MOST girlfriends want to be pampered like a princess on their birthday. Not mine. No, mine wanted to grind our legs down to stumps by walking 47 miles across Wales!
The Rotary Across Wales Walk, held on Saturday, June 22, has been jointly organised by the Rotary Clubs of Newtown, Llanidloes and Machynlleth since 2005.
Carrying its 450+ participants along a beautiful but brutal route across Powys, we began under cover of darkness in Machynlleth, Wales’ historic capital, at 2.20am, and finished, almost in darkness again, in the border town of Montgomery, completing the crusade in just shy of 16-and-a-half hours.
My partner, Michelle, and I love walking, running and mountain biking, and adore our glorious surroundings, so months ago she signed us up.
We were on the reserve list for ages, but finally got a place a few weeks ago – the perfect birthday present, with her special day falling on the day of the walk itself.
It’s a good job we love hills, as the first leg is a gruelling 16-mile trek to Staylittle. It packs in most of the event’s 6,000+ feet of elevation, including the arduous climb up to Glaslyn, the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust's biggest nature reserve, and an integral part of the Cambrian Mountains.
After the breakfast stop there’s a merciful switch to tarmac, meandering through Trefeglwys and Caersws (where one lady literally chased us across her front garden to hand us some sweets), before reaching the lunch stop in Aberhafesp.
After that, there’s 11 miles to go, which doesn’t sound an awful lot, but it starts with a big climb before descending into Newtown.
This, for me, was the toughest part of the day. The amble to Abermule along the Montgomery Canal seemed to go on forever and even when we got to the final, much-needed rest stop, six more miles to Montgomery seemed insurmountable.
However, the fact that much of the home straight was uphill actually gave us something to focus on, while praise and encouragement from nature observer and TV presenter Iolo Williams, clad in a red Welsh running vest and shorts, as we braced for the daunting climb out of Llandyssil, fired us onwards.
Ascending the Montgomery War Memorial seems so unnecessary after 40 miles, but the views atop it were spectacular as the sun and we descended.
After one more obstacle, a herd of cows, was overcome, it was the final descent to the finish in Montgomery, with the crowds out in force, which will live long in the memory. They even serenaded Chelle with ‘happy birthday’.
I cried, swore profusely, complained, sweated buckets and struggled. But, there were lots of laughs too. We persevered and I was immensely proud of us both for crossing that finish line.
A spectacular day completing a mammoth challenge, run exceptionally by the organisers.
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