Tiddington, Shabbington and the River Thame

We'd had a late night, and a few drinks, at David's party so Sunday started somewhat slowly and without a plan for a walk. Rosie suggested that we should venture into Oxfordshire and devised a route starting at Tiddington, close to junction 7 of the M40. This feels like quite a long way away, but it actually only took us 20 minutes to get there - much less time than some of the Chiltern walks we think of as close to home.

Most of the route was on one of the three local 'Promoted Routes': the Oxfordshire Way, The Thame (not Thames!) Valley Walk and the Bernwood Forest Trail, with a section at the start across a golf course. Although it stayed dry, the sun didn't come out. That was a shame because the blackthorn was in flower and would have looked lovely with some light on it!

The signage of first part on first part of the walk was poor. The Oxfordshire Way signs were hard to see, faded and, in one case, upside-down. What's more, some of the stiles were wobbly and others very high. Both the signage and the stiles improved when we entered Buckinghamshire.

As Shabbington (great name!), we took a slight detour to avoid a field of cows with calves and soon were walking alongside the River Thame on way back to the car.

We were home by around 1:30 for a delicious lunch of sausages (left over from Friday evening) with mustard on spelt bread, followed by  leftover chocolate brownies that I'd made for Saturday's party.

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Rickmansworth to Xerox along the Grand Union canal

Linear walks take a fair amount of planning, not least because they usually involve some public transport. Rosie has a particular interest in the Colne Valley because the proposed HS2 route cuts across it on a viaduct in the stretch between Rickmansworth and Uxbridge. As the Xerox Uxbridge office (with free car parking) is alongside the Grand Union canal that runs between the two towns, and there's a hourly bus service to Rickmansworth, we had ourselves a plan.

We happened to wake very early, so were able to get to Xerox, put our boots on (new ones in my case) and walked to the bus stop in plenty of time for the 8:32 bus. It was sunny, but still cold, so we weren't too impressed that the bus was 15 minutes late. We eventually got off the bus one stop too early, and almost immediately came across one of Alan's colleagues out for his morning run.

It was a lovely mid-March morning - bright and sunny, but a bit chilly, with pale green buds forming on the canal-side trees. It's a shame that we had to wait until mid-April for it!

It wasn't too far to get to the start of the planned walk at Rickmansworth Aquadrome - a local nature reserve formed around two lakes. These lakes were formed by the extraction of gravel for the original Wembley Stadium. We hadn't been aware of this place before, but would certainly have taken the boys they when they were young if we had.

We were soon at the Grand Union Canal, and remained on it for the rest of the walk. Like parts of the Kennet and Avon, many of the moorings are occupied by residential boats. These seem to be gathered in groups, forming small alternative communities. In some of these, narrow gardens have been planted  on the other side of the towpath.

A fair amount of flora was in evidence, notably Butterbur, Marsh Marigold and Ladies Smock. There were plenty of birds too. In particular, we could hear a cuckoo very clearly. There was also a very tame heron that almost seemed to pose for photos.

We made very good progress (and saw relatively few anti-HS2 signs), and were back in the Xerox car park by around 11:45.

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Spring at last - Reading to Shiplake

The sun came out as predicted on Sunday. Rather than re-tread familiar Chiltern paths, we drove to Shiplake  (South of Henley), took the bus to Reading and walked the seven or so miles back to the car.

The start of the walk repeated the start of one of our Kennet and Avon walks - along the Thames-side park to the start of the canal. We crossed the canal and carried on along the Thames. The number of cyclists and dog walkers reduced as we got further from Reading.

We got to Sonning Lock quicker than we expected. I don't think it's racist to remark that I've never seen a rastafarian lock-keeper before. We stopped for a snack on the other side of Sonning Bridge and to the compulsory photo.

Not long after re-starting, we reached a wooded section just before Shiplake College boathouse that was very muddy underfoot. A few years ago, we turned back here when walking in the other direction because of flooding.

It is further from there to Shiplake village then you'd think, with the Thames Path swinging away from the river, emerging near the station, not far from the car.

Here's hoping for more sunny weekend days!

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Still cold - snowdrops at Radnage

I think we've had enough winter now. We had light snow on an overcast Saturday, brightened up only by England's win over France at rugby, so postponed our planned walk to Sunday in the hope of better weather. There was less snow on Sunday, but it was still cold, so we donned many layers (that well-known Greek king*). This was the first outing for my new 'Fig Leaves' thermal long johns (not a brand usually associated with such functional wear), and jolly warm they were too. Highly recommended, especially when bought half-price with the weekly Ocado grocery order. I'm not making this up by the way.


Our target was Radnage churchyard to see more snowdrops. We parked at The Three Horsehoes at Bennett End. Our band, The Bottom Line, has played at their beer festival in the summer. We were surprised to find that the 'stage', a few pallets nailed together, was still in place in the field.

