Todays walk relied on catching the only bus of the day from Bishops Castle to Clun. Sounds easy enough, but when I got to the bus stop, they had moved it due to the annual fair! A quick phone call to the bus company to get directions to the temporary stop and I was off.
To make me even more nervous, the bus was late, but there were several people catching it so I was confident it would show up.
Fifteen minutes later I was in Clun and heading for the castle as my starting point. On reflection it probably wasn't the best route but it got me to where I needed to be so happy with that.
Heading out of Clun, the weather was superb, just warm enough without being hot. Initially the route follows the stream but of course, being the Shropshire Way, it wasn't long before I was heading uphill, initially steeply but it soon eased off and didn't last long.
Past Three Gates and I met up with the Offas Dyke path - that's when it got steep! A serious climb up, followed by a steep descent bought back memories of having completed the walk many years ago. A later check revealed it was 46 years ago!
As a relief and parting company with Offa, the route flattened out through a woodland followed by a dog leg, briefly on tarmac before heading onto another climb and then skirting around Colebatch Hill before a steep drop down. I'd set myself a target of 14km or 3 hours for the lunch stop and both coincided at this point so I found a comfortable place to sit and enjoyed a leisurely lunch. There was, after all, only 4km or so of walking to go.
Lunch done, I set off. More downhill and another section of tarmac before I entered a huge, sheep filled field. Rosie was on double best behaviour and walked through, off the lead, but perfectly behaved.
That done, we had a small lane which led into Bishops Castle and a few minutes later I was back at the car, the day done.
18.5km walked, 590m of ascent in three hours and fifty minutes which completes the Western side of the Southern section so happy with that.
