Day One - Mold to Cardiff by train.

Last night the lady from the B&B I'm staying in tonight phoned and asked why I was late arriving. I hope this isn't the shape of things to come. Thankfully she still has a vacancy tonight.

So... another summer, another long distance walk, once again in Wales. Not quite brave enough to venture out into the big, wide world yet. The Beacons Way was a no-brainer after last year's relatively low level coastal walk. I fancied some high level walking which dropped down each evening for accommodation, and it fitted the bill perfectly apart from the length, which at 100 miles is a bit short. So I decided to add 40 miles of the Cambrian Way at the beginning, and include a day off in Brecon so that Jen and Liz can meet me and marvel at how I've managed to lose so little weight after walking 100 miles. Which leads into the biggest choice I actually had to make: should I stick with last year's camping heavy, lots of muesli and home-cooked dried pasta option, or revert back to previous years' entirely B&B, full breakfast and pub meal glory? A compromise is the end result, though at 48 I no longer have the desire to camp in a quagmire in pouring rain, and will quite willingly sacrifice any principles I have and find the nearest five star hotel if necessary. The plan then is roughly four camps, two youth hostels (oh yes - a blast from the past!) and the rest in B&Bs. I have not brought a cooker this time to save weight (and nearly every day ends near a pub - what a coincidence!) but have two dried meals for the youth hostels and, of course, muesli. I don't like muesli, I like cornflakes, or even better crunchy nut cornflakes, or Frosties. Basically anything that started life as a cornflake. But when backpacking I always eat muesli because it's dense, like lead but easier to eat and more nutritional. Coupled with the freak of nature which is powdered milk it results in a functional but thoroughly unsatisfying breakfast.

A bit of information:
Total distance = 140 miles.
Time = 10.5 days walking plus a day off.
Average distance per day = 13.3333333333 (etc,etc) miles, which is quite enough carrying a 16kg pack.
Main towns / waypoints = Cardiff, Pontypool, Abergavenny, Black Mountains, Crickhowell, Brecon Beacons, bus to Brecon for a rest, The Black Mountain (not to be confused with the earlier Black Mountains, though I probably will), Bethlehem. Yes, I finish in Bethlehem, with a gift of muesli for the first newborn I see.

I'm currently on the train to Cardiff for a midday start and with 12 miles to walk today, though it looks like a pretty straightforward warm-up sort of day. Will do a post-straightforward warm-up sort of day post later. My phone signal should be ok for a couple of days before I disappear into the hills, after which it will probably be the usual story of no posts for three days then the three arrive all at once. Hopefully a couple of the B&Bs will have wi-fi, or at the very least a carrier pigeon.

The view from the train. Oh.