Roy's son Nick met him in Machynlleth to keep him company for a few days. They walked to a farm site just below Cader Idris and camped for the first night, but Nick was even less impressed with the tent than Roy! Don't anybody buy a North Face Particle 13.
The next day they went over Cader Idris and stayed in Penrhos bothy, which, according to Nick, was an improvement on the tent. Then a very long trek to Talsarnau, near Portmeirion. By the end of that day, Nick was having problems with his knees, so they stayed bed and breakfast and then had a couple of shorter days to Bryn Gwynant Youth Hostel followed by Pen -y- Pass Youth Hostel. Caroline (Roy's daughter, for those of you who don't know) then met them at Pont Pen-y-Glenglog with her two year old twins and spent a few hours with them before taking Nick back home to Leeds. It was great for Roy, catching up with the family again.

Since being left on his own again, Roy has walked over the tops to a campsite at Llanwrst and is today (24 April) speeding towards Ruthin. He's had one of his "brainwaves"! When he gets to Chester, he wants me to meet him very early in the morning with his running shoes and a daysack of sandwiches etc. I am to bring the tent and the heavy rucksack back to Macclesfield and he will jog home! Whether he'll manage it all in one day I don't know. He's not even going by the direct route, because he hates running on tarmac so he's making use of the canal system down towards Nantwich, then looping over the top of Crewe to Kidsgrove, then up to Congleton and so back to good old Macc. I did tell you at the beginning of this blog that he's crazy, didn't I? I think the plan is that he will then have a few days rest before continuing, so he can write his own entry next week. H

Well, I've got some photos now, but no notes, so I'll do my best to get you up to date.
In the last post, I told you how Roy had ended up in a river when he decided to play stepping stones. What I didn't know at the time was that he had hurt his leg, and the pain got steadily worse over the next couple of days. He stayed one night at Dolgoch bunkhouse (in the middle of nowhere), then managed to get to a bothy, Moel Prysgau (also in the middle of nowhere, see photo).

At this point, he realised he needed a long rest, but had no signal and was worried that I might call out the emergency services if I had no contact for a couple more days. So he dragged himself back to Dolgoch to use their landline to tell me the plan, then back to the bothy where he holed up for a couple of nights with his leg propped up. Luckily, it did more or less recover, so he was then able to get to Pontrhydfendigaid and stay bed and breakfast to have a comfortable rest. From there he was back on track to another bothy (much preferred to his draughty tent) followed by a farm site just below Machynlleth. Yesterday he met up with Nick (son) in Machynlleth, so the plan is to do Snowdonia together. Caroline (daughter) is planning to meet up with them on Tuesday with Lily and Daisy, her two year old twins, so Roy and Nick have to have reached "somewhere sensible" by then!
Here are a few photos, but I can't tell you anything about them. Can anybody identify the bird of prey?

As you can see, it's still snowy in the mountains, and Roy keeps demanding to know when spring will arrive.

Roy has had a few adventures since Monmouth. With about four miles to go to Abergavenny, he followed a really squishy track down to a wide stream, with no bridge of any sort or stepping stones, about 18" deep by 5 feet across. Nothing for it but to take off boots and socks, put on crocs and get wading. That part was OK, but the path on the other side of the stream was itself a stream come mud slide. Clad in shorts and crocs, he had to scramble through mud, water and nettles until he finally hit a road. He normally hates tarmac, but on this occasion it was quite a relief! The locals gave him a few strange looks in the town, bare legged and covered in mud and scratches. Luckily he was booked in to the Backpackers Hostel in Abergavenny, where he made straight for the showers!

The next day was a long one. Roy arrived at the supposed campsite by Talybont reservoir, only to find a building site in its place! Totally exhausted, he had to plod on for another two miles to a site at Talybont-on-Usk. After discovering that they had a pub and a cafe there serving good hot meals, he decided to have a "rest day" the next day to prepare himself for the Brecon Beacons. At this point, snow and low night-time temperatures were forecast, but never mind.

After his day's rest, Roy did really well - 4.5 hours from the campsite to the top of Pen-y-Fan. Now, plan A was that he would stay one night at the Llwyn-y-Celyn youth hostel half way along the Beacons, so I had rung the YHA but been told there was no availability. On hearing this, Roy had decided that, if he turned up at about 5 pm on a very cold night, they would let him sleep on the floor. So this was plan B. In the event, he had to resort to plan C: a very cold night in the ice and snow camped in a draughty tent in the garden of the youth hostel which was completely closed!

Luckily I earned lots of brownie points the next day by finding him a bed at Dulwich College Adventure Centre at Craig-y-nos, a day's walk from the youth hostel. I got the impression that they don't normally offer bed and breakfast to lone walkers, but they made an exception for Roy. He never saw a soul all the time he was there, but let himself in to a lovely warm en-suite room for £13, with quiche and sandwiches left out for him and cereal and bread for the morning - luxury!

The next day a refreshed Roy set off for a glorious walk over the hills until, about five miles from his destination, he came to a river, about four or five paces wide, with big rocks scattered about in likely looking places - bound to be a place to skip across. Unfortunately he must have misjudged the slipperyness of one of the rocks - result, a damp Roy, in fact, wet up to his waist. At that point the rain and hail started, but he was wet anyway. Luckily, as the forecast was again for a wintry night, I had booked him into a b and b in Myddfai, just south of Llandovery. Maybe the owners wished they hadn't accepted the booking when they saw him standing bedraggled on their doorstep, but they were very good about confiscating his wet clothes and producing them next morning in a rather drier state.

From Llandovery it was a question of restocking with food because the next few days will involve travelling through remote areas - no more shops for three days. The mobile phone has also gone very quiet, out of signal area, so he'll have to manage without backup for a while.

Roy had a brilliant rough camp on the Quantocks, with the deer for company.

By the way, in case any of you are wondering why the photos keep disappearing, it's because I'm only allowed 10 Mb of photos at any one time, so when I put new ones on I have to delete old ones.
The next day he made rapid progress into Bridgwater - once on the ridge he stayed on the ridge, unlike the coastal path with its constant ups and downs. He's just beginning to think he might be getting a little bit fitter, and the 37 lb backpack doesn't feel quite so heavy.
Roy got to Cheddar campsite for last Friday night (28/3), and Max, (nephew for those who don't know), collected him on Saturday, took him to his place in Bradford on Avon for the weekend, then delivered him back to Cheddar on Monday morning. So Roy had a luxurious weekend off, being waited on hand and foot. (He won't get that treatment when he gets home!)

From Cheddar, the route took Roy to the area around Bristol International airport, but there was absolutely no campsite or reasonably priced accommodation round there so he had to detour to the youth hostel in the centre of Bristol, where he made a new friend.

From there, it was a windy walk over the Severn Road Bridge and so into Wales. Sorry, I can't find a way of turning this round!

After an overnight camp, it was a stroll along the Wye valley on the Offa's Dyke path, to meet me in Monmouth. It's a relatively easy drive to Monmouth from Macclesfield, so we met up at lunchtime to explore the town and then stayed the night in a lovely b and b. This morning I drove back home and Roy continued on to Abergavenny. It was lovely to see him again, although difficult saying goodbye. He is enjoying the experience, with the highlight being all the dawn choruses!
The merino wool mid-layer From Divide and Conker is absolutely brilliant - Roy took a photo of himself wearing it, but unfortunately it came out blurred so you'll have to wait a bit longer to see it! H