July 07, Llanarmon yn-Ial

 First it must be said that Llanarmon yn Ial is not on ODP.  The stage ends at a place called Clywd Gate  where there is a manor, but to stay there you have to rent out the whole place, which is great if you are using the venue for a wedding or some such, but does not do the solitary walker much good. Since there is nothing else around there, so I had decided to go off the path 2 1/2 miles shy of Clywd Gate, which is how I ended up in Llanarmon yn-ial, an adorable townlet...it has a village store, which, at about 1:00 p.m when I arrived, had not one fresh item on the shelves, and when I did want to go later to buy cookies, I was out of luck because it closes at 4:00. 

The stage today was super long, so I took a taxi to cut off two miles, but then I was annoyed because I could have fairly easily walked to the path junction where the road meets the path.  The taxi ride, short as it was, made me so car sick I could not wait to get out, so I bailed before the predetermined drop-off point.  But enough of the complaining and regrets, the walk was gorgeous.

This stunning section, let's just say, you didn't want to have a slip and fall:

It is designed for the likes of them:

Behold! A rainbow in the sky:

This was BEFORE it started to rain, a rain that required a full set of waterproofs.

The path was less daunting when ferns appeared on the cliff side:

See who is hiding in there!

And behold! a ram caught by its horns in the thicket:

OK, so it wan't a ram and it wasn't really caught, but it was in the thicket and then scampered off.

All of a sudden, after the dramatic hills, came the moors. If you have never walked through moors, you cannot imagine the boggyness.  These paving stones made all the difference.  It must have been a huge project to lay them:

In case Alex and Alex decide to come back and bike this route, here is the info:

After the mountainous terrain and the moors, came the forest:

A sign post minus the sign:

By and by I came to a sign post that did have a sign.  It offered a path to Llynarmon yn-Ial, my very destination in just 45 minutes!  What to do?  Take the ODP to the designated turnoff and walk on a road for I am not sure how far, which takes 1 hour and 10 minutes, but then you could say you covered more of ODP.  Would the signposted route to the town turn out to be like the Mortimer Trail and have some impassable barrier that would make you cry?  

Screw it! I took the shorter route.  There were some big puddles:

And beautiful views

And maybe some fellow alums:

As I was walking, I was thinking how nice it would be to arrive at The Raven Inn and have a real lunch. A nice fantasy, because, this being Monday, there was no lunch and there was no dinner:

Or breakfast, for that matter.  Only booze.

and there is no restaurant in town.  AND not a soul around when I arrived.  Finally, a scraggly old man with terrible teeth and unkempt, long hair showed up (he was very nice) and told me he would find someone to help me.  He did just that.  Then luck came my way because said man and lady were planning to go to the store in Ruthin, the closest town with a supermarket, a 15+ minute drive away.  I asked if I could go with them; they said, "Yes," so I purchased at the Tesco: lox, avocado, onion, and tomato, and cold drink, plus a roll for breakfast, so all's well......