Autumnal Chilterns

 

 

Date: Sunday 18th November

Route: Hambleden to Henley via the Great Wood and Fawley then back along the Thames

Distance: 9.3 miles

 

One of the benefits of writing this blog is that it is a good way of measuring how much (or how little) walking we are doing - it does make it pretty clear that, despite our good intentions, Autumn tends to be a time when other things take priority and it's more difficult to get motivated into leaving the warm house to brave the chilly countryside.

 

On a day like today, however, there is no excuse to stay inside - clear blue skies and bright sunshine, combined with green hillsides and all the colours of autumn leaves make this one of the most visually stunning walks of the year.

 

This is a walk that I have blogged about many times, but never at this time of year, when all the paths are flooded with fallen leaves - whilst the path is muddy at times, the extra effort is rewarded by some great views through sun-dappled woodland and across the Thames. The highlight of today's walk, however, is the sudden sight of a herd of deer crossing the path in leaps and bounds ahead of us. Whilst its always difficult to find the time and energy to go out walking on these dark days, today's experience means that we will try harder to get out again before Christmas (weather permitting!). 



 

 

Wandering around Whitby

Date: Sunday 26th August
Route: Whitby Circular via the Cleveland Way and Whitby Abbey
Distance: 4.5 miles

If you are looking for an undemanding walk on a sunny day, this walk around Whitby from the Pathfinder North York Moors walking book is a great option.

The walk starts off in the centre of the goth-friendly, historic and picturesque town of Whitby, crossing the bridge and walking along the river, before heading up the hillside. Before long you are walking beside fields, with the sea visible in the distance, following the path through farmland to Hornblower Cottage (easily spotted due to the giant foghorn on its roof!) and on to the lighthouse, where you cross a stile to join the Cleveland Way coastal path along the cliff tops.

It's then an undemanding stroll along the cliff-top path back to Whitby, towards the Abbey (which you can visit en route), past the pretty churchyard with weather-beaten gravestones and down the 199 steps back to the town centre. Highly recommended.

Heartbeat Country

Date: Saturday 25 August 2012
Route: Goathland Circular via Mallyan Spout
Distance: 6.5 miles

Two days in Whitby over the Bank Holiday weekend - a great excuse to invest in the Pathfinder North York Moors walking book and to hit the hillsides!

As we're walking with 'Heartbeat'-loving family members, the walk from Goathland (or "Aidensfield", as it appeared in the TV series) is an obvious first choice - and as it includes moorland and woodland sections, a breathtaking waterfall and an old railway line, it is a great walk to do, even though the woodland path is pretty hard-going and muddy at times, following recent wet weather.

There are versions of this walk in both the Pathfinder Guide and the AA 1001 Walks book - we end up doing a combination of both, starting from the main car park in Goathland village, as per the Pathfinder, but missing out a section of Roman Road, as per the AA, so our total walk is around 6 1/2 miles.

The walk starts off along a disused George Stephenson railway line through woodlands, before heading up over a hillside, along an undulating path to a waterfall so picturesque it really ought to feature in a Timotei ad.  Once past the waterfall it's a rocky walk along the river, with a fair amount of clambering around rocks and jumping around muddy puddles - slow-going at times but good fun.

The route then heads downhill between fields, climbs up to follow the Roman Road, with far-reaching views over the surrounding hillsides, crosses a ford, climbs up through farm buildings and boasts a final section across the hills, through heather and flustered game-birds, using cairns as landmarks to guide the way back to Goathland.

This definitely isn't the easiest walk in the North York Moors, but I would still recommend it to anyone who walks regularly - and the pint in the "Aidensfield Arms" at the end seemed to go down well with the 'Heartbeat' fans too.

Henley in the sunshine

No blog this week, since I've blogged about this walk several times already (it is still great, by the way!), just a few photos from one of my favourite ways to spend three hours in the countryside (plus well-earned pub lunch time in Henley!). Often a familiar walk throws up unexpected happenings - hope that the couple in the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang-esque car found the steam museum they were looking for!

Along the Thames to Kingston

Date: Wednesday 20th June
Route: West Ealing to Kingston-upon-Thames via South Ealing, Brentford, Kew Bridge and the Thames Path
Distance: 11 miles

With no walking last weekend, due to family visits, and the prospect of dire weather over the coming days, today dawned bright and sunny, with absolutely no excuse to stay inside - I used the opportunity to walk a route of various sections that I have walked individually before, but never consecutively.

If you're looking for a beautiful 11-mile walk by the river, I would advise that you walk from Kew Bridge to Hampton Court, using the Thames Path all the way, but since I live in West Ealing, the first three miles of my walk were down to Kew Bridge (not necessarily very scenic all the way, but making me feel quite nostalgic for the days when I used to cycle through the graveyard on my way to work).

