Wye Valley Walk Hay to Hereford and back 50 miles

Two days off work and a night in a Travel Lodge, sounds like a good plan. I was really looking forward to this run (not so much the Travel Lodge) and it didn't disappoint. We packed very lightly a change of clothes and shoes to hit Hereford in, and basic toiletries. The pack was still quite heavy so good training for the MDS. Waterproofs were essential and these were donned as soon as we got outside my front door! It tipped it down and the ground was very wet and muddy. This didn't put us off and we set off in good spirits. The route is varied and doesn't keep to the river, you seem to be looking down as the river meanders it's way through Herefordshire. There is plenty of climbing and by no means flat. Once out of Hay we headed out to Clifford and followed the Wye until Merbach hill. This part was really stunning and I felt miles away from home. We went wrong a couple of times on this stretch as the signage had been very good but some of the WVW markers had come off the posts so the maps came out and we got back on track. You can nearly always see the river so very easy to navigate out of trouble.


From there we descended into Bredwardine and up past Brobury Church and Hall, heading for The Monnington Court estate. Along this stretch were the most amazing amount of churches and manor houses. The approach to Monnington Court is through woodland and then in to a lovely avenue of trees one mile long. Owen Glyndwr so legend has it is buried in the church. Bulmers cider own a lot of the orchards around the area and the WVW takes you through the apple trees before coming back a cross the river to the Garnons estate. The next part was the hardest, only that it was on road and lasted about 3 miles. We followed the old roman road to Streton Sugwas, the path crosses the road at the Basmati (we called in for a drink and the chap working there gave us a coke and wouldn't let us pay!, I think he just wanted the weird looking lycra clad muddy women out of the restaurant!).

For those of you who ran Gords Classic the next part took in some of the route eventually following the river path all the way into Hereford. We went to Sainsburies for a very welcome cuppa. Judging by the state of us we must have looked a sight. Covered in mud and rain sodden clothes, but feeling OK.

The Travel Lodge was sparse but with plenty of hot water. We carefully arranged our running stuff over one Dimplex heater to dry it off and after a hot bath headed into the bright lights for a very welcome sausage and mash. We were in bed by 8.30. very surreal staying in Hereford. I didn't sleep well, stressing about wet clothes! However everything was dry the next day if not a bit smelly, and we returned to Sainsburys for breakfast with all the early school run Mums.

Letting breakfast go down we walked a couple of miles before forcing ourselves to run, Ok once you got going and the journey back felt so much easier, less mud, dry feet maybe, no looking at the map. What ever the reason, the run back was lovely and we knocked a chunk of time off.

Anyone wanting to walk or run this section of The Wye Valley walk I'd highly recommend it. We both switched on computers and googled all the places we'd run through, the history attached to the area is immense.

The picture to the left is a cabbage / apple hybrid!?

If anyone can shed any light on why cabbages were growing amongst the apple trees. These weren't random self setting seeds as they appeared to be in rows in between the trees?

Answers please.......