Good start to the day with a hearty breakfast. The mushrooms with the full breakfast were worthy of special mention; the secret, apparently, was to add a dash of Worcester Sauce whilst frying!
The weather forecast seemed to promise a dry and clear day, continuing our pattern of one beastly day followed by a better one.
We climbed a lane up Baker’s Hill and onto the common, the site of the old Oswestry Racecourse.
We continued by following The Dyke through woodland down to the pretty hamlet of Ty’n-y-Coed and on to the more substantial settlement of Trefonen. Indeed this settlement had a post office/stores which was open! Our first village shop. We stocked up with bottled water and other provisions. The proprietor, referring to newspaper headlines on his counter, bemoaned the fate of the National Health Service. We concurred with his worries and continued south.
There is very little walking on the flat on ODP, and as if to prove the point, we climbed up Llanmynech Hill. In the muddy conditions, this proved to be hard work, and it was a little disappointing to find that our exertion had lead us to the periphery of a golf course. The utter tedium of skirting the manicured fairways and greens was relieved by discovering wild orchids growing in the woodland. Descending the hill through a nature reserve and disused quarry, we lost our way and emerged, by mistake, on the busy A483. We started walking in the wrong direction, away from Llanmynech itself. We were climbing once again into open country, which seemed incongruous, as we knew we were only a few hundred yards from the village. We therefore turned through 180 degrees, and thankfully found Llanmynech, and hopefully a late lunch.
We savoured the next three mile stretch, following the Montgomery canal to our next stopover in Four Crosses. No ascents; no descents. This stretch of canal is not navigable, Mother Nature having taken over to good effect. The sun had shone all day, and we enjoyed this easy walking at the end of the day.