Day 57 - Knighton to Brompton Crossroads/Montgomery

Ben and Gary travel via Newport and John joins them at Hereford for the rest of the journey to Ludlow and then, courtesy of Colin/Carwyn (actually Owen) to the George and Dragon in Knighton. Subject to an earlier heavy shower in Newport, there's no evidence of the tail end of ex-hurricane Bertha - a breezy day, but dry and generally bright. We set off from the George and Dragon just before opening time, so no temptation to delay what could be a testing 15+ miles to Brompton Crossroads (see Guide's description - day 56 above). Things start with a longish climb to the top of Panpunton Hill and, soon afterwards, a "cross-track error" when we don't take heed of the Guide's warning that the "path is easy to miss" and duly miss a downward track through some gorse towards a white cottage. When realisation dawns, we decide not to retrace our steps and, instead, reach the cottage by ploughing downhill through some of the waist high local flora. We pass Garbett Hall - our originally proposed end point on day 56 - after 90 minutes or so walking, and continue around Llanfair Hill to Springhill. Not long afterwards, we see the Offa's Dyke midpoint signpost showing that we are 88.5 miles from both Sedbury Cliffs and Prestatyn. This is also around the start of the series of short but steep climbs and descents which will make our progress to Brompton Crossroads - and the Blue Bell Inn - a tad slower than would otherwise be the case. We eventually emerge through the arched gateway of Mellington Hall and the short road to the Blue Bell at about 5:50 - conveniently close to opening time. However, even after phoning the Dragon Hotel in Montgomery where we're staying to ask them to arrange for a cab to collect us by 6:30, we still need to alert the landlady to our presence before the doors of the pub are opened. It transpires that she has been in charge of the establishment since 1966 but, despite her taking a little bit of time to get our drinks, and the cab arriving closer to 6:20 than 6:30, there's time and inclination to get through a couple of ciders before we leave. The cab has, in fact, come from Welshpool - the Hotel's usual local cabbie (Colin Montgomery??!!) being unavailable due to a recent stroke. As a result, although it's a mere 3 miles from the pub to Montgomery, we're charged the princely sum of £15 for the journey. Our earlier swift two ciders dissuade us from having another immediately after check-in. Instead, after freshening up and changing, we move straight to glasses of wine before supper - in the company of an Australian couple who now live in Gloucestershire and who are walking the Dyke from north to south. We exchange a few experiences of our respective routes and overnight stops and, given that the couple finished their day to the north of Montgomery, we half anticipate that our paths will cross early tomorrow. We restrict supper to just a very substantial main course - plus a bottle of red - after which Ben retires leaving John and Gary to have a double and single sticky respectively whilst trying to arrange a cab for tomorrow morning. The guy behind the bar says he'll see what he can do.......