Knighton to Little Brompton Farm

This was a long day, and unfortunately also a wet day. We put on our rain gear again. We started off, after saying "good-bye" to Dana Simmons, up Panpunton Hill, and then up Cwn Sanaham Hill. That was fine, and we had good views. But by the time we headed downhill, the rain both from this morning and collectively from the whole week had managed to make difficult, slippery paths. It was frequently slow going. The day was one of continuous ups and downs. But on the good side, we had the dyke with us all day, and lots and lots of hawthorns -- pretty, even in the drizzle! We were surprised on this day, as on others, at the damage that's being done to the dyke by burrowing animals. They've made enormous holes. You definitely have to be careful where you put your feet!

We saw no other walkers all day. The only other person we saw was The Photographer. When we came around the corner at a crossroads of little lanes, we saw a car parked. A man jumped out, saying "You must be the Americans!" It turned out that he was writing an article for the Guardian about Offa's Dyke, and wanted pictures of walkers on it. Our friends Brian and Phil had gone by earlier, and he had taken some pictures of them. (I don't know why that wasn't enough for him.) They told him that an American couple would be coming by, so he waited for us. For 15 minutes or so, while we walked along the path on top the dyke, he ran along down beside it, snapping photos and talking with us. We found out when the article was to be published, which was about a week later. We were all set to be Famous Stars, but the article didn't have any photos at all! Maybe the fact that it was raining and he had to keep wiping off his lens did something to the quality of the pictures. (It couldn't possibly be that we weren't ideal subjects...)

Mr. and Mrs. Bright, at Little Brompton Farm, were very helpful, as we tried to dry out our wet clothes. The rain clothes work pretty well, but you still have wet, muddy rain trousers, gaiters, jackets, and boots to put or hang somewhere. We were glad to see Brian and Phil there, too.