From West Ealing, Temple Road leads on to the very quiet residential streets and parkland of Churchfield Road, Culmington Road and Church Lane before emerging at St Mary's Church, a local landmark next to the busy South Ealing road. Cut through the small car park, head right through residential streets and over a footbridge running parallel with South Ealing Road and straight on down, over Popes Lane and down the footpath to the side of the W5 pub, through South Ealing Cemetery, which can be very atmospheric/ spooky in the early morning light.

At the end of the graveyard you cross Occupation Lane and walk down to the busy A4, which you cross. A pedestrian path takes you through the Barratt housing development by the side of the road (can a building really be Art Deco if it has been built from scratch within the past 2 years?) and then a left takes you along a decidedly unpicturesque road by the tower blocks in Brentford, emerging onto the main road near the Kew Bridge Steam Museum (if you take a right here you can also take in the Musical Museum and the Watermans Arts Centre, though the only thing open at 7.30am is the McDonalds opposite the Watermans).

Once you are across the busy road, Kew Bridge is in front of you (opened in 1903, fact fans) and once you have crossed the bridge and admired the view, a right turn brings you onto the Thames Path, which you follow all the way to Kingston (or beyond, if you feel so inclined).

The path is easy to walk on, occasionally stony and sometimes puddled after heavy rain, and is popular with walkers, hearty individuals being pulled along by dogs, runners and cyclists (make sure you keep an ear out for bikes!). Along the way you will see plenty of herons, which nest in the trees to your right, as well as parakeets, ducks, geese and other waterbirds. You may well hear a woodpecker or two and spot a fox on the opposite bank (or as today, two foxes on the small island in the middle of the river near Isleworth). There are also badgers in Kew Gardens, however the chances of spotting one are pretty slim, unfortunately.

The path takes you past Kew Gardens and King George III's palace, with views over to Syon House on the opposite bank (sadly shrouded in scaffolding at the minute), before passing Isleworth to your right (pretty riverside church and pubs in photo above), Richmond Old Deer Park and Richmond Lock.

Richmond is a lovely riverside town, with lots of transport links, shops and great places to eat, plus the huge Richmond Park (setting for the infamous dog-chasing-deer Youtube clip), which boasts plenty of wide open space, ponds, bike hire and herds of deer. You can also catch boats from Richmond down to Teddington Lock three miles away, or even get the boat down here from Central London, which is a great way to spend a lazy summer Sunday afternoon. It's no surprise that this beautiful town attracts famous residents such as Mick Jagger, Jerry Hall, Pete Townsend and Richard E. Grant.

The path after Richmond is initially wider and you will see anglers in various locations between Richmond and Kingston, as well as some very grand stately houses overlooking the river. As with the Kew-Richmond section, there is plenty of greenery beside the route and a few shaded sections. 3 miles outside Richmond you come to Teddington Lock (which you can cross to), then the path continues on for another 1.75 miles to Kingston town centre, passing multiple houseboats and very desirable Thames-side properties (it's impossible to do this stretch without pangs of property envy).

The final section into Kingston takes you along the road and through the park of Canbury Gardens before a left takes you into Kingston town centre (bigger and with more shopping opportunities than Richmond) or you can carry on to the pubs and restaurants alongside the river in Kingston or if you're feeling energetic, cross Kingston Bridge and continue along the Thames to Hampton Court Palace.

I've walked sections of this walk regularly for a number of years and I'm sure I will continue to do so. If you fancy a walk in London that feels as though you are seeing a bit of country and a bit of greenery, this is a great section of the Thames Path to walk - oh, and it's flat too, which makes it nice and easy!

The best walk in the Chilterns?

Date: Sunday 10th June 2012
Route: Hambleden to Henley via the Great Wood and back along the Thames
Distance: 9.3 miles

Having reached a point where we've completed virtually every long circular walk within an hour's drive of West London from the Time Out Book of Country Walks Volumes 1 & 2, The Rough Guide to Walks in London & The South East and the Pathfinder Chilterns & Thames Valley books, this is the walk that we come back to time after time.

It's the first walk in the Time Out Book of Country Walks Volume 1 and it's the perfect introduction to walking - you get out of London easily and quickly, it's not too strenuous, you get plenty of great views over the countryside, some peaceful, sheltered woodland sections, a couple of pretty villages and a long, flat walk along the Thames. You can catch the train from Henley and walk from there or, even better, park in the free car park on the road to Hambleden and start and finish there, giving you loads of choice for places to eat in Henley and getting the bulk of the walk (and all the hilly bits) out of the way before lunchtime.

Whilst I've blogged about this walk a few times previously (see here and here and here (!)), the great thing about this walk is that each time you do it the experience is different - the frequent rain since the last time we walked the route in March has meant that there has been an explosion of foliage and greenery in every direction (as you can tell from the photos).

