THE LAST LEG:
Nigel Heath completes Boston to Barmouth coast-to-coast walk
IT WAS most intriguing. Five young women and one man were sitting around a table outside The Malt House in Ironbridge, Shropshire, socialising in the evening sunshine.
What might be their connection? “Maybe it’s an office party,” suggested my walking companion Peter Gibbs as we sat inside by a window, awaiting the arrival of our supper.
We were staying the night before setting out on the final eight-day stage of our 280-mile new Macmillan Way walk across Britain from Boston, close to the North Sea in Lincolnshire, to Barmouth on the Irish Sea in North Wales.
Still fresh in our memories were adventures in Staffordshire like the lunchtime we stopped to picture the alpine-roofed war memorial in the churchyard at Walton-on-Trent just as Stuart Franklin came walking past and told us he’d helped his dad repair it when he was a lad.
And the afternoon we got lost on Cannock Chase only to come across local Kevin Read who was spending the day meditating beside his tent with his three terriers, and was able to point out the correct way.
But now ahead lay eight glorious days of walking, first to Wenlock Edge, whose Olympian Games dating back to 1850 are a forerunner of the Olympics and then on to attractive Church Stretton before crossing the Shropshire Hills to descend into Wales, near Welshpool and so beyond into the Snowdonia National Park.
But, back to that intriguing little group. We’re both former journalists so eventually our curiosity got the better of us.
Peter went over to discover that they were all teachers at the Coalbrookdale and Ironbridge Primary School, and were celebrating the end of term.
It wasn’t just the countryside we enjoyed on these long distance walks but the people we met along the way, we agreed, as we set out at 6am the following morning because this was to be a long 20-mile day.
On such occasions we take our breakfast with us so later we stopped in a sunny corner of a field for orange juice, croissants, bananas and coffee.
By lunchtime we’d walked all along the wooded Wenlock Edge escarpment and were entering the small village of Longville in the Dale where there was a pub for a pint but alas, as is so often the case, it had closed.
“You can join us for a drink if you like,” invited Mark Taylor who was sitting close by in his garden with his four sons and two friends. Pint glasses of lemonade and a variety of crisps were quickly produced and we spent a happy hour eating our sandwiches and learning a little about their lives.
Spontaneous acts of kindness have often enriched our walking experience and others were in store further along the way.
We stayed overnight in Church Stretton, which had the air of an alpine resort about it, before setting out on a long but scenic day’s walk over Shropshire’s famous Long Mynd hills and then the Stiperstones plateaux with its spectacular rock formations.
It was around 7pm when we walked wearily into the small village
of Brocton where Kelly PritchardNewman, landlady of The Cock Inn, had gone out of her way to find somewhere for us to stay.
Pub friends Jim Morris and Kathy Hall had volunteered their static caravan but its hot water system failed so we spent the night in their luxury motorhome. As we needed to make another early start, Jim – himself an early riser – was banging on the door with bacon baps at 5.30am.
Two shorter days’ walking took us first over the border into Wales, where we were made most welcome at the comfortable Royal Oak in Welshpool, and then on to the small riverside village of
Pont Robert where we stayed overnight in a secluded 17th century farmhouse.
Now followed a delightful day’s walk beside the river Vyrnwy along a series of wooded valleys to Llanwddyn at the end of Lake Vyrnwy.
En route at Plas Dolanog we got chatting to sheep farmers Anthony and Charlotte Barnes. Having walked through their yard, she produced a jug of milk to top up our flasks.
“That’s what you call the milk of human kindness,” remarked Peter as they waved us on our way.
Following another overnight B&B we spent a spectacular day walking first beside Lake Vyrnwy and then over the mountain on a remote single track road to enter the Snowdonia National Park and drop down into the small and bustling tourist town of Bala.
From here the following morning, we walked down Lake Bala for a picnic breakfast on the flower-festooned Lake Bala Railway Station in Llanuwchllyn. Here we met Andy and Gill Best from Orkney on a volunteering holiday, busy preparing the steam engine Maid Marion for her daily service. They’d previously lived in the area before moving up to Scotland.
A trek along a valley between high hills brought us into the small granite stone town of Dolgellau, now just nine miles from the end of our walk. As we strolled along the scenic Mawddach Trail, a former railway line running beside a wide estuary, all the way to Barmouth, the following morning, we felt a sense of achievement but also one of regret that another great adventure had finally reached the end of the road.
It’s been a pleasure sharing our coast-to-coast adventure with you all over the year.
I wonder where we’ll get to in 2019?