Bendy ODP Day 4 - Berwyn (Llangollen) to Trefonen

31.4 Km in 8:35

Good weather again but what happened to our estimate of 28Km? It blew out to a bigger day.  

We walked along the canal tow path to Llangollen Wharf. Lovely walk and good way to start the day. 

Tow Path on canal

We had decided to see the castle ruins Dinas Bran on our way to rejoining the official ODP; that all changed when we saw where the castle was - on top of a big hill.  We took the other alternative track and skirted around the hill. 

Dinas Bran castle

A while after rejoining the official path we came to a junction where we decided to walk over the canal aquaduct. This was great and did not add too much distance to our day. We maintained a good speed on the tow path. In hindsight we may have been able to follow the tow path from the hotel to the aquaduct (I need to check this in Google etc) which would have been a better option than the morning hill shock of the castle - unless of course if you are a stickler for following the acorn. 

Canal aquaduct

After the canal we headed back into fields and some road walking. We walked close to Chirk Castle (which Libby and Gail were visiting at the the time) and onto the small hamlet of Castle Mill. We stopped here for a quick 15 minute break and refuel before tackling a steep uphill road climb.  We were heading for a rest stop for drinks at a place marked on the guidebook maps as 'Oasis'. This place did not exist! The BnB was there but no refreshments - bugger. We had to plow on at speed to meet Libby and Gail at the pickup point. 

We went through quite a few lovely woods today and in the final few Km we entered a corridor through a beautiful woodland area. 

The Km were clicking over and we were wondering when the day would end.  The day had a final sting in it's tail with a nasty uphill road walk.  We were close to the pickup point when out of nowhere Gail appeared.  Gail and Libby had walked in to meet us - it was great to see them and to walk the remainder of the distance with them. 

We drove back to the Chain Bridge Hotel for a second and our final night there. Tomorrow we will be driven to where we finished today and walk an equivalent distance to today - it is a bit flatter at the end tomorrow.