Around Great Hampden - with a book

Our walks in the Chilterns are usually made up by Rosie by looking at a map, often involving a pub half way around. As we've been doing this for more than 25 years, we've covered most of the ground near to us.  I was therefore surprised when Rosie  bought a book of Adventurous Pub Walks in the Chilterns .

As the clocks went back last night, we woke up early and had time to tackle one of those walks today. It was between 9 and 10 , and it took us places we'd never been before - namely Great and Little Hampden. We passed Hampden Hall seat of the 17th Century parliamentarian John Hampden who was a leader of the revolt against tax demands made by Charles I. Our early start had complications though - the pub on the route (The Pink and Lily) had not yet opened when we passed, so we had lunch at home.

The route itself was perfect for autumn - through plenty of woods. However, the sky was grey and we had some drizzle, so photography conditions weren't great.

The John Hampden monument

Spindle berry

Rose

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The Marlow Bottom Round - backwards

Rosie had done the three mile walk up and down the valley three times in the week, and me twice, so we were relieved that our Saturday morning visits to the scales showed some progress towards 'normal' weight. However, we realised that we had enough time before Saturday's Bottom Line rehearsal to do a short local walk. So we decided to do 'The Marlow Bottom Round' (the route taken by the Burford School charity walks) from the house. To make a change, we  did the road section first.

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More autumn sunshine - Hughenden Manor and Naphill Common

After our first visit to the scales since our holiday, it was clear that we need to do plenty of walking in before the Xmas excesses. Luckily, Saturday was a lovely sunny day so were we able to to fit in quite a few miles on this lovely route, starting from Hughenden Church.
Unusually, this walk included no pub visit - we even by-passed the tea room at Hughenden Manor.
The map below was traced by Rosie because I forgot to take my phone on the walk.

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Autumn sunshine after a week's excess

We joined David and Alison for this walk around the area of the 1963 Great Train Robbery. After our week in an all-inclusive resort in Turkey, we certainly needed some exercise so we were pleased to have a sunny day to burn a few calories. However, we did stop for lunch (an my first proper beer for a week) at the excellent Stag at Mentmore. We both chose dishes that included chips (mine by accident) - so much for losing some of that holiday weight. Back on the scales for the bad news next week.

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