The Stonor Valley in the sunshine

Alison had bought the Adventurous Pub Walks in the Chilterns book for David as an anniversary present so we had two copies for this walk. As the book says, at around seven miles, this walk around the Stonor Valley is one of its shortest, but it made up for it with ascents and descents.

Although we'd had a rain shower when driving to the start, we had glorious sunshine for most of the walk enabling us to make the most of the typical Chiltern views, with plenty of Red Kites on show.

Nice soup/sandwich lunch at The Crown at Pishill. Great to see a good selection of beers on draught: Rebellion, Brakspear and West Berkshire Brewery. Even better to sample a couple of excellent pints from WBB (the first one must have evaporated).

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A new route in the Hambleden Valley

Another walk from our new book that took us on unfamiliar paths in a very familiar area. It started at Hambleden, where we were surprised to see that the Stag & Huntsman closed for refurbishment and covered in scaffolding

After a later than usual and misty start, the sun came out to reveal lovely views through the trees over the valley.

We had a late lunch at The Frog at Skirmett (Skirmett's The Frog - geddit). It took over half an hour to bring us a couple of baguettes, so it was even later than it might have been. The baguettes were large and good, which is what you'd expect for £6.95 each. Well kept Rebellion.

Frieth

Skirmett

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Parakeets and fungi at Burnham Beeches

At this time of year, we usually walk from Littleworth Common to Burnham Beeches using a route of that Rosie devised.. This year we took a longer route from our new book. At over 9 miles, this was longer and took more advantage of the maze of paths amongst the trees.

Not only did we see a some interesting fungi but, near the start of the walk, there were lots of green parakeets.


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Fingest, Ibstone and Turville with autumn colour and three pubs

This was another walk from our new book that covered a lot of familiar ground, but joined it together nicely for this walk with David and Alison. It had the extra advantage of having three pubs on the route.

With our fairly early start, we were too early for the Fox at Ibstone, but only just in time to get a table (as long as we were finished in 45 minutes!) at The Bull & Butcher at Turville. Failing that, we'd have settled for The Chequers at Fingest.

After a 'wish I'd brought a scarf'  start, it brightened up for Rosie to take some nice autumn photos.

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Another Saturday morning stroll from home - the A404 round

No weight loss for either of us this week, despite plenty of walking and sensible eating. Boo.

We're planing a longer walk tomorrow, so walked from home again today, heading to Winchbottom. This meant that the walk was focused around the A404, so was rather noisy.  

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