It’s always wonderful to be with my cousins, and especially when we spend a holiday together. This year our annual jaunt was to the Wye Valley and we were very fortunate to have good weather – despite what was happening in other parts of the country. My cousins are great walkers and love exploring and trekking out over the surrounding countryside, field or fountain, moor or mountain – they are fearless! Now I have to confess, that much as I love them, I don’t share their passion for trekking out into the countryside – it’s difficult to explain why, I guess I’m more of a sauntering person, more of a wandering and dandering, and definitely a stopping and staring person – as William Henry Davies wrote: ‘What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare.’
I have never been a great walker – as a child I always said I could swim further than I could walk. There’s nothing physically wrong with me, I hasten to report, but I am very slow, and going up an incline always seems more of a struggle for me, than for others. My cousins – who are only the same size as me really love striding out up hill and down dale, and they come back full of joy of the exertion, and the views, and the adventures. Our holiday was in an ideal place for them, and the weather was perfect, not too hot but warm enough, no strong winds but refreshing breezes, no rain and pleasant sun.
We were situated where there were plenty of walks for them, plenty of ruins and historical sites and bookshops for us. I picked up some leaflets, which I forgot to give them, about places of interest as destinations for those who wish to stride out. “Discover the Lancaut Peninuslar’ is one. It starts at Chepstow Castle and is six miles long with “moderate climbs and descents.” You cross the River Wye, and the bridge goes over the border between England and Wales. and onto the Gloucestershire Way. Before long you join the Offa’s Dyke Path – King Offa was King of Mercia from 757AD until 796AD when he died in Bedford – which isn’t that far from where my cousins live! Eventually the trail leads to Lancaut, a deserted village. There was a church there from before Offa, around 625AD, now there are only the ruins. I’d love to visit the church, and maybe I will,as long as I don’t have the walk from Chepstow!!
My featured image is of the ruins of Tintern Abbey which we explored while the cousins were yomping!
Lois Elsden 