Joining the LEJOG Journey

Our friends EWO and TYG have recently both retired and are enjoying life, footloose and fancy free. After a camper van trip through Spain and Portugal last year, this years expedition is to walk Lands End to John O’ Groats.

Their route was taking them along the southern stretch of Offa’s Dyke very close to our home. We offered them the chance for a couple of days of relative luxury at our house and walked a couple of stretches with them.

We collected them on the Thursday night from Hay on Wye and then returned them Friday morning so they could continue on to Kington in the company of TBF (and me for the last section over Hergest Ridge).

Another night at ours where we were joined by more travellers in the shape of S & R.

A bit of car shuffling so we could do a linear walk from Kington to Knighton. The weather was a good deal greyer, colder and windier than the forecast suggested but the compensation was a a walk along one of the prominent stretches of Offa’s Dyke.

Its alwys good to be walking in good company and I was enjoying showing off my local hills to everyone

The timing was really good as this stretch of the Offa’s Dyke path is a really fine walk, one we did a few years back in the other direction.

The wind was very strong and we had to hide in some woodland for first lunch to keep warm.

When we emerged, the sun was beginning to appear and the weather improved as the day went on.

Whilst each of the hills on the route are fairly unassuming in their own right, the fact that there a 3 of them all over 1000 feet and all required a drop down to the base of the valley in between, gives a challenging day of 2500 feet of ascent and close to 14 miles.

The best part for me is the section that passes over Furrow Hill and Hawthorn Hill.

Wide open grassy fields with expansive views over the mid Wales hills.

Very windy as you can see!

Lots of new spring lambs to cheer us on our way.

The weather had been transformed as we were bathed in sunshine for the rest of the walk.

Offa Selfie.

A lake where there shouldn’t be one – reminder of just how wet the last 12 months has been.

We needed a second lunch and this time found a grassy patch of gorse to shelter from the wind.

Looking back to the odd little monument to some local landowner right in the middle a field away from any right of way. I think its a memorial to someone who helped build a railway line in the area.

Setting off for the final high level stretch to Knighton.

A really enjoyable day although it felt a little odd to wave them goodbye in Knighton as we went home to carry on our day to day lives while they continued their long walk north.

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It was great to join them on their epic trip and whilst its not something I aspire to myself, it has been fascinating to follow their journey with updates and photos and working out the routes they took. By way of update they have done magnificently to stick with it through some very uncertain weather at the start and are currently on the home stretch through the mountains of NW Scotland before that last stretch to JoG.

The next day we wanted a family thing so we tried our first Escape Room. It was enormous fun, based loosely on an Escape from Alcatraz Prison. We booked in a rush and picked the hardest room they had so we didn’t complete it, but apparently only 1 in 5 groups do and we did get very close.