The blossom and bluebells of earlier in the year have been replaced by dog roses, rhododendrons, irises and foxgloves and today we heard a very noisy woodpecker above our heads in the Great Wood. The village green at Fawley still boasted rather a lot of (rather damp) Diamond Jubilee bunting. The preparations for Henley Regatta are also in full swing, so there was much more rowing on the river than usual today, as well as lots of barges and pleasure boats queueing patiently at the lock and picnickers enjoying the hazy sunshine.

I'm not sure if anyone has ever run a poll on what is the best walk in the Chilterns, but this one would definitely get my vote.*

*(as long as you avoid the actual Regatta dates, 27th June-1st July this year).

In the footsteps of Morse and Lewis

Date: Bank Holiday Monday, 4th June 2012
Route: Oxford Circular along River Isis, Port Meadow, Oxford Canal and River Cherwell
Distance: 9 miles

To make the most of today's Bank Holiday we chose a very flat and easy walk from the Time Out Book of Country Walks Volume 1, which is accurately described as less of a country walk and more of a day out in Oxford. The walk combines three separate sections alongside different waterways on the outskirts of the city before returning to the centre and weaving its way between university colleges.

Although there is a substantial section on tarmac roads and pavements at the end of the walk, it can get pretty muddy and wet in places by the rivers and in Port Meadow, so waterproof shoes are definitely needed.

The walk starts behind Oxford railway station and quickly joins the Thames Path alongside the fast-flowing River Isis, which broadens out with great views across the meadows. Once past Godstow Lock and the ruins of Godstow Nunnery, the route passes the Trout Inn, which is vaguely familiar from multiple episodes of Inspector Morse and Lewis (I'm sure I've seen an episode where a girl's body is recovered near a bridge that we walked over today!).

Then, it's into the lovely though waterlogged Port Meadow, carpeted with buttercups and daisies, picking your way between cows, mud and puddles, over another bridge to the Plough Inn, then on to the Oxford Canal towpath. The towpath passes bridges, barges and clumps of irises, heading back towards Oxford and you can end the walk after the canal section if you do not want to do the more urban section around the colleges.

If you do want to include the college section, there is another river section, this time passing punts on the Cherwell before entering the University Parks and emerging into the university area near Keble College. From there you pass various museums - the Pitt Rivers, the Ashmolean and the Museum of Oxford - as well as the beautiful college buildings of Balliol, New, Queen's, Magdalen, Merton, Christ Church and many more.

This walk is a great mixture of town and country, greenery and history, peaceful waterside paths and busy streets - it may be flat, but it's not boring. A very attractive, highly recommended walk around a historic city.

 

Back to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang country

Date: Sunday 27th May
Route: Ibstone Common to Turville, Fingest and back
Distance: 8 miles

When we first did this walk back in January (see here for some very frosty photographs), I described it as a fantastic walk that I knew we would do again, despite getting lost first time around.

Am happy to report that in the late May sunshine, it is still a fantastic walk, offering welcome shade from the sun through the multiple woodland sections, interspersed with lovely views and the two pretty villages of Turville (aka Dibley or the home of Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) and Fingest (home of the Norman church in the photo above). The car journey from Ibstone Common to Mill End once you have finished the walk is pretty spectacular too.

Sadly, even though we were paying even closer attention to the walk instructions in the Pathfinder Chilterns & Thames Valley book, we still found them pretty confusing for the section back from Fingest and found it safest to refer to the map rather than the written instructions. This is the danger of guidebooks unfortunately - even if the book is 100% accurate when it is printed, gates can be replaced or taken down, stiles can be swapped for kissing gates or gaps in the hedge and paths can be re-routed. The path itself is pretty clear - straight on at all intersections once you are on the main path, then left at the arrow painted on a tree - but the instructions make reference to gates that we simply couldn't find and half-right turns that we couldn't place (maybe blame the heat?!). I hope that this will be rectified in the next version of the book (due in December, and a good possible Christmas present, I'm sure!).

So, once again I would recommend this walk but I would advise that you be prepared to ignore the instructions near the end - the scenery definitely makes up for the odd bit of confusion!

Sunshine over Streatley

Date: Saturday 12th May 2012
Route: Streatley Circular along the Ridgeway, the Fair Mile and the Thames Path
Distance: 10 miles

A beautiful day and an early start encouraged us to try out a walk from the Pathfinder Chilterns and Thames Valley walking book, slightly further away from home than normal, starting and ending in the Berkshire Thames-side village of Streatley, which was mentioned in the Domesday Book.

The walk starts from a (free) National Trust car park at Lardon Chase, half a mile uphill from the village centre, quickly leaving an initial (and slightly perilous) golf course behind and joining the Ridgeway, first as a tarmac-ed lane, then as a tree- and hedge-lined track.

