Another walking holiday; same company (hf holidays) as usual but different location. I decided to go by train as that only involved one change and was probably about the same cost as petrol for the journey and the road route seemed quite complicated when I looked it up. Perhaps I should invest in a sat nav?
The journey was as easy as it seemed and the taxi was at Church Stretton station to meet me and take me to the Long Mynd Hotel. Looking from the train and from my room, the hills looked a lot steeper and higher than I expected!
Arriving on the Friday, there was a “Drinks Reception” and time to look round after the meal.
Saturday’s walks started from the house. I went on the easier walks every day and that started last on Saturday. There were so many people on it that it was split into “faster” and “slower” with leaders for each. I went for “faster”. We started by walking down “Rectory Field” and headed onto the Long Mynd by going up the Batch Valley.
We stopped for elevenses part of the way up…..
……and continued up (quite steep) so that we had amazing views. With larks singing overhead it was lovely. We had…..
with views over the valley and hills which…..
We then came down the very steep……
……with time for a cup of tea on the roof terrace of the café at the bottom. Then we walked back to the hotel with plenty of time before dinner.
The second day (Sunday) we took a coach just into Wales and first walked to some standing stones – not terribly impressive. The rest of the morning was mostly through fields….
and on to have lunch at tables outside the…..
……which contained information about the local geology and mining areas. From there we walked up……
…….which has quite a lot of……
We had between one and two miles of walking on…..
……which needed quite a lot of…..
I think it was fortunate that only one person fell over. Some of the stones had some…..
…..but I am glad we did the walk in dry weather. So much concentration was needed on the path that we could only really enjoy the excellent views when we paused. The way down was also…..
..and the path stony so we were glad to get to the pub to wait for the coach back to the hotel for dinner.
The next day, Monday, was our “day off”, when some people leave and others arrive. I went down to Church Stretton and decided there was probably not enough to do for a whole day so got the train to Ludlow which is famous for its….
I walked through the town and to the castle, but decided not to go in. Instead I walked round it.
Having got right round I ate my picnic lunch in……
I explored the town a little more, looking at and round….
I also went down through…..
…and down to…
…..then back….
I also walked along the river before getting the train back to Church Stretton. I even had time to write some postcards before dinner.
The next day, Tuesday, was back to organised walks and we started by coach again and the easy walk was along Wenlock Edge.
Most of the walk was……
The first part of the walk was along an old railway line going passed…..
….which showed…..
….and then passed…..
…..which we could see from both above…..
We passed……
…..and looked down on the site of the more recent……
We continued through….
…..where we had lunch and saw….
…..before going on to Much Wenlock, the “home of the modern Olympic Games” – or so they say. There was time to admire the….
…..look round the museum, giving some history of the games, look round….
…..and still have time for cups of tea and a toasted tea cake before getting the coach back to the hotel.
In the evening a local male voice choir performed. They had their own local words to the songs and were good (as far as I can tell!) and very amusing.
The next day was forecast to be very hot and we were told that the walk was totally exposed, without shade, so I decided that I couldn’t cope with that and opted out. In fact it actually clouded over so I might have managed, but it was very hot. Instead I went down to Church Stretton and looked round the town and found a place to get an excellent iced coffee, then looked round…..
…..which had a surprising and very attractive modern re-ordering inside. I then took the main path into Rectory Wood……
I then walked upwards and…..
…..where I found a bench and had my lunch….
I then returned to the hotel and spent the afternoon reading in the lounge.
There was the “HF quiz” in the evening and I was asked to join a team. I was, as usual, hopeless on the music, film and TV parts and moderate on the rest. As the rest of the team were not much better we came joint last in that hotel!
The final day initially followed a trail starting in the hotel grounds. We passed various….
….and then went down into the town and through the back streets and headed for Caer Caradoc. The easy walk didn’t go to the top but it was initially……
We followed round and along the slopes on the far side from the town, still…..
…..and then continued on….
and still further, ‘admiring’ the sheep…..
We stopped for lunch when we were part way down and it rained a bit.
The final part was across a railway line – a train came just after we had crossed over – and then a very boring walk from All Stretton along the road. There was time for a pot of tea and a toasted tea cake in the café I had been in the previous day. It started to rain hard while I was there, so we got very wet on the way back to the hotel.
In the evening, as well as dinner, we looked at the 6 word statements about the holiday and made contributions to the “Pathways Fund” by the ones we liked most and then had an interesting talk on bees and bee-keeping.
The next day was return home by train, which was fine, except for the Hen Party that were in the same carriage as me for part of the way.
So was it a good holiday? Some of the walks and the scenery were very good, but I think the hotel is probably too large and it was difficult to get to know people well. The weather was dry and sunny until the last day, but maybe a bit hot and humid a couple of days, so overall it was only a satisfactory holiday!