or, finishing off Offa's walk ~ Day 6
On this day of days, Natasha and I travelled north to the Irish Sea. Parking the car near the seafront we turned inland away from the sea to find the Prestatyn-Dyserth Way ... and headed south.
The Prestatyn-Dyserth Way is an old railway line ... now a cycleway, path and inevitably dog toilet ...
As we got further south, we left most of the housing behind.
We could have nipped into Meliden and had a pint ... but it was too early in the day ... and we had some walking to do.
The Prestatyn-Dyserth Way is only about three miles long and perhaps calling it a Way is way too much ... but it is pleasant walking and got us out into the countryside nice and easily ...
Though we hadn't seen many walkers on it, there were even fewer now. Still it was a Friday ...
We reached the spot where we'd left the Offa's Dyke Path the day before. Natasha was just about to pose next to the signpost when she said I should stand there ...
So here I am at the beginning of the end of my last day on the Offa's Dyke Path ...
Any similarity between me and a sack of potatoes is purely coincidental.
So, we started to head north, back towards Prestatyn.
I was surprised and relieved that the last day was proving much more interesting than I thought it was going to be.
The walk runs through the Prestatyn Hillside Nature Reserve and although we didn't see anything particularly interesting as regards natural history, the views were impressive ...
We sat on the one seat we found in the Nature Reserve and enjoyed the view.
Looking to our left, we could see the Prestatyn-Dyserth Way with Meliden beyond ...
Straight in front of us we were looking down at Meliden with the golf course to the right, immediately beyond the Prestatyn-Dyserth Way ...
Finally, to the right, the outskirts of Prestatyn ...
We couldn't sit there forever though we could have stayed longer.
A little later beside the path someone had left a bowl and some water for passing dogs ...
The path wound on ...
As we neared Prestatyn the path got quite narrow in places ...
Then we were down into the town itself, passing a large Roman helmet ...
On the helmet was an image of King Offa ...
All the way down to the beach, a mile away, roadside posts had one of these on them ...
We were just a few hundred yards from the end of a walk of over 180 miles ...
Finally, we were at the end and I stood on the beach, returning to have yet another photograph taken.
5 or 6 years ago I set off from Chepstow and walked the whole route from south to north. In the process I must have walked at least double the 182 miles and I think I can say I enjoyed every minute. It's a great Long Distance Path.
So what do I do now ?
I am already making plans ...
You can see the route I followed on the OS Explore website, here :~ http://explore.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/os_routes/show/19007
Date of walk ~ 23rd April 2010
Length of walk ~ 9 miles
Total walked so far in 2010 ~ 115.75 miles
Total walked since 1st September 2009 ~ 245.75 miles
21 of 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment