Picture Post 1

My trip to England/Wales did not start well. I went to the airport on July 2nd, waited 6 hours until my flight was canceled-then went home. So, I flew out on the 3rd. From now on I will fly non-stop!

The trip from Pittsburgh to hay-on-Wye took over 24 hours. I flew to Newark and waited 5 hours for the flight to Manchester. It was very easy to get to the train! I just collected my bag(after customs)and walked there! I checked on where to get the train, bought a sandwich and water and waited-a couple helped me, both there and in Crewe. Well, I took the train to Crewe, changed and took a train to Shrewsbury, then the bus to Hereford, and finally the country bus to Hay. I was tired!

When I got there the B&B owner called out and I was whisked to the lovely place. I was so glad to get there! I had a little sandwich for dinner, slept and started walking the next day.

I would suggest to FootPath Holidays that they should get the information on where everyone is staying and give it to the leader! What if I hadn't shown up? No one would have known where I was!

I met the group, we were transported to Chepstow where we touched the Offa's Dyke start stone-and we began to walk.

Another thing-either we start earlier, or we walk longer! The pace was too fast for me to really see anything! I am not interested in just checking off the long distance trails. I should have checked, I know-but we could have longer walking times!

Nonetheless, the countryside is beautiful! We walked for a long while through woodland, then through fields, fields and more fields. We ate lunch overlooking Tintern Abbey, then continued.

The van transported us back, I picked up a sandwich at Spar, ate, had some tea and fell into bed.

I need to train more on hills-and to walk 10 miles or more a day. 5 miles is no trouble, but the hills knock me out.

What else? That's it for the trip over and the first day.