Date: Sunday 29th June 2014
Route: Chess Valley Circular from Latimer
Distance: 9.5 miles
After a few walk-free weekends, today felt like a good opportunity to get out of London and get a few miles under our belt. This walk, which starts outside the picture postcard village of Latimer, is surprisingly close to the M25, but feels like a proper trip to the countryside (albeit a countryside full of high-end property and lots of Labradors).
The walk comes from the Pathfinder Thames Valley & Chilterns walk book and includes beautiful woodland, valley views, village greens surrounded by country cottages that deserve to be on jigsaws, Tudor manor houses, a riverside section, multiple pubs with decent beer gardens and (slightly incongruously) watercress beds (the fast-flowing water of the river Chess provides the perfect growing conditions, apparently).
Whilst we didn't spot the water voles that are reputed to live in the Chess, we did see a couple of foxes, a toad (in the middle of a woodland path), red kites, herons and multiple bees and butterflies. The path back to the car park was a great source of wild raspberries (and will no doubt be bursting with blackberries later in the year).
The woodland paths at the start of the walk deflected some of the heat of the sun, making this as good a walk in summer as it was when we last walked it in the spring.
None of the paths are particularly steep or difficult to follow, the Cricketers at Sarratt has an extensive menu (and a tractor in the beer garden!) and the impressive Chenies Manor, with its twisted chimneys, will welcome the Antiques Roadshow next week. If it's good enough for Fiona Bruce, it's good enough for us!
