Day 15 - Tintern to Monmouth

Day 15 Sunday. Oh how glorious to be able to lie in bed till 9am and spend a morning not walking. I spent a couple of hours updating the blog, but then couldn't get online through our guest house network which was frustrating. However I managed to do so a bit later when we had a farewell drink at the pub, who had an open wifi line I was able to access.

LIndsey was heading back to Bucks at lunchtime and it was a bit of a juggle making the best of my few hours with Lindsey, planning and organising bits of gear and getting ready to o. It was another lovely day however and we sat together over a parting glass on the veranda of the Moon and Sixpence. A couple drove up in a camper van with a wild west figure painted on the side. He had a broad brimmed leather and had a resemblence to the painting. They sat next to us and we struck up conversation. He told us that the figure was Franklin Cody and this was his great grandson, Paul Cody. ?.F.Cody came over from the States and put on a Wild West show. This was not Buffalo Bill, but an alternative exciting spectacle of its times. Cody was an adventurer and he pioneered human flight using kites and was a character in Those Magnificent Men And Their Flyiing Machines. Paul also told me that he played guitar and sang similar folk/rock songs to myself: it's a pity we couldn't spend more time.

Yo decided to stay in the area and ferry our bags about and see some friends. We therefore set off with day packs only for Monmouth, which made it very easy for us. And it was another delightful afternoons walking through woods carpeted with bluebells, which had now come out, anenomes and other flowers. The latter half was all along the river in the warm sun so we were treated to long stretches of the winding Wye with the sun glinting, and the flies dancing in the air and birds singing. After 11 miles we crossed the bridge into Monmouth. I decided to camp that night in a site very close to John and Yos hotel. My little one-man tent hadnt been out of its bag for several years, and although simple to erect, it took a few attempts to get it right. It was very snug, but I managed to fit it all in and went for a shower. It brought back some distant memories of campsites from my youth and was certainly not as convenient as a B&B!

I dined alone at an Indian restaurant then spent the evening in a pub doing more planning for the coming days. By the time I got back to my tent at 10, it was very cold under a clear sky and my washing that had been drying was wet with dew. Oh dear. It was a bit odd, crawling into a tiny tent and bedding down by the light of a torch, and the ground did seem a little hard through my mat, but my sleeping bag, which is new and very light, also kept me warm through to the morning.