Fancy a run around the Wye Valley, with my mate, Tye?

Tosh

This is my friend, Tye, I do my long-Saturday-runs (LSRs) with him:

He's lovely. Just look at that smile.

Anyway we did 17.5 miles today, nice and easy, up-and-over the Wye Valley, and I took a few pics along the way.

The first 5 miles are like this:

And this:

Tye likes to try and herd moving cars - even though he's very well trained - sometimes he can't be trusted; so we have to be careful when cars pass. He was a farm dog and the farmer was going to have him put down (shot), but he was taken on by a friend.

Then we hit my favourite part of the run, Offa's Dyke to the Devil's Pulpit:

Which looks like this:

And we follow it for about a mile till we hit this sign and take a sharp right up a steep - tough hill - that never seems to end:

And eventually we hit the Devil's Pulpit, which is the column of stone in the foreground overlooking the Wye Valley and Tintern Abbey. We're headed for the abbey via the bridge you can just see at the top of the photo:

I quite like the bridge (this is the one you can see from the distance):

This is the view from the bridge:

And this is Tintern Abbey close up. From here it's back uphill over the other side of the valley; probably done about 9 miles by here:

This is the view from the other side of the valley towards the bridge:

And shortly after taking that photo we pass an old abandoned church, in quite an eerie location:

And shortly after that we pass a Buddhist type statue:

Eventually we hit this road which keeps on going uphill for about a mile; just a thigh-sapping gentle incline that's steep in places (if you notice the road is a lot lower than the ground either side. I suspect this path was worn down from possibly thousands of years of human and animal traffic, then was covered with tarmacadam around the 1950s):

Eventually this path took us to St Arvans, and past Chepstow Race Course:

Then past Chepstow Castle and home:

Once home, before the mud has dried on my legs, I've knocked up a plate of fried noodles with the added bonus of Mr Postman having delivered a new pair of fell running shoes (notice the tread - can't wait to try them on some really muddy stuff):

Well, I hope I haven't bored you too much. I just thought I'd share one of my favourite runs; I love the history here. I never took any photos of ancient iron ore mines, or the field that used to contain a village that was wiped out by the Black Death, and all that's left is just lumps in the ground from the houses that were once there. And probably lots of other stuff.

Tye's mum said he slept for most of the afternoon too. Which is good.

Shoshin

Thanks @Tosh ...I love the ancient sites in the old country...It's nice to see how the other half live (Other half being the other side of the planet . ..

Hamsaka

Your mate Tye looks like a border collie. From the brief time I had a border collie in my life, 17.5 mile runs knock off about 10% of the total daily energy used otherwise to chew, chase, bark and get into trouble Tye looks ready to do it again, now! ETA: meant to crow about the pics. Stunning and inspiring country side over there!

lobster

:clap: .

Thanks for sharing your run.

Rather foolishly I injured myself with running . . . a couple of years back, was hobbling along. However I was able to walk probably ten miles the other day. Injury gone. Phew.

It was an amazing walk down to the Thames and along . . . people running, cycling, walking, working, living, kayaking, exercising dogs, taking photos, listening to music, eating, flying . . . went past the local heliport etc.

Thanks again.

mmo

It is really cool @Tosh‌. And Tye rocks.

federica

Offa's Dyke, Tintern abbey and Chepstow Castle.

When our lauded and respected founder, Brian, went on Honeymoon round Europe, he visited many monuments, world-wide, of important historic significance. he stated the one thing he found it difficult (as an American) to get his head round, was the sheer age of some places, and their dates of origin, because America as 'we know it', is a relatively "young" nation.

I never cease to marvel at such monuments, and the sheer, dedicated manpower required to build them.... Thank you for the 'run' @Tosh. Really wonderful.