03/08/2026
A word from our director, John, on walking the 177 mile Offa’s D**e National Trail:
“This was the first time I have walked a long distance trail before. I have completed endurance events and strenuous mountain days in the past but I have never undertaken a long distance trail like this before, day after day. We decided to walk the trail in 10 days, which meant walking an average of over 17 miles per day, from the bottom of the Welsh/English border near Chepstow, to the north shore of Wales bordering the Irish sea.
What I enjoyed most about this walk was not just the challenge of the long distance journey, but how naturalistic and intrinsic it felt to always have a purpose at hand, to travel from A-B and to meet new people along the way. When you walk you get to see the landscape up close and personal, something you can't do by simply driving around. You get to retrace the footsteps of the past, interact with the local environment and engage within the local communities. That's what this trail felt like, we got to experience the past by walking 80 miles of the well preserved D**e built over 1200 years ago, experience the changing landscapes as we moved through rural Monmouthshire into the Welsh marches, through the Shropshire Hills, into the Vale of Montgomery and over the Clwydian Range. We got to experience the accent and dialect change and met locals with stories to share. We met others enjoying the D**e and made memories that we will keep forever.
Walking enables the mind to completely switch off, and through this walk I got to completely destress and my worries faded away. I thoroughly enjoyed my trip and getting to spend it with my good friends was the best way to spend a holiday and even better way to celebrate a birthday.
I would urge anyway to do Offa's D**e and even to undertake a long distance hike once in their lives.”
**e
