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.