River Wye and Wye Valley Walk: Hay - Merbach

Day 6: Hay - Merbach - Staunton

Next morning we had a very colourful, magnificent sunrise and Hay looked very mystical as it was covered in a groundy mist. After breakfast we broke up our camp, had morning coffees in "The Granary" in town, and after that started walking to Staunton.
We had split up in two groups and after walking an hour or more Terence and I found out that we had lost our path and were going in a south direction climbing the early slopes of the Black Mountains. We had to go back to Hay to get the right path again and we only caught up with the others after a few hours marching.

Nesting birds have occupied a country mailbox.

At Merbach hill around lunchtime, we made the choice to cross that hill instead of going all the way around it. After a rest, just before the climb, we more or less separately crossed Merbach hill, which was quite a dangerous thing to do after all. Firstly, the slopes were quite steep and secondly, they were very muddy and slippery. With our rucksacks on our backs it would have been easy to break an arm or a leg when falling down.

After all, we all made it in one piece and we met in a pub on the east side of the hill one after the other. First Terence was there, then me and after a while Sam & Daz were there as well. The owner of the pub was kind enough to stay open that strange afternoon and served us hot coffees, teas and some small food. We found out that between that hill and Hereford there was no camping for us to stay, and as Hereford was another day marching away we were in some trouble. After some phonecalls we were offered a camping place in the garden at the rear of a pub in Staunton.

In two and a half hours we walked to that place and were able to put up our tents just before a new cloudburst. That night we were very comfortable having dinner, drinks and talks in that pub in Staunton. Remember, Staunton is just another very tiny little place being right in the middle of nowhere, but we slept wonderfully there.