Last weekend was the start of October.  Yet we had 27° and glorious sunshine.  What's that all about?  Supposed to be autumn, not a very late summer...

Anyway Saturday was far too hot and stuffy for me to feel motivated to do anything, so I chilled out at home and read an entire book.

On Sunday I got up early for the rugby, then headed off in a Hay-on-Wye direction for yet more walking.  Once I got the other side of Hereford the sun vanished, but my car was still telling me it was 25°.

Parked up near Priory Wood, and headed off to finish the remaining English bit of the Wye - ie the gap left from cutting my last walk short.  I'd got it pegged at about 6 or 7km, so wasn't expecting it to take very long.

a busy day for open boats on the river

Which, for the most part, was true...  Getting to Castleton took very little time or effort - through a few fields and wooded bits, with nice views over the river. 
Sadly getting back to the car was not so quick and easy, and involved about half an hour of walking getting more and more frustrated around the same field playing "hunt the footpath".  The path in to the field was signposted, but there was no sign at all of the way out. (there was a stile in a completely different place to the path on the map that just went into the hedge though - not helpful!)  After much frustration I resorted to just forcing my way through the undergrowth in the place I thought the path should be.  After a few metres I did spot a footpath sign so had guessed right, but grrrr.

So that took half an hour and 1km longer than I'd expected.  Ho hum. 

Drove into Hay, ate my lunch, and set off heading towards Llowes.  More easy walking, following the river through fields.  Then things got a bit more interesting, as the path forks.  Option 1 is to continue following the riverbank.  Option 2 is half a mile longer, and involves walking up a hill.  I went for the high road, and it was well worth it for the views - despite the weather being a bit hazy and overcast.

it's definitely autumn!

On reaching Llowes, the two route options join up again.  I turned around here, and headed back to Hay via the low road.

18km walked in total, leaving the Wye 75% complete - that certainly justified another lovely ice cream.  This time, a delicious mango and passion fruit sorbet

tags: walking wye