Two Moels and a Hillfort. . .

After two weekends of walking in the pouring rain, it was glorious to be out on dry paths with a bit of sun warming up your body.  The Liverpud and I are planning to do the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge in June (roughly 24 miles and three mountains in 12 hours) so yesterday we thought we'd better get started on our training.

We headed to the Clwydian Range in Wales, just an hour's drive from Liverpool, and an area we just never get tired of walking in.  There's a reason that the daffodil is one of the symbols of Wales - they are everywhere, blooming profusely on the sides of the roads.

The lambs were certainly enjoying the sunshine.

Crossing through several fields, we made our way towards our first ascent of Moel Fama and the remains of the Jubilee Tower built in varying stages in the 19th century (it's just a bit beyond the top of this photo)  I've climbed this moel (bare hill in Welsh) several times, but always from a different side so it was nice to tackle a new path.

No time to stop though - today was all about picking up the pace, pushing ourselves up those elevations and getting some mileage under our legs.  A little further along the path, which is the northern part of Offa's Dyke, the long-distance walk along the border of England and Wales, and we could see our next hilly challenge, Moel Arthur.

Up and over and looking back.  You can see the tip of the tower on Moel Fama in the distance.  And yes, that white bit is snow, fortunately the only patch that we encountered.

Next up was the hillfort of Penycloddiau, in use during the Bronze and Iron Age.

The views in every direction are stunning and you can see for miles and miles.  The sea is in front of you, the rest of Wales unfolds to your left . . .

. . . and the view looking back at where we've been is always extremely satisfactory.

We made our way back to Loggerheads where we'd parked the car, via a country lane, the village of Cilcain, and the Leete path.  Just under six hours and 15.5 miles covered.  We're not quite ready for the Peak challenge - we were both fairly knackered and sore - but we'll get there.  And at least we were dry.