Day 28 - White Castle to Pandy

Woke up to rain this morning, but we had expected this and The Walker was pleased he had engineered a short walk for today. So, a lazy start, which even included breakfast - a first for him as he usually likes to just walk on coffee, biscuits, cider and chocolate bar!

The lady in the White Castle kiosk, Margaret, was worried that The Walker was late starting today. Had spent some time chatting to her yesterday - she has worked in this remote place for 15 years! A bit of a family business, as her daughter works there for 2 days a week as well.

Sad news today - the faithful shorts which have seen at least 8 years of walking came out of the washing with a small, but noticeable hole! I wondered how to break it to him; I mean, these shorts have been on the Coast-to-Coast, the Great Glen Way, the West Highland Way and have been to all the Scottish Islands! I am sure he will insist on wearing them until it becomes a big hole, so they may well see the Brecon Beacons and probably some of the Peak District if they can hang on that long.

Pam will be pleased to know that the Van is all perky and clean inside, washing done and windows wiped. Not sure about tackling the complete outside of the Van - we're too big for a car wash and a lot of sites forbid you to wash them there. Oh well, at least we can see where we are going.

An early blog today - looking forward to a restful evening!

From Bernie:

Today's walk 5.5 miles : Cumulative 363.4 miles

Pencilled in as a 'day off', today's short walk was quite important in the grand scheme of things! The next leg is the lengthy stretch over the Black Mountains to Hay-on-Wye which, really, has to be done in one go: I have escape routes in case the weather or my knees let me down but, juggling with the forecast & distances, I didn't want to be faced with a 23 mile trek. And, if all goes well, we'll arrive in Hay at the beginning of their Festival & with a day still in hand!

Start of tomorrow's walk - Hatterrall Ridge

Used the short walk to start breaking-in a new pair of boots which I might need towards the end of the whole walk. They're OK but not ready for hilly 14+ mile walks yet!

Lovely 13th century church in the tiny village of Llangattock-lingoed with this impressive wall-painting of St. George & the Dragon.

Highlight of the Day: Clouds!

Wild, blustery, squally & the clouds scudding overhead were wonderful.... much better than the rain! On setting out the skyline was pale & washed-out, filled with puffy, watery clouds which were quickly replaced by huge white clouds billowing across a blue sky; towards the end they were dark & brooding, rumbling & tumbling over the Black Mountains. I tried to capture all of this on my camera but they just look like..... clouds!

Black Mountains from White Castle

Skirrid

Beer of the Day: 'Butty Bach' - a good golden bitter from the Wye Valley Brewery, sampled at 'The Old Pandy Inn' less than 100 yards from our van! Best draught ale, as opposed to cider, I've had for quite a few days.

Tune of the Day (an occasional series!): 'Both Sides Now' by virtually anybody or 'Stop That Train' (see yesterday's post!) - my preferred version is by Keith & Tex, though I do have several others.

Nicola: great to hear from you & thanks for the donation. Hope all's going well with Year 11 - your life must be a breeze now they've left!!??!!! No - I haven't forgotten!


Julia: it wasn't market day in Monmouth yesterday but it was very busy - loads of school kids, who'd obviously had a GCSE exam earlier! I'd never been before- lovely town.