Blimey i must be rambling. I ran out of space in my last post so I'll have to finish it on this one. So... 9. North to south or south to north? There was no point during this walk when i wished i'd done it the 'normal' way round. In fact day ten, over the black mountain, is definitely scenically better and easier from north to south. I generally prefer to walk up steep slopes and down shallow ones, and north to south seems to serve this preference best. For me though it was simple, there was no way i was going to finish offa's dyke on an august bank holiday sunday in prestatyn! 10. The offa's dyke trail is a welsh walk. King offa may not have been too keen on the welsh, and one third of the path is in england, but the best bits are most definitely in wales. And i live there so i'm biased. So what next? I'm convinced that I could do offa's dyke from south to north and it would seem like a completely different walk. Whenever i got round to looking behind me i was amazed at what the place i'd just walked from looked like. So that's a possibility, but i prefer a bit of variation, and Glyndwr's Way, a mid-wales 130 mile walk, has to be favourite at the moment. I'd have done all the welsh national trails then (pembrokeshire coast path is the other), and i could start looking at others such as the lleyn peninsula coast path, and... etc, etc. Once you start It's hard to stop. Maybe it'd be best if i did! So finally, surely for my own indulgence, a few best and worst ofs. Best b&b - drewin farm, Cwm. Best pub stopover - horse and jockey, knighton. Best landlady - Elinor, hand house, llandegla. Best attitude to walkers - cock (not rock) hotel, Forden. Best pint - wye valley hpa, closely followed by monty's desert rat. Best meal - lamb shank at pub i've forgotten the name of in Porth y waen. Best day - day 3. Best place to be - either the llangollen escarpment, the black mountain or hergest ridge. I'd better not risk libel action so I'll stick to worst day - day 5 (but only in a relative way). Worst place to be on the path - either prestatyn, monmouth or any of the many housing estates. Worst moment - the dog incident. Worst meal - well it involved lamb! By the way, the photo shows two useful gates near llanymynech. Bye!
