First walk of 2012 (ouch!) - Henley and Hambleden

Date: Jan 8th 2012

Route: Hambleden to Henley via the Great Wood and Fawley, then back alongside the Thames and over Hambleden Lock

Distance: 9.8 miles

The New Year brings new boots, new walking books and a new challenge to work towards (the 95 mile West Highland Way in 3 months' time!) - and so it might seems odd that the first walk of the year is an old favourite.

The circular walk around Henley and Hambleden is the very first walk in the Time Out Book of Country Walks - and was the first walk that I blogged about on this weekend last year. It gets pride of place because it is quite simply a really good walk. There is only one truly steep climb, plus a couple of other relatively short uphill sections, then the rest of it is flat. There is a great combination of woodland paths, a tucked-away village complete with village green, church and pond and a lovely riverside section, including the vertiginous path over the swirling waters of the weir at Hambleden Lock. There are also a couple of ways to walk this - either starting in Henley with a lunch stop at the Stag & Huntsman in Hambleden (although please note that the pub is currently being refurbished and won't open again until May 2012) or starting from the car park on the Hambleden road with a choice of pub, cafe and pizzeria lunch options in Henley - and if you follow the Time Out instructions it is very difficult to get lost. 

For us, today's walk was all about finding out how unfit we are (very!) and getting back into the habit of walking. There is more info about the walk route (and more photos) on the blog entry from Jan 2011 but it's fair to say that every walk changes each time you walk it - today we had unseasonably warm weather, daisies by the roadside (in January?!), grey and blue skies accommodating wheeling red kites and skeins of geese, as well as some very curious rabbits in a field alongside the path. The next time we walk it could be totally different, depending on the time of year, weather, wildlife and our frame of mind! 

Anyone wanting to get out of London and get some fresh air, get in touch with the countryside and have a good pub lunch, I would definitely suggest that this is a good place to start.