We began with a 1/4 mile walk along a shady paved farm track before we broke out into the sun to face what one fellow hiker called the dragon's backbone. 3 very steep ascents broken by short leveler bits. My calves were so tight climbing up I actually wondered how steep it'd have to be before they'd break! We stopped for a tea break on one of the hills and looked back over Castell Dinas, another Iron Age hill fort topped by a Norman castle. All we could see from our viewpoint was the vague circular layout of the mound with lumpy bits that may have once been the castle walls.
Onwards and upwards till we reached a great grassy plateau with a few grazing ponies, and wonderful valley views down to the west.
We're quite regulated on our walking schedule: no matter what time we start we stop at 11:30am for tea, 1pm for lunch, then 3-ish for afternoon snack. After lunch we dropped down a touch to cross the road at Gospel Pass, not only the highest road pass in Wales, it's also the scene in the U.K.'s Antique Roadshow's closing credits where the little car with a huge grandfather clock sticking out the back comes toodling up around a bend and over the hill. Unfortunately no car came along to mimic this for me but this was the spot.
The last few miles were cross-country following the long standing rights-of-way paths across farmer's lands. Past skittish sheep, dodging their plentifully strewn pellets; through thick uneven clumps of yellow mounding grass; carefully giving wide berth to a bull and his cow harem; and through narrow leafy forested tunnels. It was quite slow going near the end as many of us had accepted the challenge of participating in the Wildflower Bouquet competition. The idea was to gather items along our walk, create a masterpiece that would be judged by our peers, the winner determined by how much money in votes their arrangement won. (We judged by depositing loose change before each entry). All monies collected went to the Pathways fund so it was a win-win situation.
Some walkers took this very seriously. The Canadians banded together for a group effort and when I passed them at lunch they already had a plastic bag full of collections. Annalise, in my Harders, trailed so far behind us at the end, snipping and plucking that we actually lost her once and when we found her it was exclaimed that she looked like a walking bush with 2 little legs sticking out!
In the end, my home country won by a landslide, £18.75 of the £66 raised, proving that quantity can triumph!
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