Thank you for Supporting Chrysalis: We are on our way

Day one; Basingwerk Abbey to St Asaph Cathedral

We are extremely indebted to The Reverend Chris Potter who with his wife Jenny made a special effort to see us off on our way. Dave, myself our wives Bobby and Helen were especially touched by the thoughtful and inspiring service conducted by Chris, as I will reveal shortly we had good cause to draw on his words of praise and encouragement during our journey from Basingwerk Abbey to St Asaph Cathedral. Thanks also to Diane, Debbie and Neil who also helped to give us a wonderful send off.

With the words of wisdom and encouragement of Chris ringing in our ears we set off at around 09.00am Within a few minutes we began our climb from St Winefred’s well towards Carmel and hoping this would not set a president for the day we soon realised we had missed a way mark and had wandered half a mile from the Pilgrims Way. Fortunately we were soon back on track but had added an extra mile to our journey. Not long after 11.00am we arrived at Pantasaph unfortunately the tea room was not open but we enjoyed a procession taking mass. On through Lloc we soon were taking in the view from Pharo Tower dating back to Roman times witnessing a wonderful feature of the wind on long grass as it appeared to be sea of green with rolling waves. We spent a while studying the stone feature of Maen Achwyfan. Feeling suitably inspired we walked through to Gop Hill via Trelawnyd. The next stage was quite difficult with the sun beating down and wading through knee high grass and unfortunately Dave mislaid his walking stick when stopping to take a photograph, however our spirits were again lifted on our way through to Trmeirchion when paying a visit to St Bueno’s College a stunning building in wonderful surrounds enjoying panoramic views through to Snowdonia and the Irish sea. The final few miles were very enjoyable as we fixed our sights on the tower of St Asaph Cathedral. We arrived at 8.00pm and were delighted to find Helen waiting to take us home for tea.

It has been quite a tough first day perhaps more testing than we had expected given the nice weather. Knowing how many family and friends were supporting us is motivation enough to keep going but the pleasure gained from seeing hares, herons, falcons some friendly cows, skitty horses, playful lambs and the comaradarie of Dave has made it a special day. The hedgerows are especially buoyant with colour and insect activity and after a good night’s sleep we’re looking forward to tomorrow’s stage which is just under 18miles St Asaph to Gwytheryn.

As the week progresses I’ll endeavour to add more photographs but hope the two attached will suffice for now!

Thank you for reading and support and I’ll try to get tomorrow post up a little earlier.