Well we have moved on, and are now staying in The Wroxeter Hotel for two nights. We have met up with my sister Sue and her partner Steve, and not forgetting Alistair McAlistair (our team masgot) who will be joining us on our next couple of walks. After a good afternoon walking around the lovely town of Shewsbury, going for afternoon tea in The Libertine Cocktail Bar & Tea Room which was very quaint...until we got the bill! Haha. :)
We settled for a meal in the hotel and a walk around the grounds.
Ok enough of that, walking is why we are here!
Today is now Thursday and we have had a 25 minute drive down to Church Stretton where we park the car and get the gear on. Our plan of today is to do Long Mynd- Ratlinghope-Bridges-Adstone, a route that follows some of the Shropshire Way and is over 9 miles. Well route change a bit, but here goes.
After leaving the car we start uphill straight away, along Mott's Road (Shropshire Way) the path carries on for a good distance, when we reach the top you can see for miles.
We then join another path on our left which takes us to the 'shooting box', (where we were going to park the car). From the shooting box there are a few different paths to follow, we continue straight. From the shooting box we head across the road and head straight along until we reach Pole Bank which is at the height of 5516 meters. Here there is a trig point and a brass plate which enables you to identify every hill through 360 degrees.
We continue along the ridge of Long Mynd until we reached Pole Bank cottage, which was confusing, as there was no cottage, just spaces to park cars.
We walk along some boggy paths going down hill in moorland, and the rain starts and comes on heavy, time for the trusty waterproofs. This is a steep descent, but not too hard, until we reach a road, which we follow until we reach Stanbatch, continuing to walk along the road we soon reach Medicott where there is a reservoir.
Going through Manor Farm we pass lots of barking dogs...I think they have picked up Alistair's scent! ;) The rain is off at the moment, but how long we dont know, the sky is black and it is very humid.
We pass this bull in a field looking miserable, I wonder why!!
We continue on this road for a while, which I'm not to keen on, thinking we could do with a coffee. But checking the map we are near Bridges, so we decide to continue. Bridges is a small village with very little there apart from a pub, The Horseshoe Inn. So yes, a pint was in order and we sat out in the sunshine with drink and nibbles.
Alistair's little bunny feets are glad of the rest. :)
After a half hour stop we decide we need to get on our way, going along the road we pass a very nice looking hostel.
Going uphill, then crossing a stile, we walk through sheep fields, by Manor house, over another stile and continue up hill across moorlands. On the moors there is lots of heather and blayberries, though there are no fruit yet.
The clouds are thinning and it becomes sunny so time for jackets to come off, as we continue up hill until we reach the Shooting Box again. We turn left back on the path we came until its a right turn and back down the very steep hill, back to the car park.
Boots off, and out comes coffee and snack bars and a sit in the sun before heading back to tne hotel.
The sheep decide to have a sniff at Roy's feet. :)
We have walked 10.2 miles and gained height of 2339ft in total. Another good days walk.
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