Day 21 - Near Oswestry

Day 21 - Saturday 25th April. After breakfast, John F drove us back to The Powis Arms at Pool Quay. It was cool and rather grey as we crossed a stile off the main road and onto the banks of the Severn river. One week ago, we had just crossed the mouth of the same river at Chepstow, where it was a mighty, but very muddy, estuary. Here it is a modest little river winding and twisting through the green fields, but it is still muddy! This was the Offa's Dyke route but the dyke we were walking on was a flood control dyke that runs for some miles in this area. It made for easy walking with pleasant views of the hills around and we occupied ourselves with chat, jokes and the odd song: John F is a great fund of jokes and having his company made for a lively and pleasant couple of days.
After about 6 miles, we arrived at Four Crosses where we thought we might be able to sit down and have a coffee; the sun had come but there was nowhere for elevenses. A largish pub called the Golden Lion advertised all sorts of things including coffee but was firmly shut and even had a nasty guard dog in the yard at the side, but was firmly shut. We then had to yomp along the main road for a mile to Llanymynech - this is always noisy and rather intimidating, so to be avoided if possible. We quickly found a pub that was open and with a great welcome - the Bradford Arms. Bob and Kath Headley run this pub beautifully, and we had a good cup of coffee whilst talking with the locals, then decided to have a toastie as lunch to keep us going for the afternoon. The pub is decked out in red and white with lots of St George's flags. This is because the village is both in Wales and Enland, and the Bradford is on the English side of the border. People used to cross the border for a drink on Sundays when Welsh pubs had to close by simply crossing the road!
We alse met David Beeston who keeps the records of animal movements at Dudley zoo, where they breed rare species.
After lunch we set off in high spirits, climbing up a limestone hill, past a quarry to the first of several great views of the day, (each with it's climb of course) with the best above Tyn y Coed where the Rotay club had placed a plaque showing distances to the places around. We were delighted to see that we were only 40 miles from Liverpool, which made us feel we were making serious progress! Also interestig was the old Oswestry horse racing track which is now just an open space and ruin, but with an interesting history.
This was a delightful day of views and lovely valleys, but we were happy to descend at last to a hamlet called Craignant to be met by my old friend Caroline and taken back to our start point to collect John's car. That evening we took John out to dinner in Shrewsbury as some return for all his hospitality, generosity and company. Thanks a million John!