The Road goes ever on and on; Down from the door where it began;
Now far ahead the Road has gone; And I must follow, if I can;
Pursuing it with eager feet; Until it joins some larger way;
Where many paths and errands met; And whither then? I cannot say.

[JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings]

Sunday 11 May 2008

Day 27 - Mellington Hall to Welshpool

11 May
Distance: 13 Miles
Number of Overly Inquisitive Cows: 24
Number of Llama (non-killer): 5

Two principal factors led to today's change of plan. For one thing, I really didn't fancy camping at the Green Dragon at Buttington tonight. I've driven along the A458 hundreds upon hundreds of times, which is probably what was putting me off from camping adjacent to it.

The real deciding factors, however, were our lack of food, combined with the fact that we wouldn't pass any shops if we continued on the planned route. That we were both hankering after chip-shop chips for tea also helped sway things.

So instead of following the ODP for the duration, we headed off it in some forestry, trespassed a little and passed some lovely and very interesting houses to go via Leighton into Welshpool.

Arriving just after noon we made a bee-line for an eatery (hills yesterday = very hungry day today) then set about finding some accommodation (not a difficult task - I know Welshpool quite well and the TIC seemed to be the obvious starting point; within two minutes of entering we had ourselves a room booked just a three minute walk up the road).

As for today's walking, it was in the main across farmland. Whereas hills were yesterday's theme of the day, today it was stiles. Whereas yesterday was all hills with a couple of small sections of flat, toay was all flat with a couple of short steep bits. Continuing our ODP theme, the views would have been magnificent if we could have seen them through the haze.

With more short and flat days coming up, we've been looking at the maps trying to decide whether to rearrange the next four days (50 miles) into three days. No decision has been reached. It's not like we're in a rush and at least the short days will give Mick's tendon the chance to recover.

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