Walking the Offa's Dyke Path
Day One: Trial by Rain
Chepstow Castle in Wales
Mary, Julia, David, and Ernest drove
the 186 miles, east to west, across
England from Canterbury in Kent to
Chepstow in Wales. It was Monday,
January 21, 2008 and it rained all the
way. Strangely the four hour drive from
Canterbury to Chepstow was almost the
same distance of the Offa's Dyke Path,
which they were all about to set off
walking on for the next six days.
Once checked into their rustic pub
they walked to the start/finish of the
Offa's Dyke path at the River Wye. It
was raining, the wind was blowing, and
the sky was menacing, but they walked on
through it all. Ernest was the first to
fall over in the mud, twice in fact.
This made everyone laugh, except Ernest
who was now very wet and miserable. But
each of them would experience the mud,
in their own way, before the hike was
over.
Start/finish of the Offa's Dyke path
They were all looking forward to
their traditional British breakfast in
the morning to power them up with things
like: sausages, eggs, mushrooms, and
fried bread. They would need it as
locals in the pub told them it would be
raining and they would likely encounter
landslides tomorrow, perhaps even snow!
They braved the rain and took time to
visit Chepstow Castle. It is perched on
top of cliffs overlooking the River Wye
and is the oldest surviving stone
fortification in Britain built between
1067-1300. It is architecturally a thing
of beauty, but represents the worst in
our brutal natures.
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The start of the southern end of the
path
William the Conqueror built this
castle at Chepstow quickly because of
its strategic importance. No one lived
in the area before the Norman invasion
of Wales. However, it was a crossing
point on the River Wye for traffic from
Monmouth and Hereford. Welsh kingdoms in
the area were independent of the English
Crown at the time. So the castle in
Chepstow helped suppress the Welsh from
attacking the invaders.
The fab-four went to bed that night
with the sound of pouring rain. What
would tomorrow hold for them? Would they
have to walk in the rain? Would it snow?
Join me on my next installment of
Walking the Offa's Dyke Path.