Walking with Stile - may 20th

We have gone over our maps and we are much encouraged by yesterday's success so we are looking forward to today's adventure. The sun is out. The birds are singing and altogether of a promise of a wonderful day lies ahead.

Our host gave us a lift to Grosmont, where today's hike would start. As we strolled down the narrow street we greeted a local gent with a cheery "Good Morning, and how are you today?" His miserable response, "Terrible but thanks for asking."

Surprised we simply replied,"We do hope your day improves". To which he replied,"Well that's the thing isn't it. If you start your day off miserable it can't help but get better. If you start off too cheery you could be in for a disappointment." We agreed, wished him a cheery day and a miserable start to his day tomorrow, as we continued on our way.

Aside from GR: as the start of the walk involved ascending the mountain again, my thoughts couldn't help but remind me of Leslie's previous comments on our bus tour regarding the steep slopes of the sheep pastures. Little did either of us know that we would soon be scaling slopes of similar degrees ourselves and we would be in danger of tumbling to the bottom if we lost our footing and/or our balance. Picture that!

Aside from L: I stopped half way up the steep incline to catch my breath and in doing so turned around to look from whence we had come and it took my breath away!

After resting on another bench, where both of us caught our breath, our climb proceeded into the trees where we found a beautiful, natural walking stick obviously left behind by another walker who may have tumbled down the hill. Gloria-rose used it for the rest of the walk to see if having two sticks made much difference. It does.

As we crested the mountain and came out of the treeline we came across a beautiful looking meadow which we soon discovered was hazardous to walk. It was so bumpy there was not a level spot the size of the sole of our shoes anywhere for us to place our step. This meadow has probably caused many a twisted ankle. So we took it slowly.

Overhead, true to the description in our guidebook we noted buzzards circling overhead. It crossed our minds that perhaps there have been previous walkers who hadn't survived this journey. (later we discovered from our host and hostess that this is actually true -- eek).

After passing Box Farm we met 16 walkers doing the same trail in the opposite direction. One older gentleman commented as he stepped over a stile and nearly lost his stick in the nettles that this truly isn't the type of walk for which he should have worn shorts.

We were greeted by a protective little terrier who escorted us to where a mother and daughter were setting up jumps right along our path. The guidebook had not advertised a horseshow as part of this day's events, but it provided a pleasant diversion for a few moments as we watched them take a few jumps.

Our next welcome was provided by a beautiful friendly black lab who sat patiently at the top of the lane and waited for our arrival. He greeted each of us in turn to get his token pat on his head from each before allowing us to continue past his master, hard at work on the scaffolding around the house. He advised us we had about half a mile to our destination.

We strolled on up the road, walked with hedges too high to see over most of the time and arriving at Skenfrith about 12:15 pm.

After lunching on a bench outside the castle wall we entered and did a photo session within. We then proceeded to the obligatory visit of the village church, where we saw a 15th century embroidery and a graveyard with beautiful cheery flowers on many of the gravesites.

We enjoyed listening to some local gossip as we sipped coffee at a church fundraising venture. It was run out of an open garage and resembled a collage of yardsale, craft sale, bake sale, concession booth and plant sale, all combined to offer something for everyone. It was open Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays only - so non-regular days for other shops. Keep in mind that bank holidays mean long weekends described as a bank of days off - not associated with banks as establishments of financial business.

We will not have access to post our blog tomorrow as the Hunters Moon Inn will be closed and there are no alternatives. Therefore we will post tomorrow's blog from Heathrow Airport - access permitting.

Love from
the Happy Wanderers

PS. We climbed over 22 stiles today. This is not always a simple task as often the ground on either side falls away exaggerating the steps up or down for us to navigate.

PPS. Last night the owner of the Hunters Moon invited us to come back for dinner tonight even though they are usually closed. He, also being the chef, sat next to our table to discuss meal options with us. Talk about personal service. Beat that! Well now beat this,.....the server informed us as we waited for our meal that no one else was coming. They opened JUST FOR US because we are so NICE! Do we have pull or what? Feeling pretty special now.