After a steady but undemanding climb, with wide views across rolling green countryside, the path dips down and you leave the Ridgeway to head across fields, then right again along the Fair Mile, a wide grassy track, previously used for galloping horses, though thankfully not churned up by hoof-prints. Again, there are wide-ranging views across the lush, undulating countryside of the Berkshire Downs, plus the added distraction of bikers zooming around the woods to the left.

The grassy path becomes a chalky track, before heading to a road, which you follow for a short distance before heading back across fields and down to the Thames-side village of Moulsford. One of the disadvantages of this walk is that the pubs en route don't make an appearance until the walk is over two-thirds complete, so you might want to stop for a picnic lunch either on the grassy section of the Fair Mile or on the path in the shelter of the hedge once you have left the road behind (this is where the 4th photo above was taken).

There is a hotel - the Beetle & Wedge - at Moulsford, which is on the riverside, however it looks to cater more to the discerning diner than the dishevelled walker, so we passed this by to proceed along a section of the Thames Path that we hadn't walked before. Unlike other sections of the Thames Path closer to London, there were very few people on the path across open meadows, with views over the river to Oxfordshire, occasional boats and vast amounts of property envy emanating from us.

The path passes Cleeve Lock, which has a couple of picnic benches and is a good place to stop for a rest, then continues on into Streatley, past solid Georgian houses, past The Bull pub and up the hill back to the car park. Both Cleeve Lock and The Bull feature in "Three Men In A Boat" - which you can download for free on Kindle (the book is also very cheap!).

Although there are some great views over the countryside to experience on this walk, it probably isn't one that you would want to do very often - there isn't a huge amount of variety, as all of the paths are long, straight and pretty similar in terms of views and walking surface, there isn't really anywhere to refuel and recharge your batteries until the end of the walk, then it ends with a very steep climb, just when you have walked 9½ miles and could really do with a sit-down!

Henley, Hambleden and Remenham Hill

Date: Sunday 6th May 2012
Distance: 10.8 miles (although could be done in 9.3 miles - see below)
Route: Hambleden to Henley via Remenham Hill and back along the Thames

As you might have noticed, Henley-upon-Thames features quite regularly in this blog - mainly because it is easily accessible from West London and there are some beautiful walks in the area, combining easy and flat riverside walking with rolling hillsides, pretty villages and ancient woodlands.

The walk that we did today is from the second Time Out Book of Country Walks Near London and although it takes in both Henley and Hambleden is a little less strenuous and less well-trodden than Henley/ Hambleden the walk from the first Time Out book.

If you follow the route as detailed in the book, starting from Henley, you will need to grab lunch at the Flower Pot Hotel in Aston (with good food but slightly terrifying stuffed fish in glass cases), as the Stag & Huntsman in Hambleden is still closed for renovation at the minute. Their website says that they will be re-opening in May, however there still looks to be plenty of building work to be done before this happens.

The other alternative is to park up in the free car park on the road to Hambleden and start the walk by walking back to the main road and crossing Hambleden Lock. If you do this, the walk will be 9.3 miles and you get a choice of pubs and restaurants (Zizzi, Cafe Rouge, Strada etc) for lunch in Henley. Because we had forgotten the route and weren't in a massive hurry today, we added an extra 1.5 miles by walking to Hambleden and back at the start and end of the walk - but this is really not necessary!

Assuming that you start at the Hambleden car park, you cross a slightly vertiginous metal walkway over the swirling waters of the Thames (higher than usual today, thanks to the recent rainfall), then the lock, before walking on the wide footpath up the hill on the other side and up to Aston. From there you walk across fields and onto Remenham Hill, including paths through a field of slightly smelly shoulder-height oilseed rape, a bluebell-strewn wood and alongside green fields, which have obviously benefitted from the recent frequent downpours.

After crossing the lawn of a grand house with obscenely covetable views over the countryside and Thames, you find yourself on the outskirts of Henley and cross the bridge into town. After lunch, the next section of the walk is all along the Thames bank, but rather than the tarmac path alongside manicured grass on the other bank, this section is much rougher walking, including slightly soggy marshes and a succession of narrow footbridges. The advantages of this are that it is much quieter and less busy than the path on the other bank.

Once the path regains the road, there is a slight climb across fields and into woodland, then an easy wide track through the woods, which allows you to look down on the village of Hambleden (former home of W.H. Smith and picturesque location as seen in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Avengers) - today we were also lucky enough to spot a herd of deer grazing on the hillside below. The route then loops back into the village of Hambleden, crossing the churchyard and passing the Post Office & Store (a good place to grab a drink to go or tea and cake), before heading up the hill past the Stag & Huntsman, along a ridge through fields and wooded areas and finally descending down the road signposted "Rotten Row" to arrive at the car park.

This is an easy walk, with lots of variety, beautiful views and straightforward paths - one of the reasons why we can't help but return to Henley so often.