Offas Dyke Day 14 Clwyd Gate to Sodom

Day 14 pictures
Our accommodation was certainly very comfortable and I think we all slept pretty well. The night had been pretty blowy, however there had been no rain.

Big hill

The forecast was not that great with the weather deteriorating as the week progressed.
Homemade muesli, homemade bread, homemade jams were the order for breakfast.
It was bleak and cold outside the warmth of the house, so extra clothing was in vogue.
Our start at Clwyd Gate was a slow easy climb, along with four other walkers, whom we soon passed.
One was wearing open toed sandals (with socks) which intrigued me, until she told me she had trouble with her old faithful boots.
Today we are truly in the Clwydian Hills and we follow them now until just about the end.
We decided that the Chlamydian Hills was a better name, as they were insidious, repetitive and caused irritation!
Like many parts of the Heysen Trail, they are a ridge line with the many ups and downs associated with that.
The first up, after the initial slow easy slope, is very steep 200 metre climb to Moel Fenlli , moel meaning an exposed place or hill.  Supposedly at the top is a hill fort, however it was not to be seen, probably as we circuited just off the top of the peak.
 It’s then an equally steep descent, losing most of any height gained, to have another 200 metre up, though this time over about 2 kilometres.

Pike of stone!

We are aiming for a structure on a far hill, that looks like a fort of some description, yet is in fact the Jubilee Tower built in 1810 to celebrate the jubilee of George III, however was never completed, and what was built was blown over in storm in the 1960’s.
It has great views and toposcopes for each view, however the wind has picked up by this time and it is decidedly cold, with the temperature about 11⁰C and wind chill of about 6⁰C.
We shelter out of the wind with another walker, on the eastern side until invaded by about ten young men with three leaders who look like they are on day release from somewhere.
We flee.
It’s then very steep down, then the ridge ups and downs, over Moel this and Moel that.
Lunch time looms as does another sharp drop and another climb. We are quite exposed and it isn’t a great spot to lunch so we press on down, down, down, through a carpark, then up around Moel Arthur hill fort, which is more obvious to the uninitiated archaeological eye than mine.
We finally chose a spot to lunch, just off the ridge and just out of the wind and enjoyed the spectacle of gliders circling overhead.
Lunch completed, we had done most of our hill walking, quickly losing our elevation, to rejoin the pastures of sheep on the way down to Bodfari and Sodom.
The path had one little surprise for us in that whilst Bodfari was on the flat, Sodom was up a hill, so our walking day finished with a sharp climb.
I had forgotten to take the details of our accommodation. All we knew was our hosts name was Gladys. It was going to be interesting, knocking on every door asking if they knew Gladys. 
As we were coming up the hill, through a field, we could see a figure over the hedgerow that looks like Sue. She could see us yet failed to acknowledge us, so we walked on towards the stile.

At the stile was...
Our accommodation is our own house. It is the owner’s brand new house as yet unoccupied. They had a double booking for their B and B, up the road, and so we were given their yet to be completed house-very comfortable.
Well tomorrow is our last day-the Irish Sea looms close.