Day 18 - Four seasons and a soaking - all in one day

 

Reading the Offa's Dyke Guide book last night, I learned that Hatterrall Ridge represented the highest point on the path (700m) and that it was the most demanding day's walk of the entire trail, onto which I was adding an extra 6.5 miles to Newchurch. Whilst scenic, it was 'wild, open moorland at high altitude with no shelter and few options for escaping to the east or west.' I then compared this to the weather forecast - 80% chance of rain all day, sleet (when not raining) and 40mph winds throughout. Andrew and I needed to consider our options.

With the next 6 or so weeks in mind, we plumped for the slightly lower level road route - same destination and mileage but much less risk. It proved to be one of our better decisions, as the picture of the ridge above may show. It looked a white-out on top and chances were we would have had no scenic views in any case. As it was, even the road route gave us a thorough soaking. The wind was bitterly cold and drove the sleet from west to east. After a couple of hours, we took shelter at the side of an old school where I tried to take a blood sugar reading - my tester was too cold to operate, despite being wrapped up in my rucksack. Mind you, my hands would have been too cold to drain any blood from in any case. In such circumstances, I find it better to be high than low and tucked into a Snickers and an apple: subsequent readings on reaching Hay advised that I was at 13, which was easily corrected. 

There were intermittent brief breaks in the weather and it genuinely did feel like we had covered all seasons in one day, if not necessarily the respective temperatures. Winter was definitely the prevalent one. A brief coffee and flapjack in Hay and we continued to Newchurch - a wet walk of 23 and a bit miles in total. Almost as importantly, we had 3 red kite encounters but my photographic attempts made yesterday's shortcomings look like David Bailey.

Whilst in the coffee shop, we chatted to another chap who had, remarkably, made the trip over the ridge, describing it as 'wild but great.' He made no mention of 'freezing' or 'blown to smithereens.' He was also wild camping somewhere on the Dyke tonight and, obviously, carrying his gear with him. Some people are made of different stuff - Andrew and I soon had him marked as ex-SAS and pictured him eating wild rabbit by the camp fire tonight. If you happen to read this, Sir - hats off!

We had a bonus visit to the pub tonight with Suzanne and Steph before coming back to the van. As I write, the rain is hammering so loudly on the roof that I can't hear the radio and the wind is shaking the van every which way. We are, however, promised no rain and light winds for our trek to Knighton tomorrow when we'll be back on the Dyke. It may be a tad damp underfoot.