Wednesday 9 August. Hereford to Fownhope.

We left our B&B in light rain about 9:45am and headed for the city centre. We planned to pick up The Wye Valley Way down by the footbridge over the Wye. We visited it yesterday. However when we reached the bronze hereford bull in the centre Shiel said we should go right, I said left. We went left, but I wasn't right! I realised this when I didn't recognize any of the shops in the street. We lost a bit of time in this faff but at least the rain was easing.

We eventually reached the footbridge over the Wye and followed the path beside the river and then up to the B4224. The road was very busy and our walk beside it was not pleasant. The only point of interest was that we passed a house where Edward Elgar used to live. Be careful when leaving the riverbank for the road, some of plastic waymark discs have been removed. It confused us for a few minutes.

Where the path leaves the road and heads cross country there is a traffic island in the road which makes crossing easier.

I had taken my wet weather gear off by this point as the rain had virtually stopped but the grass was very wet. As we walked beside the river I let Shiel go first so she could displace most of the moisture before I came past, as she was still wearing waterproof leggings.

There was plenty of Japanese knot weed on the river bank. The path wasn't too overgrown but one bridge crossing was.

Just before Hampton Bishop the path climed up onto a banking. It may have been an old rail bed or maybe it was just a stop bank for the river but it was easy walking with improved views.

We left the path just before Hampton Bishop to visit a pub, The Bunch of Carrots. but they had a wood fire in the room in the middle of summer! The sign below confused us as we returned to the path and we finished up taking a long footpath following the river, not The Way. NB. we only had coffee in the pub.

We rejoined the road at Mordiford and crossed a very narrow bridge into town. The route has been diverted aaway from the road and the pub (The Moon) since our OS map edition. We found this out after a bit of a search on leaving the pub.

The path now leaves town from the road heading South and climbs up through an orchard. For a while it looked like rain but we never got any. We didn't take the first road into Fownhope, but climbed up on a high track through a wood until we reached a second road. This was to give us an easier climb out of Fownhope the next morning.

We stayed at the Green Man. I took the pictute above when we were leaving next morning.