Day 5 Kington to Knighton

Lou at the Royal Oak in Kington showed them all how to present a Vegan breakfast. Outstanding!

They’re sliced field mushrooms top left. Delicious

I was gutted when I re-read the Cicerone guidebook this morning and I noticed for the first time a line saying “don’t miss the Olde Tavern in Kington, a classic old world inn”. I googled it and it looked even better than I feared. I had literally got to about thirty yards away before turning back. Oh well, The Swan was OK and had the footie on… he said, unconvincingly.

The day basically consisted of three climbs and three descents, covering 21km over the ground. I had to put my fleece on before leaving Knighton as it was really misty.

I was reminded of when we ran the ski chalets. If it was misty in the morning people were often reticent to leave to go skiing. We basically wanted them gone so we could clean their rooms and get out skiing ourselves. My standard two lines of encouragement were “it’ll be clear up top” and if that didn’t work… “it’ll all burn off in an hour”. Both of these half-truths turned out to actually be true today.

Above the mist at 350 metres

Last of the mist

The path soon rejoined the dyke for the first time in 50 miles of walking. It was really impressive in parts too, with lots of Wheatear and Meadow Pippet.

The return of the dyke

After the second ascent of the three, which was mostly through forest with lots of steps to help, I decided to make a detour to Discoed to see the 12th Century Church and the 5000 year old Yew tree!

18ths, 21sts, Weddings. Call Ed to discuss your requirements

The final climb of the three had the most brutal start but then levelled off (a little) and revealed some great views from the top

There were also some really well preserved sections of the dyke on Hawthorn Hill, the last of the day.

The descent down into Knighton passed a memorial stone which, apparently, has the wrong date.

It was a tougher, and longer, day than I thought it would be, probably due to the heat. Tomorrow’s, to Montgomery, is 10km longer and with more ascent. The draw of being joined by friends at Montgomery will help though!