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When? Started: 1993 Who? Started with staff and friends from U H S, Chester. Organiser: Martyn Harris We walk every Wednesday and Saturdays, New Years day and May Day. How many walk? Walks take place as long as there are at least 2 wanting to walk on that day. More walk on a Wednesday than on a Saturday. Most ever: 29. Current group size walking: 2-10 in mid-week and 2-4 on Saturday. Where do we walk? Saturday: Anywhere in North and Mid-Wales, Peak District, Shropshire and the Long Mynd and as far North as the Trough of Bowland. Thursday: Anywhere within about 40 miles of Chester. Type of walk: Distance: 6 – 14 miles (but usually under 10 miles). Climb: up to 4000’ (but usually very much less!). People involved on walks in 2020:- Martyn Harris, Fran Murphy, Sue and Michel Pelissier, Mike Dodd, David Savage, Wendy Peers, Celia de Mengle, Wendy and Ian Peers, Roger Smith, Paul Collinson, Ed Meads, Nigel and Elaine Taylor, Celia de Mengle, Sue Pearson.

Thursday 22 October 2015

Moel Arthur and Penycloddiau 22nd October 2015

At the top of Moel Arthur.
Dave Evan's dream home almost complete, unfortunately not by him.
The view from our lunch spot - chosen by the advance party!
Heading up the Northern slope of Penycloddiau, but who's that in front?
On top of Penycloddiau.
"It's less than it was on Moel Arthur!"
The second glider of the day - over Penycloddiau.
Moel Arthur from the Southern slopes of Penycloddiau.
Walk stats: Distance:7.9 miles. Climb: 1678' (Probably a little less than this wind assisted GPS reading).
Time: 4 hours 23 minutes. On the move walking average: 2.3 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.8 m.p.h.
Group: Martyn, Annie, David S., Nigel and Phil.
This looked like being a good day for walking with no rain in the forecast and temperatures around 11 Celsius but with a wind chill making it feel like 6 Celsius. The first time for months I put my waterproof jacket on and kept it on for all of the walk, I should have removed it for the last mile or so had I been bothered to do so!
 This proved to be the case and our steep ascent up the Northern side of Moel Arthur  was somewhat wind assisted. David measured the wind speed on the top of Moel Arthur it it was about 27 m.p.h., gusting to about 40 m.p.h. The wind was certainly strong enough to make hats difficult to wear and handkerchiefs needed to be firmly gripped!
 We decided or should it be I decided that we would take the path contouring around Moel Arthur, hoping that it would be relatively sheltered and for much of the time it was. 
 Towards the end of this section we came across Dave Evans's unusual designed property, now almost competed by its new owners. It caused much discussion, but we were all intrigued as to what it would look like inside. It certainly had a superb outside patio that looked down the valley towards Vale of Clwyd. 
 However as we continued to contour around Penycloddiau, some of the path became exposed to the strong and cool North westerly winds but at the same time gave us good near distant views. A sort of mist/cloud prevented the high peaks of Snowdonia from being in view.
 Lunch was taken at the last available inlet by the land mark water tank as it gave us much needed shelter from the wind.
 It was decided by the leaders of the pack to take the path on the West side of Offa's Dyke Path and one that included a longer section of the ridge to Penycloddiau It was along this section that we saw a couple of Ravens, a bonus as it was too windy for most birds today.
 Despite it being windy we did see two gliders circling around, one over Moel Arthur in the morning and one over Penycloddiau in the afternoon.
 Birds seen or heard today included: Common kestrel, Raven, Meadow pipit and Common buzzard.
 Overall a good walk, to be repeated maybe more than once every year.
 The pace setters didn't realise that they were meant to aim for us to get back to the car at about 14-45, so we went to the Britannia Inn at Pentre Halkyn for our celebratory drink. As usual for the Brit we had a warm welcome from the landlords as well as the roaring fire. As Nigel isn't able to join us very often, it was a good job he enjoys a pint of Lees bitter in perfect condition as it was today and invariably is at this hostelry.

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