Ridgeway: Princes Risborough to Tring

 

My final bit of the Ridgeway today, since I’ve already walked the eastern end of it (to Ivinghoe beacon) loads of times.

To be honest, it was quite boring! Saved, to some extent, by the vibrancy of the autumn colours. Also a lot of it was hard underfoot - some road walking (not much) but mainly because the hard-packed chalk paths don’t have much give. 

Thought it would be 10 miles today. Got that a bit wrong!

Elan Valley: Pen y Garreg

  

We knew it would be raining from about 10 o’clock this morning but we walked anyway. Everything was soaked by the end, and I managed to leave without my shoes 🙄 

The dam

Glad we went, as we really got the most out of travelling all the way there - two half days and one very long day of walking. Will be good to be back in my own bed tonight, I think I have some sleep to catch up on. 

Elan Valley: Drygarn Fawr

Today was long and tough, even though only ten miles and not much ascent - the terrain was awful for large stretches. We weren’t on a path and we had to make our way through bogs, trying to leap from tussock to tussock and never quite sure of our footing as our legs disappeared into the long grasses. Lucky to emerge with intact knees and ankles! My feet got wet as I was wearing my trail runners, but fortunately they stayed warm enough regardless. We also had very strong and chilling wind at around lunchtime. All in all it was a challenging but rewarding day. When we got back we had tea and then a drink, then a three-course dinner prepared by various members of the group, then a jolly chat around the table. Convivial. All nice people.

Stunning scenery today - great autumn colours!

Elan Valley: Caban Coch reservoir

 

Slept at Elizabeth’s last night and she, Jo and I set off at about 9 for Rhayader. Arrived at 1.30 and met Gusta at the Elan Valley Visitor Centre. Had a fab walk around the Caban Coch reservoir and its wonderful Victorian dams. Weather very good, barely any wind and not cold. 

The hillsides are auburn with autumn bracken and ferns, and there was birdsong galore. Very lovely walk. Back to the bunkhouse, and we met the rest of the group and had a good dinner at The Crown pub. Walk tomorrow is nothing arduous compared with our recent exploits - 11 or so miles, only 1500 feet of ascent. Piece of piss!

GAS: Campo Vecchio to Visso

 

A mere hop, skip and a jump to Visso today. A long, hard climb followed by a fairly gentle but rocky walk down into the town. Absolutely beautiful weather, clear sunlight threading through the trees and a deep blue sky. 

We stopped briefly at the bakery and then we were off, with Liz valiantly driving g us all the way back to, and around, Rome to the car hire place. Slightly delayed flight back, and am now on the Stansted Express, which now seems to be operating normally again, following disruption due to Storm Amy which swept across the UK yesterday and this morning. 

Had a brilliant week and it was sad to say goodbye to everyone, but if I go to Wales in a couple of weeks’ time we will all be seeing g each other again soon. 

GAS: Colle le Cese to Campo Vecchio

 

 A very hard day today - my legs felt heavy and it was hard even to walk on the level. There was a lot of uneven ground and steep downwards slopes covered in scree. My knees were getting quite unhappy, following on from yesterday. I was really glad when we arrived. It was wonderful sunshine today but very cold, with an icy strong wind most of the day. We saw other walkers for the first time this week - two separate couples. We were very relieved it wasn’t raining!

Portakabin behind us

On leaving our portakabin, we saw this big flock of sheep being herded by six sheepdogs

Lunch

The place we’re staying in tonight is lovely, feels like a castle. Had a go in the sauna on arrival! We played cards and had a good last dinner together, although the food wasn’t as good as at La Citadella. There are others here, an Italian walking group, so dinner was lively. 

GAS: Montemonaco to Colle le Cese

  

Today was quite an endurance test because it rained non-stop until the final ten minutes of walking, when the sun peeped through as we finally approached our accommodation. 

Another lovely breakfast served by the smiley man at Citadella, plenty of cake, cappuccino and yogurt and even a boiled egg each.  This fortified, we donned all our warmest and most waterproof gear, loaded up with two days’ worth of lunch and set off into the weather. Today was the remainder of one “stage” of the walk plus the whole of the next one. Quite a lot of ascent, but it turned out not to be precipitous as on earlier days, so it was fine. In fact, going upwards kept us usefully warm later in the day when we started to feel very damp inside our coats. We went through lots of lovely, undulating woodland and fortunately it wasn’t really muddy, as there isn’t much clay in the soil. However, the temperature dropped as we got higher, and what with the rain, we couldn’t stop for more than  about five minutes before starting to get chilly.

A brief gap in the cloud

So we didn’t actually stop or properly eat all day - it was just sugary snacks to keep us going. For the second part of the day we were in cloud and rain, and it actually snowed as well, at the top of the mountain.

Jo’s expression says it all

I had wet feet all day in my trail runners, and by the time we got onto the mountain all six layers that I was wearing were damp, plus my baseball hat was soaked through as well. So when the wind picked up it was very important to walk as fast as possible to generate some heat. It wasn’t much fun at that point, but we all soldiered on through. 

The place we’re staying at is a sort of portakabin with one bedroom, a shower room and a kitchen room with bunk beds and a sofa bed. All our stuff is wet, including the clothes that were in our rucksacks (as we only expected a short but of rain today and it was too cold and wet to stop and rearrange our luggage). So the whole room is festooned with stuff that probably won’t dry overnight.

Freezing

We all had a shower on arrival but we didn’t really feel warm until we’d had something hot to eat. I doubt our shoes will dry much by the morning either. On the plus side, tomorrow is meant to be sunny, although we can’t check the latest as there’s no signal or wifi. There’s a gap in the front door that Liz is trying to block by wedging a towel in the crack. I guess they can get away with it because this is the only place you can stay for miles around (very remote here).

All I can say is, well done us! 👏🏼