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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Sharpenhoe Clappers followed by a proper pub lunch

This walk is the most Northerly walk in Adventurous Pub Walks in the Chilterns, and the furthest from home. It's not on the set of Chiltern Ordnance Survey maps - in fact it spans four of the 1:25,0000 maps. Although the route descriptions are good, you still need the maps. Rather than buy four, we took advantage of the O/S  custom map service and bought one that would cover this walk, and the other remaining walk in this area. We ought not to be as pleased about this map as we are.

We were able to get away before 9:00 headed to the start of the walk via the M25, M1 and Luton, and were walking by 10:00. I didn't associate this area to the East of the M1 as being part of the Chilterns but, within a few minutes of setting off, we were on a typical carunculated Chiltern escarpment, topped with beech trees.

We were soon at Sharpenhoe Clappers - 'clappers' apparently derives from an old French word for rabbit warren. It's easy to forget that rabbits are not native to the UK, but were introduced by the Normans for food and housed in man-made warrens like the one found when this area was excavated.

The escarpment becomes West-facing at this point and we followed  the top for a while, then descended from the National Trust car park and tracked along the base for a couple of miles. Amazingly, we found  a Chiltern Gentian in flower on this path - in December! There was then a sharp climb to a chalk pit and a cross-country trek back to the car at Streatley (interestingly, there's a Streatley at the West edge of the Chilterns too). 

At was around 12:30, and were conveniently parked outside The Chequers which was advertising home-made steak and ale pies. We were not strong enough to resist, so put the diets on hold for half an hour. The pie was everything you'd expect, and just what we needed  after a cold walk. At £8.95 with chips and fresh veg, this was very good value. Liver, bacon and mash was £4.95 - it was like being in Derby!

3-d view looking South

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carunculated means 'like a cock's comb' as was used spontaneously by Rosie

Nuffield after the gales

We're getting  close to completing all of the Adventurous Pub Walks in the Chilterns, and had planned to tackle the one based on Nuffield, on the North West of the area - quite a drive from home. It had rained for most of Saturday and then blown a gale for much of Sunday night. It was only when we started the walk that we noticed that the description said is "especially suited to winter...." with "good firm walking".

The outward leg was straight-forward on an unsurfaced road , taking us to the King William at Hailey (bottom left of the map and picture on the right) that we'd visited with David and Alison on one of our early walks with them. This is an attractive pub with good food, but not our stopping spot today.After two right turns, we gained height and could see familiar parts of the Thames Valley before entering Mongewell Woods and then heading towards Nuffield village and golf course to find The Crown.

This Brakspears pub obviously focuses on food, and has a separate dining area. However, they've keep a proper cosy 'pub' area with an open fire, and a mixture of tables & chairs and sofas. The menu was promising too - just a few choices, all of which were sounded good. As I was cooking duck for dinner, we were restrained and shared a home-made mushroom and sweet corn soup (OK but not 100% successful) and creamy mushrooms (very nice). Worth a visit for a proper meal. It was fun to see another couple carrying the same book in the pub. It turned out that there had been a short shower when we'd been in the pub - there only rain of the day.

After more golf course, we entered a wood that had obviously suffered from the previous night's gales - there was a fallen tree across the path. From there, we descended back to the car and headed home for dinner which, though I say it myself, was good - and left us with duck fat for the Xmas lunch roast potatoes,

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Pitstone Hill, The Grand Union Canal and a noisy pub

A lovely sunny day with no other plans gave us the chance to tackle another of the further-afield walks in the Adventurous Pub Walks in the Chilterns book - this one based around Pitstone Hill.

Although the walk in the book started near Pitstone, that would have put the pub stop too close to the start, so we chose to start at Tring station, were the is allegedly some parking. It turns out that there are three staff/contractor space and two public spaces - all full. Luckily there was some on-road parking nearby.

The first stretch was along the Grand Union Canal. As usual, you descend from the road onto the towpath. With the leaves still on the trees, it was still quite shaded. I remarked that it felt like entering an alternative world - maybe lie something from His Dark Materials.

We then went across the railway and along a series of paths and drives to the side of Pitstone Hill and walked on a fairly level and slippery path along the fence parallel to the ridge. This eventually turned to ascend to the ridge. After a swift detour to the top to photograph Pitstone Windmill (apparently the oldest in the country and one of a very large number of windmills we visited with our boys), we found a nice spot surrounded by great Chiltern  views to eat our picnic. It as almost warm enough not to need to wear a fleece. Not bad for November.

The route then followed the ridge (indeed The Ridgeway) to a stile where the bridleway turned into a footpath. A couple of cyclists were waiting to lift their bikes over the stile. I pointed out that cycling is not permitted on footpaths. 'Who said I was going to cycle?' said one of them. We walked along the path for while and and were soon caught up by the same two, peddling away. They passed us, but not before Rosie had insisted that we hold hands walk side-by-side....

We descended to Aldbury and The Valiant Trooper. This is a nice country pub that we'd previously visited with David and Alison. Today it was packed.... The bar was full of men in blazers who'd clearly been there since opening time and were singing rugby songs. It was warm enough for us to sit in the garden, but that too had another crowd shouting at each other from two feet away. My theory is that they'd all been to the local Remembrance Day service, and adjourned to the pub to fill the time before the rugby started. The Chiltern Ridgeway beer was excellent, but we didn't stick around. We could hear the garden conversation from some distance away.

The next stretch was towards and alongside a wood and then re-crossing the railway. It was around 2:30  at this point and we came across a man without a map who asked us the way to the monument - he meant the Bridgewater Monument that we visited a couple of weeks ago and had seen in the distance earlier in the walk. Rosie showed him the route on the O/S map and hinted that it was perhaps too far to go in the remaining daylight. However, he asked to photograph our map (an interesting idea) and went on his way. We hope he found his way there and back.

We then re-joined the Grand Union at Cow Roast Lock, which is the highest lock on the canal and so-named a a corruption of Cows Rest - where drovers rested their cattle en route to London. It was was a short walk along the canal to the car - but seemed longer than it was.