As I’ve noted before when blogging about my rambles, the getting-there part is always taxing. We can divide the world into two kinds of travelers: the last-minute “it will all work out and I’ll make that flight without wasting time in an airport” kind, and the cautious “I’ll be there hours before my flight just in case, and will sit patiently at a gate people-watching rather than risk missing it” kind. I am the latter. I spend a lot of time waiting in airports, at train stations, for buses, you name it. I have the patience of the statue in the featured photo for the post (we’ll come back to him). This shapes other parts of my travel planning too. When I book the train to get from London to the start of a walk, I always radically overestimate the time it will take to get through customs and from the airport to the train station. As a result, I am intimately familiar with several of the major train stations in London.

This trip started with the worry about flight cancellations and delays, much reported in the news, hanging over me. United had already changed my return flight because they cancelled a flight on August 7. So I headed for the airport wondering how true the reports of ‘travel chaos’ were. I got lucky. My overnight flight was delayed by 45 minutes because a pilot’s flight from Springfield to Chicago was cancelled and he had to rent a car and drive up. But after that little hiccup, things went smoothly. Yes, I spent several hours in Paddington Station waiting for a train to Chepstow, the start of my first walk. But as a result, you get these arty photos of Paddington’s impressive architectural detail.

The train went right on time, and with a change at Gloucester with five minutes to spare (I couldn’t control the timing of the train change, and that’s for the best; I didn’t waste an hour in Gloucester’s dreary little train station).

I have two pieces of luggage: my backpack and a bag with enough clothes and whatnot to get me through three weeks. It weighs probably 35 pounds. As a result, the hardest part of the whole journey was the hike from the Chepstow train station to my first accommodation. Chepstow is a lovely town which has thrived first because of its location at a strategic point where the Wye River enters the estuary, making it a port town for all the commerce coming down the river over the centuries, and now as a tourist town because of its beauty and also the fact that it is the starting point for several popular walking trails and cycling routes.

It is also hilly. Check out the reverse view of our statuesque friend from above, and note the way the roof line of Chepstow’s High Street steps down with each building.

The train station is low down by the estuary. The Coach & Horses Inn, my stop, is high up the hill. So, imagine me walking through a lovely Saturday afternoon art fair up the High Street, wearing a backpack and loaded down with a bag that, in my stubborn refusal to buy newfangled wheeled luggage, has to be lugged with a shoulder strap. Much sweating ensued.

Chepstow’s history as a market town means that it was protected with walls, and some of the medieval wall survives. This archway is a very old entrance to the town.

After all that travel on an overnight flight, with only about three hours of sleep, I had a simple dinner in the pub, a few pints of cider, and crashed for the night in my room, which I’ve described to a friend as Ikea DIY with a hint of health and safety codes chic.

Two things loom over the next few days of hiking. First, my hike starts with 14.5 miles to Redbrook, which like many small towns has limited food offerings. In fact, from my research, it seemed clear that there are literally no dinner options, so my plan was to get a very early start and make it to the Boat Inn, right on the path at the edge of Redbrook, before their Sunday lunch service stops at 3pm.

The second thing looming is the massive heat wave moving across Europe and headed for the United Kingdom. Forecasts for southern Wales call for heat in the mid-80s on Sunday, and possibly 95 on Monday. The normal highs for this time of year are low to mid-70s. By Tuesday, things are supposed to get back to normal, but I am bracing for a hot introduction to my Wye Valley Walk.