Walk 4: Marlow Circular via Hambleden

Date: Sunday 6th February

Route: Marlow Circular via Hambleden

Distance: 12.1 miles

No walking last week, due to being up North, so have been looking forward to today's walk for a couple of weeks. This is another tried and tested favourite - number 8 in the Time Out Book of Country Walks Volume 2. Even though it is 12 miles long, there are only three uphill stretches and a big chunk of Thames Path, which is very easy flat walking.

If you follow the book, the walk starts and end in Marlow, which has a very handy car park in the town centre (from which there is a path straight down to the river), not to mention loads of shops, pubs, Pizza Express etc. We've done this a few times and found that we always arrive too early for lunch at the Flower Pot Hotel (home of some of the biggest stuffed fish in glass cases I've ever seen!), so end up eating at the Stag & Huntsman in Hambleden. This is a good pub, with a fantastic garden that is always full of walkers and cyclists in the summer, and does really nice food - the disadvantage of this pub is that, if you go by the book, the steepest climb of the day comes straight after lunch, when you are least enthusiastic about it!

Today we decided to park up in the free car park on Skirmitt Road on the way to Hambleden, walked into the village (home of "the" WH Smith), past the pub and up the dreaded hill, then through woodland and along the Chiltern Way, crossing a large tract of (very well-managed) Forestry Commission land, then down into Marlow for lunch. This left us with the "easy bit" after lunch - down to the river in Marlow and along the Thames Path, leaving the fishermen behind, looking over the Thames to Bisham Church and Abbey, down to Temple Lock and across the river, further along to Hurley Lock and the village of Hurley, back down to the river to Aston, high above the Thames, then down to Hambleden Lock and back to the car.

As well as near-constant property envy, the whole walk had a bit of a Springwatch feel to it. In addition to the first snowdrops and catkins, we saw a ridiculous amount of birdlife, from several gaggles of geese, numerous ducks, swans, grebes, red kites etc. to a covey of partridges (yes, I'll admit I had to look that one up!). From an animal point of view, it also went a bit crazy, as we saw not only the usual cows, sheep and horses, but also deer, llamas, a rabbit, donkeys, little spotty pigs running around a field like it was the most fun possible in the world, a dead rat and a non-existent bull. There is nothing more guaranteed to strike fear into the heart of a walker wearing a bright orange Gore-tex jacket than a "beware of the bull" sign (particularly when you can't see the whole field the bull is alleged to be in).

Non-existent bulls notwithstanding, I would totally recommend this walk for a combination of easy walking, a fantastic stretch of Thames Path and well-maintained woods and forests (enjoy them now before the government flogs them off and please sign the petition at the Woodland Trust website, if you haven't done already).