Hay Bluff

Escaping for the weekend, we returned to Hay Bluff expecting the area to be full of vans staying for the Literary Festival in Hay, this week. Instead, it was empty, so ours was the only eyesore spoiling the view over the Welsh Marches.

We walked on Saturday, about 20km, with a wonderful mixture of terrains. On a massive loop, we started by climbing the Bluff along Offa's Dyke, walking the frontier between England and Wales. We had views of miles in all directions, then descended into the valey below the Black Hill. This was where Bruce Chatwin's novel "Under the Black Hill" was set, and the movie was filmed locally as well. We passed a beautiful spring gushing from the mountain and drank straight from the rock.

Then we followed an old bridleway or sheep-trod to loop back on ourselves, walking the boundary between moorland and farms, crossing fords every few hundred yards to return eventually to our car-park. Then we slept, and as we did so the weather changed, with a cold wet wind coming to meet us after the brilliantly bright day. And so, reckoning that Hay would be full of visitors and that its four pubs would be packed, we returned home to Bristol.