Monwel two

Slow Way not verified yet. Verify Monwel here.

I really enjoyed this route. I got the bus to Montgomery from the train in Newtown, which was easy, and Montgomery is a lovely town to start from - I bought a hat in the brilliant old-school hardwear store because I'd left mine on the train and it was freezing, and stocked up for the day in the Spar.

This route takes you a km and a half out of town to the east to join Offa's Dyke, and I met a couple walking the dyke in sections, who I walked with for a while until the Slow Way took me off a road section just before Forden, and into the fields on a footpath that wasn't visible on the ground and went through fields of crops. They'd been harvested so it was muddy rather than impenetrable, but I reckon better to stick on the road - it's got a pavement and probably only takes 10 mins of striding to get to Forden, whereas the field route was slow. Although it did give me a pretty thicket in which to have a pee and a sandwich.

The second half of the route took me through wooded and steep ups and downs, to the east of Leighton, which was the adventure highlight of the route, and back on the dyke path for some of it.

Then I got stuck and had to ask for help - there's a place where the path has been moved but it's not clear on the ground. You'll come down into a small field that is someone's garden, and this route takes you around their house at roof height, and then down to their drive. DON'T GO THIS WAY - at the end of the road for a row of houses the last has locked their gate and you can't get back onto the path. Instead go back to the start of the garden field and look for a stile into the field above, from the south-east corner. Then it's easy to see the way across a series of fields down to the main road.

I was feeling ready to get there by then, but the last bit to Welshpool was arduous, through a couple of fields. It did all exist, but was muddy and hard-going in winter. And then when I was almost in the town, and the road has an easy pavement, the route took me off behind a Gypsy/Traveller camp, and between an very fragrant luxury pudding factory (!) and a sewage treatment site (!!). It felt like a detour at this point in the journey, and with an easy straight pavement as an alternative, but... would I have wanted to miss the puddings?

Into Welshpool over the railway bridge - I dashed to get to the finish line and then back in time for my train home. A very nice route that I would do again, with those amends.

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