We saw lots of horses today. These were on top of hergest ridge, one of the most beautiful places on the whole trail so far. They were able to go where they pleased, and helped to bring my stunning hilltop rendition of 'on horseback' by mike oldfield (see yesterday) to life. I've been thinking about the role played by music on the walk, which is immense seeing as i've hardly heard any. I constantly find myself humming things because something i've seen or heard has triggered it. For example i keep humming 'sweet leaf' by black sabbath, 'top of the world' by the carpenters and 'green, green grass of home' by tom jones. So It's not necessarily a good thing! More strangely i find myself humming songs related to my physical condition, such as 'feeling good' by muse, 'pressure point' by the zutons and, er, 'Vaseline' by elastica. A great pastime for spells of dull scenery is singing favourite albums in their entirety, including all instrumental breaks. Must be an interesting walk because so far i've only done two: the first stone roses album and 'are we not men?' by devo. No idea why i chose them or indeed why i bother! I also like those moments when you pass a house window, for example, and you can hear a song on the radio. When i was with jon i had to stop to listen to a song i could hear coming from inside a barn until i recognised it. It was 'islands in the stream' if you're interested. The only depressing moment was having breakfast at the pub in welshpool. 'like a rolling stone' by bob dylan came on the radio. "Wow, that's me", i thought. Then i listened to the words ("...to be a complete unknown...")! So, what happened today? Well, hergest ridge was a great start, so we dawdled over that. Then we dropped down into gladestry and the pub had just opened so we felt obliged to support the local economy. The bitters didn't grab me so we both had a pint of alcoholic ginger beer. As i always think that non-alcoholic ginger beer tastes like it's got alcohol in it, i wasn't surprised to find that this tasted the same as the non-alcoholic variety. Lovely though. Next we walked over disgwylfa hill which is apparently a gift from God and had a poem nailed on a nearby fence to prove it. We then dropped into newchurch to eat our packed lunches, which left a pleasant 7 mile afternoon walk to hay-on-wye, with tomorrow's task, the black mountain ridge, looming ahead. It was one of those days where we were never sure which country we were in! We certainly started in england and finished in wales, but who knows where we were in between? The dyke seems to have disappeared, which is a shame because i've done a complete u-turn on that one. Over the previous two days it had been awesome. I suppose i've finally understood the sheer scale of the thing, and failed to understand how the hell they managed to build it on some of the ridiculously steep slopes i've walked up or down. There are parts where the 1970s Pontypool front row couldn't have scaled it, and i bet you can't say that about the great wall of china. Possibly. In fact i'm certain it would have been longer than the great wall if king offa had fallen out with more people than just the welsh. Only one concern about the dyke, and that is the english flags i've seen flying from a few houses next to the dyke on the english side. Pretty puerile if you ask me. So, we are staying at 'rest for the tired', a bed and breakfast above, of course, a book shop (there is 1 book shop for every 30 people who live in hay!). It's very cosy, but do i really need to listen to the drunk hippies murdering 'who knows where the time goes?' by fairport convention outside the pub opposite? Maybe i should go out and serenade them with my mike oldfield repertoire. We went to the town's most respected food pub tonight. Meal rating: 9/10. Beef wellington and liqueur coffee. Docked a point because the woman on the next table was loud and irritating. High level walk tomorrow, up to 2200ft, then i stay up there for a 10 mile ridge walk. Can't wait! Aside: happy birthday Al. Don't forget your card is in the shed.