We headed west on a level track, passing a group of men who were assembling their metal detectors, not, as I'd assumed, assembling their guns for a shoot. The northerly leg on the route was the most strenuous one, involving two steepish ascents. It was then a simple, but somewhat muddy, walk eastwards along an enclosed path, and then a track to Town End, from where we detoured to Radnage church to take some snowdrop photos in the chuchyard.

As we'd parked in the pub car park, we needed to pop in for a drink by the open fire. The fire was rather more welcoming than the staff. But the beer was good.




* Menelaus - joke courtesy of Eddie Izzard

Boots back on at last for some snowdrops

Apart from a walk to the cinema in the snow, we'd not walked in 2013 so we were pleased that Saturday was sunny. It seemed likely that there would be snowdrops around, so we chose a route that took in Swyncombe Church - known as a reliable site for snowdrops. We'd had a nice lunch at The Crown at Nuffield recently, so started from there.

Although it was sunny, there was an icy wind, so Rosie put her cagoule on at the car, so she was wearing all the clothes she'd brought. I decided that my fleece with a scarf and hat would be enough. The start of the walk was downhill on a wooded path on The Ridgeway. Once we got to the bottom of the incline, I realised that I'd left the rucksack in the car. It only contained my cagoule and our drink so, as it rain didn't seem likely, we carried on without it.

We saw a few snowdrops near the path on the way, but I wasn't prepared for the display at Syncombe Church - not only were there lots of snowdrops, but plenty of aconites too. And all in a lovely setting.

We had a couple of options for the route back, and choose the shorter one - The Crown was advertising a 'roaring log fire' when we set off, and that was quite a temptation. The fire, the BLT club sandwich and the Brakspears were all very welcome.


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The final frontier and more mud: Dunstable Downs

The final walk of Adventurous Pub Walks in the Chilterns was around Dunstable Downs. We made an early start, so we parked at  the pub in Totternhoe with the aim of returning there for lunch. This meant that the walk started with a steepish climb up Totternhoe Knolls, apparently the site of a motte and bailey castle, and along a path descending a ridge.

This reached a disused railway that once joined Dunstable to the main line at Leighton Buzzard. This rose slightly and entered a wooded area, in which the instructions told us to leave the railway path just after it passed over a bridge. This involved a scramble down a steep bank to join an almost-parallel path. Some distance along that path, we saw a second bridge on the path above with an easy route down. Clearly, we had come off the railway path too soon. The route instruction were not so good in this case.

This was only a minor diversion, but  was followed by a more significant one. As you can see from the track below, we got a bit lost! However, with a little help from google, we got back on track and headed for the outskirts of Dunstable.

We then climbed a steep slope to reach the downs. The path took us along the escarpment, with plenty of gliders from London Gliding Club on view. We resisted the temptations of the cafe at the NT visitor centre, and followed the very distinctive waymarks, with glass insets, to the car park near the B4540, .

The route took us back along the base of the escarpment on a path less flat, and very much more muddy than we had hoped. This skirted the site of the gliding club and under their landing path.

The way to Totternhoe was a bit of a cross-country trudge on muddy paths, including one across a recently ploughed field. Much of the field was on our boots by the time we got back to the car. Unfortunately, the pub was fully booked for lunch and wasn't offering sandwiches, so we settled for a drink and a packet of crisps, followed by an emergency sandwich picked up from a garage.

It's a shame that the last walk in the book wasn't a brilliant experience. This walk would certainly have been much nicer in late spring when the downland flowers were out (and there would be less mud).

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A muddy towpath and a great hot chocolate

Most of the paths in the Marlow area are very familiar to us, but we're on a mission to complete Adventurous Pub Walks in the Chilterns, and there's a walk from Marlow to Medmenham and back, so off we went despite the recent rain.

The book starts the walk from Marlow, but the car parks are limited to four hours. We weren't sure we'd have time for the walk and a lunch stop, so we parked at Bovingdon Green and headed for Homefield Wood, then South to Medmenham, emerging at the Dog & Badger.

The route was supposed to take us across the fields between the Marlow-Henley road  and the river. However, previous experience told us that those fields get very sodden after rain, so we walked along the roadside verge to the join the path as it heads back to the river at Danesfield. The path skirts round the hotel grounds, which are surrounded by a fence more suitable for a prison. Are they trying to keep people out, or to keep the guests in? I'm not keen on this hotel - I was once there with a group from work that included an Italian in the smartest jeans you can imagine (he looked much smarter than most of looked in suits), and we weren't allowed to eat in the restaurant because of the jeans.

We were then faced with the choice of a short cut back along a path into Marlow, or the proper route along the towpath. We chose the towpath (passing Bisham Abbey), which turned into something of an adventure on account of the mud and puddles. We were lucky to avoid slipping over.

Our lunch stop was at the 'Cafe in the Park' in Higginson Park, which is lovely. Perhaps the best hot chocolate I've ever had.

The route back to the car through Marlow was via paths we didn't know existed, one of which went alongside some allotments, also protected by a prison fence.

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