"Up the Dyke" Day 13 - July 25th 2002, Bodfari to Prestatyn "The Final Countdown"
Day	Date	Start	Finish	Approx. Miles	Hours	Accommodation
13	Thu. 25th July	Sodom (near Bodfari)	Prestatyn	~12 (with detour)	5	Chris & Jo Groves, Traeth Ganol, 41 Beach Rd West, Prestatyn, Denbighshire, LL19 7LL, Tel. 01745 853594

Click on any picture to go to a larger version or to go to the full set of Offa's Dyke photographs for this day.

"It's the final countdown" and that's exactly what today was, the culmination of thirteen days of sore feet, aching limbs and severely impaired mental function!

08:20: I'd had a touch of montezooma's revenge in the night and I was rather fearful that the whole roll of toilet paper I had in my rucksack wouldn't last me to Prestatyn. A charming thought so early in the morning. However, Gwladys's excellent breakfast and a dose of the bottle of kaolin and morphine she gave me, soon seemed to settle things down!

09:20: Left Fron Haul wearing shorts for the first time in a couple of days. Well, I had to look like a real walker when I met the public at Prestatyn, didn't I? The weather was once more dull, overcast but warm with some wind and the threat of rain. The walk started with retracing the 300 metres to the end of the previous day's progress and a further quite long walk up another minor road. I passed Susan and Jane, the Six Year Walkers who had left before me and seem to amble along at their own comfortable pace. After a while The Path goes along a grassy track between trees and hawthorn bushes, heading for the climb up Cefn Du. For some reason I noticed that there were a lot of birds and insects around and the whole place seemed alive. It was very nice. The insects (in particular, flies) were to cause much amusement later! I climbed Cefn Du, a very minor member of the Clwydian Hills, down via fields and back onto the road. The Not a Couple were just ahead, having just returned to The Path after their overnight stay and problems with blocked footpaths!

10:00: I caught up with Harry and Steph and it had been his birthday the previous day - "Happy Birthday, Harry!". We came off the road and down a small country lane, across fields and saw a crow chasing a buzzard away from its territory. I was surprised that a crow could successfully deal with a bird of prey such a buzzard, but it certainly did. Looking back there were good views across the Clwydian Hills we had walked yesterday but the low cloud prevented the view of Snowdon that we were supposed to get from here. Ahead, and looming closer with each footstep, was the seaside! We came down the SW side of Moel Maenefa through very thick (and prickly) gorse with a view of what I thought was St. Asaph Cathedral below but it turned out to be the much more prominent marble Roman Catholic church further on and close to the A55, supposedly built by Italian prisoners during World War II. Walking down a woody trail we met two ladies, not in the first flush of youth, with huge packs taking a well deserved break. They were walking a week on The Path, camping all the way and carrying everything, including their water (the Amazon Walkers). We stopped for a chat and wished them well. The older of the couple had walked the whole of the SW Coastal Path in stages, something that my sister-in-law, Caroline, and I are planning (but not for quite a few years)

Ahead we could hear the roar of the traffic on the A55 main road between Chester and Holyhead, effectively the N. Wales motorway in all but name. We walked alongside it for a while where the road was in a cutting and then reached a bridge, very reminiscent of Ernest Marples' Pennine Way crossing of the M62. It reminded me of a very charming e-mail I'd had a few months ago when I wasn't sure if it had been he or Barbara Castle who had ordered the bridge and had said so on my Pennine Way site.

The bridge was a bit different from the M62 version, with no sag in the middle and a very nice lamp post at each end. The traffic running beneath it was a stark reminder of what passes, and what we seem to accept, for civilisation and also that my re-entry to the rat race was only a few days away. We walked down the road from the bridge to the former A55 at the Smithy Arms in Rhuallt. We didn't even to look if it was open but passed by and up a path through woodland.

11:00: We carried on up the path and then a very steep climb up Mynydd-y-Cwm, the last of the Clwydian Hills (I think!) and past a farm with very noisy dogs (again). There were lots of flies about, most of them around our heads! In fact as we walked the swarm gathered more and more around Harry's bonce with dozens on his hat and he trying his hardest to unsuccessfully swat them away. Steph and I were in stitches as he walked along the road flourishing his map case and so was the guy in the farm van driving the other way! Eventually they left him as we walked down a field. There must have been something special about Harry to have attracted so many flies! We walked up the rocky slopes of Marian Ffrith (whoever she might have been) and from the top we could see the sea with its beach and, I guess, with Prestatyn just behind the hills ahead.

