First of all, thanks to Helen for making it all happen...

Twenty nine of us stayed at Kington Youth Hostel in Herefordshire, close to the Offa's Dyke national trail and in the shadow of Hergest Ridge. Suffice to say we all had a great time with the usual great organisation, superb catering, and fun, fun, fun!
But... that's for those of us who were there, and I'll just stick to describing the two lovely walks that I went on.

Saturday May 17, 2008 10.5 miles, approx 350m ascent (Map OS Explorer 201)
Hergest Ridge Circular

This was my contribution to the weekend. I led 20 of us off from Kington YH in light rain, going down the high street and then turning northwest up hill along Church Street to join the Offa's Dyke trail by the church.

We soon warmed up as we started up the east end of Hergest Ridge along Ridgebourne Road. Where the road ended, the trail passed through a gate and we paused for a breather and to shed layers as the rain stopped. The trail continues west and upwards as a broad track and crosses the route of an old racecourse. At the western side of the old racetrack there's a small plantation of monkey puzzle trees (why?) where we stopped for elevenses.

The trail continues along the top of Hergest Ridge, and we were soon beyond the highest point, heading down to the southwest. After a brief interlude recapturing Duncan after he made a bid to run away and join the doggy circus, we headed onwards an down to the Royal Oak at Gladestry. Some made for the pub, some sat outside for sandwiches, and some did both, though it started raining a bit again and wasn't ideal picnic weather.

After gathering everyone together again (my biggest challenge of the day), we retraced our steps east out of the village and the rain switched off. At the turning for Offa's Dyke path, we stayed on the road southeast-ish for about half a mile, turning northeast at Llan-y-Felin farm on a bridleway towards Upper Rabber, with red kites circling above us.

At Upper Rabber we turned north-ish, making a short steep climb and stopping for a necessary breather and to round up stargglers before heading east on a bridleway towards Rabber Dingle where we recrossed the border back into England. We followed this bridleway east through open country seeing more red kites and a buzzard. We then followed the continuing footpath northeast to the crossing of paths above Bage, where we had an afternoon tea stop before going southeast down the lane from Bage to Castle Twts. The verges of this lane were covered with wild flowers: bluebells, yellow archangel, red campion, greater stitchwort, jack by the hedge, and bush vetch (among others).

We took the footpath north-ish at the base the mound of Castle Twts, crossing several stiles over the fields to Park Wood. The rhodedendrons were in magnificent bloom as we passed through Park Wood on the footpath running northeast. Where this footpath leaves the wood it joins a lane that runs roughly east. A quarter of a mile after joining this lane we turned onto a short stretch of footpath running steeply downhill (south east) to a road.

We crossed the road and turned south west past Mill House to pick up the Herefordshire Way back into Kington (going roughly northeast). From the town centre we retraced our outward route back to the hostel for tea, cake, and the end of the FA cup final. We'd had a great day's walking and all made it bacl more or less unscathed.

Sunday May 18, 2008 6 miles, approx 200m ascent (Map OS Explorer 201)
Bradnor and Rushock Hill Circular

A shorter walk today before we headed for home, led by Wendy, with expert back-up from Caroline. Twenty of us (with a few swaps with the whippet group) made off through town towards the church and then roughly northwest by road to the A44 at Floodgates.

Crossing the A44 we turned east and shortly after this picked up the footpath northeast passing through Bradnor Wood, then north past Dunfield, and curving northeast and east to Holywell. After a short detour and a "navigational adjustment", we curved round to the north for a short uphill to join the Offa's Dyke trail.

After a short breather and photo session we followed the trail east along a short section of Offa's Dyke on Rushock Hill. We stopped after about three quarters of a mile for a lunch break on the hillside looking south over the beautiful soft green hills.

The last stretch of our walk was along the Offas Dyke trail south back to Kington. We crossed fields edged with bluebells and passed an oak wood with more bluebells, before crossing the edge of the golf course on our way down. We came into Kington along grassy paths between cottages, crossed the stream at Crooked Well (still following the Offa's Dyke trail), and made our way back to the hostel via the lanes behind the high street.

Another lovely walk, with a variety of landscapes and scenery - just enough to send us on our way.

Sorry no pictures this time.