July 08, Bodfari

I found the walk today difficult despite perfect weather: cool, windy, cloud cover for most of it, the path was easy to follow, so what could be hard?  Elevation gain about 2500 feet (depending on the source you consult), difficult downhills, and even though people say the stage is gorgeous, I found it dull: 99% through moors, not all as pretty as this section.  But why is that photo so tilted?

Relieved for a short while by a divine grassy stretch:

But most of the walking was on track:

This is the worst surface on which to walk:

Enough of the complaining for a few minutes!  

View with wall:

Wall in disrepair with modern wire and post fencing to do the job:

Because there are so many rocks, people can create very large cairns:

An even bigger cairn

Maybe there are cairn competitions, but I doubt it.

I totally don't get this country park status since you can't go cavorting through the moors, and this area looks like all the other areas, but hey, what do I know:

Fortunately, the route did not follow this wall that went straight up that big hill, it did go up there, though.

A moel, in Wales, is not someone who performs circumcisions, it is a big hill and an opportunity to name that hill after someone.  One of the too many moels today, was Moel Arthur.

It is not nice to remove directional signs from posts:

On the path, truly in the middle of nowhere, is a defibrillator:

Steps like this make steep uphills and downhills so much easier:

There were lots and lots and lots and lots of sheep, in all directions:

Since that seems to be it for the photos, I can go back to complaining.What made the walk especially hard, was the boredom.  Even though lots of people find it gorgeous, I just found it monotonous, it is completely exposed, and that makes all the hills so much harder.  I kept wondering what it would be like to do this in the rain.  Unbearable.

Anyhow...I am in a sweet Air B&B and the host allowed me to come on over at 1:30 when I got into Bodfari.  He had eggs and bread and butter and stuff in the frig, and I had packed up the leftovers from yesterday's shopping, so instead of going to the famous Dinorben Arms to eat, I made an omelette garnished with avocado, tomato, and onion, and toast with butter, marmalade and walnuts.  I found cookies saved from the Angel Hotel in Abergavenny and "paired" them with dark choclolate.  Then I took the half lemon I still had, squeezed it into a cup poured boiling water over it and added a generous amount of sugar.  Not a shabby meal for when you are just too plum tuckered out to walk 10 minutes down a hill for a steak sandwich and ten minutes up the hill to your digs.  I also have a sore toe that needs attention.