Day 54
Rogiet to Chepstow: 10 miles
Dedication of the day: To me
Reason: I just walked 500 miles. Boom.
The Day After Coldplay
I think I failed to mention that the last two days Coldplay had been playing at Cardiff's Millenium Stadium. As such, housing was hard to come by in south east Wales, and I found myself in a hostel room full of men. British men. Sleeping in their underwear.
Wait, that's not what I meant to talk about. What I meant to mention was that the yesterday I'd had to take the train back from Rogiet, and it was only a two car train, and absolutely full of people on their way to the show. People who probably didn't want to be sitting next to a very smelly, very sweaty me.
Wait, I'm not sure that's what I meant to talk about either. How about the fact that my hostel is literally across a canal from Millennium Stadium, so I heard two Coldplay concerts, got to fight through two Coldplay crowds for dinner, and was impressed by Cardiff's efforts to start cleaning literally as soon as the concert started. They were still at it this morning, and doing a good job of it.
I was happy that it seemed like the city was clearing out though - it's such a cute town but there were waaaay too many people in it. When I got the train to Rogiet, and was once again one of only three people to get off at a small stop, I felt like I could breath again. I was also really excited to finish up Leg I of my trip - and also hit my halfway point - and also then take an unheard of two rest days in a row - and use my hotel points to stay in a nice hotel all by myself without British men in their underpants sleeping everywhere.
Tunnels and Churches
Most of the hike was actually not close to the coast - through fields and crossing over and back across the highway. It was entirely pleasant though - except for the highway constant noise which was quite loud at the start.
After passing under the Second Severn Bridge, which had a lovely curve to it, I hit the ancient fort that now has a football field in it, and took a slightly wrong turn into the town of Sudbrook. Sudbrook's current claim to fame is that it is where the Severn Railway Tunnel, the tunnel built in 1886 that connects England and Wales, opens on the Welsh side. It's also the site of a giant pumping station that pumps out 60 million gallons of water from the tunnel a day.
Above ground, it's a cute small village (or hamlet, I've already forgotten the difference) and there are lots of flowers and well tended gardens. Continuing on the path, I ended up at a tiny park where the last lave net fishermen in Wales work. These are hand held nets - if I understand it basically two willow sticks with a net the fisherman weaves between it. As the Severn Estuary is the second highest tide in the world (the first is Newfoundland) they can only work at very specific tides for a few hours a day - and today wasn't one of them. I did see the house where they weave the nets though.
After a brief walk past a small orange cliff and views of the Severn Road Bridge the path turned back inland and I quickly meandered off the trail looking at a sailboat, and ran through every stinging plant Wales has to offer before I got to a train track and realized I wasn't on the path. Crossing through a few fields, a golf course, another field, I ended up at a lovely church.
St. Tewdric's church was built where King Tewdric, a Celtic King of Gwent, died after overcoming the Saxon's in battle. When he died, a spring gushed from the ground, now called St. Tewdric's well. It's quite a big church, and I had a quick chat with the caretaker outside, who was unfortunately very sad because of the loss of his wife - but told me how much he liked the U.S. and also that he was planning an upcoming trip to New Zealand. Anyway, he told me it was a lovely church, but not much else.
Offas Dyke here I come
And then, finally, I got to Chepstow. First there was a tunnel with a youth artwork/graffiti project, then a path wandering through different types of trees, then it went through the town itself. After meandering past an older church, the trail finally hit the water, there was Chepstow Castle up on a rise on one bank - the first stone castle in Britain. And on the other side was a sheer rock wall, and England. In between was a lovely blue and white cast iron bridge. Made in 1816, it was one of the first such bridges in the world, and it's half in Wales and half in England.
Before I got there, there was a lovely stone circle and mosaic about the meeting of the Wales Coast and the Offas Dyke Paths. So I proceeded to snap a million pictures, walked across the bridge, and then retired to a nearby wine bar to celebrate the fact that I just walked 500 miles to England.
Besides drinking a glass of champagne, I spent a significant amount of my time watching a guy mow his lawn over in England. What was interesting about it was that he was mowing the edge of a cliff. Apparently not content to let the weeds grow anywhere in his yard, he had climbed over his back fence, to the edge of a fairly high cliff, and was continuously pushing the lawnmower with one hand only to dangle it as low as he could over the cliff - apparently he had to make sure even the spot below his cliff edge was tidy. True dedication.
Anyway, it was a great day.
