A taxi ordered for 8:00 a.m. allowed time for about an hour's walk about town, quite lovely at that time of day, but then because of some confusion, the taxi driver and I did not hit the road until 8:10. After a few minutes, Mr. Taxi Driver announced that because of traffic—like Manhattan at rush hour only worse—I would likely miss my bus. NO! I immediately went into gear looking up alternatives, and arranged with Mr. Taxi Driver that if such should indeed come to pass, would he please take me to Paddington Station where I could catch a train, a less appealing solution than the bus because changes were required and my suitcase it heavy, but what can you do? Well, I made it with about five minutes to spare, due to the acrobatics and ingenuity of said Mr. Taxi Driver who, at a red light, opened the trunk of the cab, threw my suitcase over a barrier after yelling at someone to ask if yonder was the National Express Stop (it was). But not surprisingly, the the bus was twenty minutes late, since it, too, was fighting traffic. We did reach Chepstow right on schedule, though. No doubt Mr. Bus Driver was really gunning it once out of London.
Chepstow is where Offa's Dyke, The Wye Valley Walk, and the Wales Coastal Path begin. No, that is not quite true, the Coastal Path runs through Chepstow but does not start here. If you care about the details of Offa's Dyke, click on the blurb to make it big enough to read:
I did this walk once before; it was my second long distance path, and I have to admit that I do not care about the dyke a whit although the guide books make a real fuss about it. All you can see, if and when you can see it, is grass. Anyway, it is a route!
The Chepstow Bridge at low tide:
View from the Chepstow Bridge at low tide:
There is clearly a thing about dolphins in this town:
In addition to a bridge, a river and dolphins, Chepstow also boasts a castle, or at least the remains of one:
As if the (attempted) rush to the bus were not enough, here were two other adventures today + one aborted. The aborted adventure was a walk called, enticingly, Giant's Cave, but after a few blocks, I realized it was almost all on pavement, so that ended that. Then I began a walk that was supposed to be a circular walk beginning with the Wye Valley and then veering off to the left. Most of the WVW was lovely enough except for the bugs, but shortly after the turnoff there was this:
I could have scaled it, but the path on the other side looked to be very overgrown, snd it was hot and 3:15 in the afternoon. I did not have a good feeling about this, so I simply turned around followed the WVW back to town. The final adventure was a trip to the Super Tesco, a grocery concern. You have no idea how complicated crossing a street can be. I have been crossing streets since I was five and never had so much trouble as I did today. The traffic is whizzing by in multiple lanes and there is no pedestrian access to any lights. Fortunately, a woman came along and I, feeling VERY FOOLISH, asked her, "Can you please tell me how to cross over to the Tesco?" "Well, you go up the road and you will see an underpass, go through that and up the stairs and then cross over by the gas station," and so on. I finally got there but on the way back, I realized I had memorized everything except how to find the entrance to the underpass from the exit side. Again, a passerby gave me directions. Google Maps cannot do it all.
There almost was an exciting evening activity but.....
😞
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