Day 1847- Offa’s Dyke Llandegla to Bodfari
We had an early start on Day 1847. Taxis are not easy to find in North Wales and the latest pick-up we could arrange was 7:30 am! In the end, thank goodness for the early start.
We’d seen the weather forecast for the day which was basically torrential rain. The BBC Weather site prediction was for100% rain from early morning. Notwithstanding the BBC, our start was dry and the terrain for the first hour was relatively gentle. Behind we could dark mountains and even darker clouds. Despite this we congratulated ourselves on how our luck had held out and we were going to avoid the abysmal forecasted weather. Oh how naïve we were!
As we started to ascend Moel Famau, the rain started to get heavy and the cloud descended so, save for the path in front of you, there was nothing to see. Moel Famau apparently literally translates from the Welsh as “bare mothers” and is the second highest peak on the Offa’s Dyke trail. As we ascended Bare Mothers at regular interval we were met coming in the opposite direction by small groups of Liverpudlian teenagers, red faced, shivering and wearing t-shirts. Each small group usually had a cheery greeting for us such as: “Don’t go up there, mate”, “Have you brought your skis?” or “It’s f* snowin’ up there”.
I thought they’d been joking and when we did get to the summit, not that we could see anything, it was indeed snowing ..and this was July!. We did a quick photo to prove we had been there, but, of course, you could not see anything so we could have been anywhere. It was too cold and too windy to hang around so we started our descent.
By now it was absolutely tipping down with a mixture of frozen rain and sleet. It was a case of simply heads down and keep going. We were soaked through and cold. On the plus side, we had the benefit of the wind largely behind us. We saw a couple of other groups of Offa walkers heading up into the wind as we descended. They all had water running down their red faces which were totally frozen by the freezing rain, sleet and the wind. Each one of them looked exhausted. I guess we didn’t help by telling them it was even worse at the top! We eventually reached the car park for Bare Mothers on the northern side. Optimistically we’d hoped for at very least a mobile coffee van but there was nothing. We each found our own rock to shelter behind and tried to eat some energy bars. Neither of us could open the wrapping of the bars as our hands were numb from the cold. We had to keep reminding ourselves again that this was July! I eventually managed to bite my way through the wrapping before setting off for another sodden and cold climb up the next hill.
After what seemed like an eternity the path started heading generally downward towards Bodfari. There was no overnight accommodation in Bodfari and we had arranged for a taxi to pick us up from a pub called the Dinorben Arms in the early evening to take us to our overnight accommodation in Denbigh. Inevitably our talk focused on the pub. R was convinced it would have a warming open fire. I told him to stop being ridiculous because few pubs have open fires these days and, more importantly, it was July.
Frozen and dripping wet, we opened the pub door and there unbelievably was a roaring open fire….in July! Had I got hypothermia and was imagining this? There were a retired couple by the fire. “Pull up some chairs, lads” they said. “Take off your wet clothes and hang them by the fire. Nobody will mind.” And so we did. Even better the pub served a great selection of Purple Moose beers all of which I had to try.
The Dinorben Arms was indeed heaven but unfortunately Denbigh wasn’t. Everyone was nice enough but, and I’ll say no more, the town felt like it was stuck in the 1980s.
