Walking the Offa's Dyke Path
Day Two: Trial by Flood
English sun
The fab-four saw the English sun for
the first time in a long time this
morning! They left the B&B early to
begin the Offa's Dyke walk from Chepstow
to Redbrook, which is about 13 miles.
The bright morning sunshine highlighted
the trail making it very beautiful in
places.
They walked through woods that
reminded Ernest of all the Robin Hood
movies he had watched as a kid; even
Hansel and Gretel would have been at
home here. Ernest had little experience
with the trees and plants in these
woods. They were not like anything he
had seen hiking in California and
Australia. During this part of the walk
they stopped at the Devil's Pulpit,
which gave them a fantastic view of
Tintern Abbey. The remains of
Tintern are a mixture of buildings
covering a 400-year period between 1136
and 1536. Not much is left of the first
buildings. However, Tintern Abbey is a
great example of medieval art and
architecture.
Tintern Abbey
Eventually they came to the
Wye River, which was running very
high because of all the rain. They had a
choice to take the river route or the
dyke route; they chose the river route
because it seemed more scenic. It turned
out to be an extremely beautiful walk,
but very muddy in spots. The swollen
river Wye eventually blocked their
progress as it completely submerged a
section of the path. Their options were
to back track a mile or so and try to
get to the road above the track. Or they
could bush-bash their own way on the
high ground above the now submerged
path. They chose to bush-bash through
the holly, blackberry bushes, and thick
bracken.
The very flooded Wye River
They accessed the hill, above the
path, by climbing a steep and slippery
cliff face. It was amazingly lucky that
no one got injured as they made it past
the flooded parts of the track using
this method. Their efforts pushing
through the forest allowed them to
rejoin the path after the flooded
section. They were very tired after this
and had several more miles to go before
reaching their accommodation in
Redbrook. It had been a long day so they
made their way slowly through the
gorgeous pine tree forests along the
path ahead. They arrived late in the
afternoon and were glad to have put this
first day behind them. This time of year
it gets dark very early so it was lucky
they had not arrived much later or they
would have been walking in the dark. The
good news was it did not rain a drop all
day!
Will their luck hold out? Will there
be other flooded sections of the path?
And what about the mud, will it wear
them down? Is rain and snow waiting for
them on the next section of the walk?
Join me on my next installment of
Walking the Offa's Dyke Path.