Offa's Dyke 

Tintern to Monmouth

September 6, 2024

When the taxi showed just after 9:00 am up this morning to take us back to Tintern the rain was just hammering down.  The forecast looked pretty gloomy and the low cloud and was not really promising.  However we were all dressed for it with rain coats and pants  along with water proof boots. 

The taxi whisked us up to Tintern and dropped us off right where we wanted so we were all set.  There was a very nice old lady walking her dog right as we were getting out of the taxi and she advised us that you don't want to head up to take the main Offa's dyke route but you want to go just pass my house on the corner and then follow the lane down to the end which will put you on the low route which follows the Wye river.  It is away less hilly.  It wasn't a hard decision to take the less hilly route. 

As we headed off we passed an old telephone booth which had been converted to an emergency defibrillator station.  This lead to a thousand jokes about does it still work, and I have always want to try to use the paddles.  

The rain continued as we trudged on, sometimes more and sometimes less.  The route was flatter and the first major hill I had seen in Garmin of over 800 feet never did show up.  Finally about 11:30 the rain let up and we were left with a pretty wet track and a low ground level cloud.  

As we were coming into Redbrook where the second Offa's Dyke stamp for the passport was the path was an extremely steep and slippery down slope.  Mike who was in front of me went down but popped right back up so he wasn't hurt. Not 30 feet later I went down but managed to do a pirouette before landing in the grass.  When I got to the bottom of the hill I realized I had lost my glasses which I had taken off and hung on the front of my shirt.  So I had to hike up the hill to find them.  Mike came with me and together we found them in the grass.  

The high light of the day was as we headed up the big hill out of Redbrook when the sun came out briefly and we actually saw our shadows.  

We rolled into Monmouth with a total distance covered of 12.23 miles and 1926 feet elevation.  So the low road was about 1.2 miles longer but had over 500 feet less elevation.   

Rain not withstanding it was a pretty fun day.

Terry