Shropshire Hills 2019 Part 2 Day 1

Saturday 19^th October 2019

I had caught the train down from Penrith (where I had just finished Lady Anne’s Way for the second time) and lugged my large pack from the Church Stretton railway station to the bunkhouse in All Stretton once again.  I was here back in July/August shortly after I started this 3-month trek.  The bunkhouse had been fully booked for this night way back in January when I was planning this holiday and I was not staying there, so why, you ask, was I walking there?

The answer is that the next nearest hostel was at Bridges, and I had managed to book a bed there for tonight, but that was a much longer walk up and over the Long Mynd.  I did have a booking here at All Stretton for tomorrow night, so I had asked if I could leave my larger pack here overnight until I arrived back here to stay tomorrow.  I left the larger pack in the bicycle shed for the night.

From the bunkhouse, with only my day-pack now, I headed directly up onto the northern part of the Mynd, then followed a rutted road down past Wildmoor Pool, where wild ponies are sometimes having a drink of water.

The ponies weren’t at the pool, but I did see some shortly after once I had veered off onto a walking track that took me directly over to Ratlinghope. 

The air took on a nasty chill, so I hastily put on my fingerless gloves, which helps a little, but I really needed the full gloves I’d left back in the pack in All Stretton.  After passing through Ratlinghope, I took my usual route following part of the Shropshire Way alongside a stream before coming out on the road just before Bridges.  I wandered past the Bridges YHA as it was too early to check in so naturally I went to the pub for a late lunch/early dinner consisting of a Plowman’s and Pint (of cider, of course).

Day 2