12:00: The excitement continued as we crossed the first stone stile of The Path and shortly after saw a Vietnamese pot bellied pig in a farm yard! After a second stone stile we saw some furry headed sheep and then a stone stile with a slate insert. The thrills were never ending and we even saw some short legged cows in the next field! We continued to descend past the Prestatyn Urban District Council Waterworks and the Marian Trout Hatchery (she and Trevor seemed to control everything in this area!) into a field with three very rusty fine abandoned cars and the biggest bull I had seen on the walk. He didn't have any cows so I was a bit afraid he might take a fancy to my well turned thighs. But fortunately he didn't have good taste! After crossing the A5151 I turned to the last page of the guide, into Prestatyn itself.

13:00: We took a diversion from The Path to have lunch at the top of the nearby Graig Fawr (a National Trust hill) and to allow Noelene and Harry's partner, Pat, to get the champagne ready at the finishing line! There were a few people up there including a guy flying an annoyingly load kite (yes, kites CAN be loud!) and a teenage girl being taken to the top with her parents - more intent on texting her mates with her disgust at being made to do something so uncool!

We walked along a track with shoulder high gorse and bracken with a high rock cliff opposite. And, just when I though the climbing was all over, Offa's Revenge - another steep uphill, taking us to the very top of the cliffs we had seen earlier. It was almost as if Offa was saying "I ain't finished with you yet"! The path flattened off and we met an older lady with a couple of young children intent on getting down to Meliden by walking over the sheer edge of the cliff. Harry advised them to take the slightly longer route along The Path. He's such a sensible chap!

14:00: We started the final downward track leading to the roads into Prestatyn. It was gentle at first but then more steep. The sea was getting closer and closer and I could see that the tide was in, "so not", Harry said, "so far to go for our paddle". We came off the track onto tarmaced road and along the increasingly busy roads to the promenade. We started walking down Fford-las and then the High Street and Bastion Road. We weren't used to all the traffic and people, who (of course) gave us admiring glances as we purposefully strode through the town (actually they ignored us altogether, which was very hurtful!). Harry stopped at the paper shop for his Daily Mail and just before the railway crossing we met his partner, Pat. Suddenly, the Tourist Information Centre, the end (and start for weirdos) with Noelene and her home made finishing line was in front of us and we crossed it, hands linked held high at 14:30. Noelene HAD got us some bubbly so we opened that and took photos before walking down to the beach and into the sea. The Not a Couple kept their boots on but I, as always, didn't want to get mine wet, so it was bare feet for me!

I remembered the stone that I'd picked up close to the start and threw it into the sea, then took one off the beach to keep as a souvenir with the second one from first day.

We were finished, it was all over and it had been GREAT! We went into the Tourist Information Centre expecting to be congratulated by the staff but the girl behind the counter treated us with the disdain we no doubt deserved! It was a bit like being at the end of the Pennine Way and telling an old lady about our walk for her to reply "that's nice, dear"! It meant a lot to us but nowt to anyone else, other than our partners.

Noelene and I went off to the small hotel just down the road (expensive and not as good as most of the B&Bs) and then to an art gallery in Llandudno! Later we met Harry, Pat and Steph at the Eagle and Child at Gwaenysgor just outside Prestatyn for a goodbye and celebration dinner. I hope that we'll keep in touch because they're really cool and organised (well, almost!) dudes.

Day 13 Impressions

The final day of such a walk is impossible to summarise. There's the feeling of triumph (and relief) at getting there, tinged with the sadness of saying goodbye to friends made en-route, including old Offa himself. The last day's walk had its highlights and we started to become a bit silly, almost demob happy what with Harry and his flies (nowt to do with his shorts!), noting strange things such as the first potbellied pig of the walk, the first stone stile, curly headed sheep, short legged cows, etc. We'd walked a bloody long way and only we and our nearest and dearest knew what it meant to us to walk onto the beach at Prestatyn and into the sea. I'd expected at least a "congratulations" from the lass in the Tourist Information Centre but I guess she just thought "three more sad old gits"! I loved the walk but it's a shame that it had to end in Prestatyn!

So where to next? MMMmmmm, methinks Scotland beckons!

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