Tuesday 16 February 2016

Walk #3 Caer Caradoc, Shropshire

Caer Caradoc
Walk 12 out of 100
Walk #3 - Caer Caradoc
Shropshire 

Overall Rating - 


Suggested Difficulty - Moderate
My Difficulty Rating - 

Suggested Time - 3h 30m
Actual Time Taken - 4h 15m

Distance in book - 12.3km
Map my walk Distance - 17.56km
Church Stretton Station, start/finish
I'm back! It feels pretty good to have finally done a walk after 5 months of PGCE work, apparently teachers don't work 9-3 and spend the rest of the time drinking tea, who knew! 

So for my first outing in nearly 6 months I chose to head somewhere relatively close to home, Shropshire. 




I've given this one a 4 star, the weather being A-mazing certainly helped. Plenty of nice views, a few small climbs and a good variety of scenery. My main complaint would be that the timing and distance in the book were quite inaccurate so I nearly ended up missing my Nan's 80th party, oops!






Jiminy in front of Caer Caradoc
It was quite easy to park up at Church Stretton station for free. I would recommend exploring the little historic town after/before the walk if you get chance. 
This route was fairly easy to follow except for a section up through the batch valleys where the path became a little harder to distinguish and I just ended up following the stream all the way to the top. The rest of the walk is a mixture of roads, stone paths, fields and access land.  



Cader Idris on the horizon covered in snow

Jiminy on top of Caer Caradoc






After climbing Caer Caradoc and walking through All Stretton, the second half of the walk consists of walks through picturesque valleys. The streams and waterfalls in this remote area were a treat. As you can see here, the cold weather had made some grassy ice lollies! 


Carding Mill Valley
I would highly recommend this walk as the views are great and it has quite a bit of variety; starting in the town, climbing up mountains and then exploring beautiful valleys. Just make sure you give yourself enough time to complete the walk (unlike me!) or just do one of the shorter walks in Carding Mill Valley.

Thanks for reading,  

Stef.


And follow me on Twitter @stefanvilla1991