#llandegla

[bluesman56]

Wales the land of song by Tony

[bluesman56]

Tree Line by Tony

[bluesman56]

The Wide Open Countryside of Wales by Tony

[moreeverydaythings]

Day 1846 – Offa’s Dyke Chirk to Llandegla

Day 1846 was the start of my next station to station walk. This was the final three legs of the Offa’s Dyke path along the England and Wales border this time from Chirk to Prestatyn. Again I was joined by my friend R who, as a Welsh speaker, was in charge of translating. Unnecessary really, because just about everyone we met turned out to be from Manchester or Liverpool!

We took a taxi the two miles or so from Chirk to where we left Offa’s Dyke path on Day 1691. Remember rule 1 from Day 1475 (not one extra metre) when we started the Offa’s Dyke path and that was not a rule I had any desire to break.

Unfortunately, having found our starting point, I also found I had no mobile phone reception and had omitted to download the route to my Ordnance Survey app. I’ve survived many years walking without an app but now we’d be walking without an app or a map until we found some mobile reception. In theory this should be fine as we just had to follow the acorn markers. However our previous experience of Offa’s Dyke was that it was poorly waymarked in places and so getting lost was a distinct possibility. This was not the relaxing start I had hoped for. My stress levels then increased when rounded a hill and found ourselves heading directly toward the distinctive Cadbury’s chocolate factory in Chirk.

“It shouldn’t be there,” I exclaimed. “We should be walking away from the chocolate factory. Not towards it”. The path did turn but the chocolate factory seemed to be keeping pace with us. I was convinced we were lost even when we came across a re-assuring acorn.

After an hour or so we reached the beautiful Llangollen Canal and final I had some mobile reception and was able to download a map and our route and start to relax. My relaxing was brought to a swift end when we reached the magnificent Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. There is actually a choice of routes here. One can either descend to the valley for a view of the aqueduct or walk across it. As we did not want to waste any unnecessary energy descending to and ascending from the valley (rule [1 again), we chose to walk across.

I had no idea it would be that scary. Whilst I’m fine with the heights of hills and mountains, I am terrified of heights on structures. We set off on the tow path across the aqueduct adjacent to a boat that was crossing at the same time. I felt sick even though their was a railing to stop me falling into the valley below. What then totally freaked me out as we walked ahead of the boat was that on the other side of the 7 foot wide aqueduct canal there is nothing, absolutely nothing to prevent a fall. Accordingly, if you are steering a boat you are stood literally on the edge of oblivion. Indeed I felt I was standing on the edge of oblivion and I had seven feet of canal water between me and the far edge. I dropped my pace so that the canal boat would pull along side to create a barrier between me and the valley below.

The people on the boat looked at me and asked if I was alright as I looked rather scared. I noticed that they had wine on board and asked if I could have some to steady my nerves. Unfortunately they were German and so my request was somewhat lost in translation and they merrily poured themselves some more wine! Once we’d crossed, sadly were no open pubs, so I had to pop into a shop for a pacifying can of Fanta!

After the “thrills” of the aqueduct the Offa’s Dyke path now follows a quiet road for around three miles. Despite being a road, the views were amazing, particularly of the ruined medieval castle, Castell Dinas Brân, perched high on a hill.

Once off the road the spectacular landscape continued around the Eglwyseg Mountain, a surprising route given the tendency for Offa to build his dyke right over the highest, steepest mountains and hills. After Eglwyseg Mountain, the weather became greyer as we had a long haul over some bleak moorland before descending through a forest into the village of Llandegla.

Unlike the southern and mid-Wales sections of Offa’s Dyke, there is absolutely no accommodation along this northern section. Hence we had arranged for a taxi to pick us up and take us to the fantastic Raven Inn in Llanarmon-yn-Ial, a community pub run by the local community for the local community and occasional visitors who are made to feel most welcome.

[moreeverydaythings]

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.

[maypoleman1]

23rd September

St Tegla’s Day

Source: Maria Angela Grow on medium.com

Today is St Tegla’s Day. Tegla was an early Christian follower of St Paul, from a wealthy Roman family who gave up a comfortable life and a promised marriage in favour of eternal virginity and selfless devotion to Christ. For some reason the Roman authorities sought to make an example of the young woman. Initially she was bound to a stake to be burned alive, but a divinely inspired wind blew out the flames and confounded any further attempt to incinerate her. Tegla was then hauled off to the amphitheatre to be fed to the lions in classic persecuted Christian style, but the beasts refused to attack Tegla and instead licked her feet and behaved like domestic cats in her presence. The authorities gave up their attempt to martyr the saint and Tegla then spent many years in quiet contemplation in a cave until another bout of persecution of Christians rolled round and she was tracked down to her place of hermitage. Still her tormentors were denied the satisfaction of slaying her because at the moment of discovery, God caused Tegla to be enveloped by the rock of the cave and taken into his grace.

Despite Tegla allegedly being born in Iconium in modern Turkey, she has a curative well dedicated to her in Llandegla near Ruthin in Clywd. Sufferers of epilepsy should approach the well at sunset holding a cockerel. The bird should be pricked with a pin, the pin thrown into the well and the supplicant should then walk three times around the church after reciting the Lord’s Prayer. The following morning the sufferer should blow into the beak of the cock, thus transferring their ailment into the bird. Three circuits of the well is then required but the epilepsy will only be cured if the cockerel has died in the meantime. The overtly pagan origins of this strange ritual would no doubt have horrified the saintly Tegla.

[lizziluv]

Stopping for selfies during our ride • #OnePlanet #Llandegla #OnePlanetLlandegla #selfie #gpoy #coupleselfie #marriedcouple #marriedcoupleselfie #husband #myhusband #husbandandwife #esposo #miesposo #esposoyesposa #WelshCouple (at One Planet Llandegla) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEP-dUZhjoW/?igshid=1htg1mqy5cegf

[lizziluv]

One Planet Llandegla🚵‍♀️🏞️ • #OnePlanet #Llandegla #OnePlanetLlandegla #MountainBiking #Biking #BikeTrail #Countryside #BritishCountrySide #Wales #WelshCountryside #Cymru #Scenery #Nature #SunSet #Lake (at One Planet Llandegla) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEP97daBbgK/?igshid=1d04xu6szzzjl