WALKING OFFA'S DYKE, STAGE 3, ELEVEN MILES, Wales

23 May 2012: Jan, Stuart, Thom and Sheila set out to walk their third stage of Offa's Dyke. Offa, King of Mercia from the year 757 to 796, built a barrier (dyke) along an ancient border that approximates what is now the border of England and Wales. He built it in order to keep the Celts (Welsh) out of his domain. The path starts on the north Wales coast in Prestatyn, and goes 182 miles to Chepstow in the south, over hills and through dales. No, over hills and over more hills. We started the eleven mile walk from Clwyd Gate to Bodfari (we did this stage of the walk from south to north) at 1 pm and finished at 8:10 pm. Note how light it is even then; light till 10 pm or later here at this time of year.

We walked the first two stages of the Offa's Dyke path previously.
The path's northern most point is Sheila's hometown Prestatyn. Wales is the first and only country in the world to have a coastal path all around its shores, which links up to the N and S ends of the Offa's Dyke walk to make a path that goes around the whole country.

Stuart, Jan, Sheila and Thom start from Clwyd Gate at 1 pm, walking north.

Sheila and Jan on the second hill

Jan climbs over a style. Farmers use styles rather than gates, since they cannot be left open for their sheep to roam through.

We took a break each hour to rest and have an energy snack!

Putting on a good face after realizing we have to walk up that hill ahead of us. There were seven "Moel" or hill summits that we had to go over or shoulder. Some were the sites of ancient Iron Age forts.

Sheila and Thom happy to be on top of the hills of Wales on a glorious sunny day.

Thom, enjoying retirement. We were due to fly back to the USA today, but what's the rush?

Dry rock walls are everywhere in Wales.

It began to be as hard going downhill as it was uphill!

"In Wales, there are jewel to gather, but with the eye only..." R.S.Thomas

These are the Offa's Dyke path signs we followed for 11 miles!

Sometimes we hoped we were taking the low road rather than the high road!

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Jubilee Tower, dating back to the jubilee of George III in 1810.

An hour later the Jubilee Tower is behind us.

Towards the end of our walk, the weather rolled in.

Stuart begins what we thought was our final descent, but no, one more hill. Seven hills altogether.

We cannot see the base of the BBC aerial that we have had a glimpse of for almost all of our walk north.

There are 11 million sheep in Wales.

Make that 11,000,001. This is a new born that the sheep was licking clean.

We see civilization in the distance - our final destination of Bodfari.

Stuart, Jan, Sheila and Thom at the break in Offa's Dyke path in Bodfari, close to the Downing Arms. We walked the challenging, rugged 11 miles in 7 hours and 10 minutes.