Shropshire Hills 2019 Part 1 Day 1

Monday 29^th July 2019 (my Mum’s birthday)

I caught the train from Hereford (where I had just finished a few days on the Wye Valley Walk) to Church Stretton, then lugged my large (and heavy) pack to the Bunkhouse at All Stretton.  As I was here in the morning, and check-in time wasn’t until 3 p.m., I just dropped the pack, grabbed my day-pack from within, and headed out.

I wandered back into Church Stretton and was almost immediately stopped by a woman and her daughter who asked me a few questions about the area and walking, specifically Caer Caradoc.  They weren’t dressed for it, and had no gear upon them, and it was a hot and dry day, but who was I to suggest they might want to reconsider their planned activity.  I gave them some advice, but in hindsight realised that my directions/instructions were rather vague, and that I hadn’t yet decided on where I was going to walk and could have offered to guide them.

I grabbed a few lunch items from the co-op then headed over toward Caer Caradoc, but wanting to walk a few of the hills south of that.  Just as I got to the end of the road, I encountered a woman who was in her 70s, kitted out correctly.  We had a brief exchange about a variety of topics, like driving to, as opposed to walking to, the start of one’s intended hike, and the composition of much of the hiking gear that one buys, and the one thing that struck me was her unwillingness to take any ownership of climate change, saying that it was a problem created and to be dealt with, by the younger generation.

I parted ways with her, and wandered around the northern end of Helmeth Hill, along the back of it, down to cross the B4371, then up along Hazler Rd.  Soon I took a turn on a footpath to the left heading south.  Eventually I came out onto another road and met the same woman I’d chatted with earlier, now discovering we both intended on climbing up Ragleth Hill, so I kept her company for a while until she stopped to take an extended rest.

I wandered along, in the overly bright and hot sunshine of a cloudless sky, with no shelter from it up on the barren hilltop.

I dropped back down into the valley, to walk back up to Church Stretton where I purchased some cider from the co-op and takeaways from the chippy then sat outside with my make-shift meal.

Day 2