, fascinating and beautiful place and I heartily recommend it.

I left at about 09:30 with the Blister Boys, Barry and Ifor, who also stayed at Brynhonddu and Keith showed us his private track back to the point on The Path that I'd stopped at yesterday. The weather was very cloudy but still warm and with very little wind; quite good for the arduous trek ahead across the Black Mountains and over Red Daren (2,306 feet, 703 metres), the highest point of The Path. We walked down a couple of country lanes and then began the long, long walk up Hatterrall Hill. This is moorland and very familiar walking scenery to me, used to the Lancashire Pennines. The Path was soft and grassy, surrounded by luxuriant green bracken and I soon left the Blister Boys behind.

As I climbed, the views of the U-shaped Honddu Valley to the left and the V-shaped Wye Valley to the right became more and more spectacular. I saw a group of walkers ahead and soon caught them. They turned out to be five students doing the Duke of Edinburgh Award and I passed another four of their group a little further along. They only seemed to have a vague idea of where they were going but they certainly had all the camping gear, etc. Not long after, a group of women passed me the other way on horses and then a couple who were doing The Path north to south and camping all the way. They were taking it easy and aiming to get to Sedbury 2½ weeks after leaving Prestatyn.

I eventually reached Red Daren and tried to phone Noelene but her phone was switched off so I sat down on a grassy knoll and ate Keith's very nice packed lunch. The Countryside Agency and the local authorities have done a good restoration job on The Path in this area with quite a lot of it being flagged to allow the peat to recover. However, in some places it's too late and it has eroded away to leave a fine sandy surface which, nonetheless, is very soft and pleasant to walk on. It seems that in wet weather this is a very wet and boggy part of The Path but it was almost completely dry today. In one place the peat has gone completely, leaving an almost moonscape appearance.

The cotton grass was in flower (does cotton grass flower?) and here and there were dark and mysterious looking pools, some of which had just about dried out. The Path traverses a seemingly never ending series of ridges with false summits like Fountains Head Moor, and continuing spectacular views, especially to the east. I passed a couple of trig points and places where, in bad weather (or if you're knackered!), you can come off The Path and find overnight accommodation, especially at Llanthony and Capel-y-ffin.

Soon the view ahead opened up and I could see the trig point at Hay Bluff on the horizon. At this point there is a short, steep downhill and then a choice of paths. I took the direct route to Hay Bluff, rather than the dog leg route. I could see two or three people in the distance at the trig point and assumed them to be walkers. However, once I got there they turned out to be hang gliders (or rather, hang glider pilots!) and there were at least a dozen of them up there all ready to leap into the oblivion that is the spectacular view down to Hay-on-Wye and the Wye Valley. I stopped for a while and took some photos and then began the very steep walk down to the car park at the bottom. You descend over 200 metres in 800 and my feet were beginning to feel rather sore by the time I reached the Gospel Pass road. More amazing were the hang glider pilots walking UP Hay Bluff with the huge packs containing their machines on their backs. I kept looking back as I walked across the turf common and suddenly saw about three of them take off, one in particular must have caught a thermal just right because he went up like a lift to at least double the height of the Bluff itself.

The common was very nice with the grass kept short by grazing sheep and small ponies. I saw a group of ladies picking mushrooms but a bit too early for the magic ones, I'd say. In the middle of the common is a way marker and right next to it a burned out Ford Sierra. Oh well! The path then took me over a series of fields, down a couple of country lanes and, at 15:45, into the centre of Hay-on-Wye. As usual, it took me a while to find tonight's B&B, Bob and Annabelle Crook's Fosse House on Oxford Road and the town seemed full of tourists, hopefully day trippers who'll be gone when we venture out later.

Had a warm welcome from Annabelle Crook, a shower and a brew and was ready for the evening. We had a look around Hay for somewhere to eat. The daytrippers had gone and we and eventually settled for the Old Black Lion opposite the B&B. It was good and Noelene thought the food was the best meal of the journey so far.

Tomorrow is about 15 miles to Kington, I believe over a mixture of farmland and moors.

Day 4 Impressions

Today was, for me, the best day so far. I love moorland ridge walks and this was one of the best that I've done. The going wasn't so hard, the views were spectacular and the weather was just a bit cooler. However, The Path is beginning to astonish me with its variety. So far every day has been completely different and only when I write tomorrow will I know what day five has brought. I feel a pretty happy chappy tonight!

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