Heading West

Time had come to leave the shadow of the Malvern Hills and head west; traveling through the very pretty town of Ledbury we continued west to Hereford for another stop for provisions (barbecue weather again!) and fill up with diesel before pressing on. Unfortunately we found Hereford's supermarkets to be without petrol stations so decided to continue towards our destination of Builth Wells stopping somewhere along the way for a bit of lunch.

Another 30 mins on and we decide to detour into Hay-on-Wye - somewhere I had heard about due to the Hay Festival that takes part every year there.

After a quick 'campervan-lunch' consisting of cold meats, bread and cheese (simple but so good) we went for a wander around town.

Hay-on-Wye is another very pretty market town, uncommercialised and absolutely littered with book and antique shops.

Hay Castle is home to the world's first honesty bookshop and Europe's largest secondhand bookstore, the whole place is dotted with covered, outdoor shelving.

After an hour or so's browsing we get back in the van for the evening's destination; Builth Wells - a small welsh market town home to many events at the Royal Showground - unfortunately nothing was taking place during our visit (the Tour of Britain was due through the next day but we'd already be on our way) and on the whole, there didn't seem too much to do in the town itself although the surrounding hills look prime for walking and biking.

We pitched up for the evening on the very friendly White House Campsite right next to the river Wye that we had followed and criss-crossed on our journey up the valley.

It would have been nice to pitch nearer the water's edge, but the strong winds forced us to tuck into the corner. A great site that I would use again - we almost had the place to ourselves. Another barbecue and an early night were ahead of us before the real scenic journey into the heart of Wales which was to follow...