W6 - Hay-on-Wye to Kington

Summary
The best day so far. Great (no, stunning) views, relatively easy walking, quite a few fellow walkers and most importantly, our feet are getting use to 14 miles a day. We walked on Hergest Ridge - remember Mike Oldfield (yes Hergest Ridge was the title of his second album): he lived in Kington ! We have now walked 68 miles and are over a third of the way: level with Worcester.


Longer Version
This part of the country is very under-rated, well in my opinion: we saw a large 4 bed detached house for sale at £500k. The people have time for a chat and there are lots of independent shops. Hay-on-Wye is definitely worth a day trip.  Any way we walked away from the Wye, heading north into sheep country.
Clock Tower in Hay on Wye
It is very much rolling countryside with tall hedges, irregular fields and lots of tree. The walking is easy, only 4 stiles and the weather was cloudy but good. The villages are small and frankly had no shops or pubs. The only refreshments on route were at New Town (a hamlet) church - James Watt (famous for the steam engine) had a house there. Everyone we met were very friendly. The route twists and turns and then ends up on the huge Hergest Ridge: common ground where sheep compete with Welsh Mountain ponies for the grazing. All of the animals seemed ambivert to us walking by as you can tell from this shot
The Dyke again was severely lacking but the walk across Hergest Ridge is just stunning. After the massive success of Tubular Bells, Mike Oldfield escaped to Kington to record his second album (not as good by all account). Anyway I could see why he came here because we could see for over 20 miles, north, south and east. The ferns were being cut by the farmer to generate more grass for the sheep an ponies. And then in the middle of all this a single copse of trees: Monkey Puzzle Trees - weird but true. They are hard enough to grow in the lowlands whilst on the ridge the full force of winter must hit them

Tonight we are in Castle Hill House (run by a couple who wanted (and succeeded) in escaping the London rat race) in Kington before pressing on further north.

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