Day 41: Llanthony to Monmouth

Distance: 22.5 miles
Time: 9 hrs
Weather: Hot and sunny
Cumulative distance: 696.8 miles

A long walk in hot sunshine, a diversion from Offa, deprived of liquid refreshment, and rooms above a restaurant.

After a good breakfast, we left the inn and started what we knew would be a challenging day's walk. Rather than climbing back up to rejoin the ridge, then descending on the Offa's Dyke path shortly afterwards, we opted to follow the road down the valley to initially join the Brecon Way, then we plotted our own route to rejoin Offa later.

The temperature soared rapidly and, at first, we managed to locate a sheltered route and a little welcome breeze. Gradually, however, the breeze disappeared and shelter became less prevalent as we negotiated the undulating landscape. We consumed litres of water and our hopes of a refreshing cool drink were raised early afternoon when a pub sign appeared in the most unlikely of locations. We followed the driveway, only to have our hopes cruelly dashed - the pub was closed.

We pressed on, despite the fact that our early morning cool water supplies had now transitioned to lukewarm. After nine hours of walking, we eventually reached Monmouth,  where we each downed two pints of iced coke at the first pub we encountered. It had been another tough day's walking, not particularly due to the route or the terrain, but more due to the extreme heat and lack of shelter, and partly to the absence of any shops or refreshment opportunities en route. My winter training walks had not equipped me for this!

Tonight's accommodation was a restaurant with rooms, a first for my journey. After a quick shower, we dined in the restaurant and enjoyed a really good meal. Whilst talking about my journey, I noticed that it twice referred to it as a holiday - was this a Freudian slip?

David returns to civilisation in the morning with a few more aches and pains than he arrived with, but hopefully some positive memories of his two days of walking. For my part, it's been great to have good company during a challenging part of the journey.