Around the Edge of Wales (4)....Llanbedr Dyffryn Clwyd to Trefonnen

Around the Edge of Wales (4). . . . Llanbedr Dyffryn Clwyd to Trefonnen

A split walking boot at the end of Day 2 called for a quick change of plan. I decided to bike the Borders. Not a bad option, given that the small settlements and winding lanes account for so much of this area’s character and beauty. I decided to follow Offa’s Dyke as close as I could – and much of it is actually on lanes and small roads – and to follow the quietest routes possible.

A wrong turn at Lanarmon yn Iâl led me to Minera. I struggled back up to the Llandegla Moors through a wild storm that lasted almost an hour. Far away, and through the crackling of hail I could hear grouse calling.

Under the heavy sky the heather summits were dark and gloomy. I was glad to see, at last, the sun sweeping like a searchlight across the Edeyrnion Valley as I approached the Eglwyseg Crags. The journey down from the mountain to World’s End and around the foot of the limestone cliffs to Trefor is steep and superb – and was made even more exciting by the discovery, less than 5 minutes of starting the descent, that one of the gears on the bike had packed up.  

As I rounded the crags towards Trefor I watched a stoat chasing a red grouse by the side of the road – the bird flailing along the ground and calling in panic but refusing to rise from the ground until the stoat was within a whisker of catching its tail feathers. I arrived at Froncysyllte in bright sunshine and walked for the first time ever across the extremely narrow and very high aqueduct that cost £47,000 to build. I decided not to look down.

The Offa’s Dyke Path follows the canal here for a while and it was a leisurely, beautiful bike ride.  Then over the hills to Chirk, catching my first glimpse of an historic section of Offa’s Dyke near Chirk Castle. I’d never been to Selattyn but I glad I chose a route through this pretty village with its welcoming pub – the Cross Keys – with its open fire, good company and great beer made by a local family firm in Oswestry. I could have stayed all evening but I needed to press on.  Fine views of the Cheshire plains opened out as I climbed southwards. I cycled until it got dark and slept under a hedge somewhere around Trefonnen.