After a much needed, and very relaxing, rest day we were ready to start our last full week of walking by heading down to Monmouth. Today we were joined by Gareth, Jackie, Chris T, Sasha, Chris M, Dal, Gemma and Simon – yes we would form two socially distanced groups as we walked. Darren will be our concierge for the next two days.
We left Leominster and headed south towards Hereford. Leominster (pronounced “lemster”) takes its name from the English word minster, meaning a community of clergy and the original Celtic name for the district Leon or Lene, probably in turn from an Old Welsh root lei to flow. During the 8th and 9th Century, Danes (or Vikings) frequently raided the area and a large amount of treasure was unearthed in 2015 that “experts” believe was buried by Vikings
The day started slightly misty with the sun looking like it would burn its way through quite soon. As we wandered towards Hereford we passed the 600 mile milestone and then a lovely dog decided that walking with us for a couple of km was much more interesting than going back to its owner. As we had reached a busy main road luckily we could reacquaint the dog with its, by now, frantic owner.
We found the HSBC branch in Hereford and posed for the obligatory photograph. The Welsh name for Hereford is Henffordd, meaning “old road”, and probably refers to the Roman road and Roman settlement at nearby Stretton Segway’s. An early town charter from 1189 granted by Richard I of England describes it as “Hereford in Wales”. Nell Gwynne, actress and mistress of King Charles II, is said to have been born in Hereford in 1650.
Blessed by beautiful weather and wide open countryside we kept on walking down (and definitely up) relatively quiet roads.
In Saint Weonards we passed the magical 1,000km walked and there was an opportune signpost for the photo.
The sun was setting as we entered wales – no Welcome to Wales sign though, just the Monmouth county sign. A long descent into the town of Monmouth meant it was completely dark by the time we reached the hotel. Nearly 60km of walking today meant for a very demanding day so huge thanks to all that joined us – the company and all the different chats makes such a difference. Tomorrow we do it all again with a different group of friends.