The difficult second day! We were joined for the long climb out of Hay up to Hay Bluff by Pete Roberts and his Akita dog, Nina. We are now at 703 metres, the highest point of the whole walk. heading along one of the vast ridges of the Black Mountains. Once you’re up here, the landscape changes dramatically. The path is shale and sometimes sand, very eroded, so you have to watch your feet. In some places we are walking on vast granite slabs, so that it feels like a granite corridor through the grass, with bulruishes coming up through the peat. Cotton grass, bilberries ansd heather are all emerging. This ridge is like walking along the back of a whale. Off to my right the five ridges of the Black Mountains like the fingers of a hand. To my left the ridge known as the Cat’s Back and further east and south the rolling landscape of Herefordshire. The path along this ridge is 12 miles long. I wonder if anyone will meet us in the Pandy Inn this evening? We’ll get there sometime between 5 and 6 o’clock. JJ