Over a thousand years ago King Offa of Mercia (now part of England) ordered an earthen wall and ditch built to separate his kingdom from Wales. The general route of this dyke is now a 177 mile national trail that crosses between England and Wales. Yesterday we finished the hike by wading into the Irish Sea at the north end. We finished in Prestatyn—a place that sounds like a prescription drug with horrible side effects—but is a charming Welsh town. We completed about fifty percent of the path during the last few weeks.
The route yesterday was challenging, but not as brutal as the day before. As you can see from the pictures, the weather was great. We also saw alpacas or llamas (maybe one of you can identify which species it was), horses, and some unique breeds of sheep. The bodies of the llamas/aplacas had been recently sheared—but not their heads which were still shaggy. One of them looked to me more like a Doctor Seuss character.
Click on the path marker to the left or here to see Laurie’s final Relive of the Offa’s Dyke route.
Trip Update
This wraps up our hikes in Great Britain. In a few days Laurie and I head to Spain to hike the Camino Ingles and Trev and Kim return home. It has been a great adventure together.