Remember when I was on a mission to walk/cycle/kayak the whole river Wye?

Well, I still am - just keep getting distracted by other stuff and rubbish weather.

Anyway, it was nice the other weekend and I had no other plans so on Friday afternoon I drove up to Llangurig.  After a brief evening stroll from the campsite into the village and back, I sat with a bag of chips watching the sun set.  Lovely.

Saturday was a little less relaxed.  I got up and drove to Rhyd y Benwch in the Hafren Forest.  A really nice (and quite popular, it seems) Forestry Commission site with toilet block, picnic tables, and several marked walking routes - I ended up following the white 'source of the Severn' trail, plus detour for the Wye.

Anyway, it's all 'proper' footpath and forest roads.  Easy walking!  The baby river Severn is incredibly photogenic, and the source itself is suitably marked and official:

source of the Severn marker post

In contrast, the source of the Wye is a lot less celebrated.  The path doesn't take you to a starting point, just to a viewpoint over the bit of mountain where it rises.

the Wye begins somewhere over there

Feels a lot more remote.

I ended up walking 12 miles, which is a bit more than I'd expected.  My left heel was the main casualty - big blister/hole, which is odd as my boots are well worn in.  I blame the heat!

The sources walk didn't tick off very much of the Wye Valley Walk, but that doesn't really matter - would have been silly to go up there and not do the Severn as well.

There's now only about 12km of the walk left to do, and half of that is forest roads - nearly there!

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This year's cake is fresh cherry and cinnamon:

The recipe said to use a 20cm tin. So I did - and ended up with a very thin cake!  Oh well, it still tasted pretty good.

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