Today the group tried something different from the norm by putting on two walks on the same day, one after the other. The walks would both begin at the same location, the free public car park within the pretty Buckinghamshire village of Hambleden. This gave people the opportunity to bail out after the morning walk or indeed allow folk the opportunity to have a lie in and join us in the afternoon. At least that was the idea when I planned the routes a little while ago.
Having lead all my walks in 2015, including a weekend away, in near perfect weather I woke up to grey overcast skies today. This soon turned to become drizzle and then some heavier bouts of rain before we were left for persistent drizzle which lasted until maybe an hour into the walk.
Bearing in mind the weather I was delighted to lead a group of eighteen people for the mornings event. There was a brief panic for a couple of people who thought the meet up point was at the car park in the nearby Mill End. Once they realized the error of their ways and joined us we were off.
We picked up the Chiltern Way almost immediately, taking in a steady ascent through North Cot Wood. One of the themes today would include us progressing through a number of small woodlands that populate the Hambleden valley. As the land broke up into more open countryside we took a left towards and through Hutton’s Farm. Here the owner had employed some artistic effort in to trimming a number of leafy shrubs and bushes on his land. Progress continued through North Close Copse Plantation and via a brief drinks stop to Rockell End. In the woody sections it was a little muddy in places it has to be said but probably not has challenging as on a couple of other walks this year. The small tarmac section at Rockwell End gave us some relief from the soft muddy terrain.
Soon enough we were back walking through the fields with the group as ever making good chat and conversation along the way. For a number of people it was the second time in space of 24 hours that we had met up following the previous evening’s pub meet in Theale. There always seems to be plenty of things to chat about, discuss and maybe debate.
We continue ahead through Heath wood passing an abandoned, derelict tractor and a fallen down tree had done its best to hinder our progression. Having made another short ascent we traversed further footpaths that took us through Rotten Row, taking a left turning via Hatcham’s Wood before stopping for lunch overlooking the valley just a short distance from Hambleden itself. The mist and murk that had greeted us earlier in the day was lifting and the final stretch was completing in rather pleasant conditions with the sun trying to peek through.
To my surprise we had made perfect timing as the afternoon walk was due to start at 1pm. We had arrived back at our cars at….1pm! Here we said cheerio to a few people while a couple of others joined us so overall we had a net loss of four leaving a group of fourteen to stride out in the afternoon.
I was debating to take my over trousers off but as mentioned by Clare it seemed sensible to keep them on and save our trousers from getting mucky, certainly a reasonable thing to consider for the pub stop at the end.
Hambleden itself is a really lovely place and some may argue the quintessential English village. There are records of a village here that date back to the 11th century, the local church built around the 14th century with a post office, shop and pub to complete the village setting. In more recent times it was used as a base for USA soldiers during the build-up to D-Day in 1944 and has been used as a location for the mini series “Band of Brothers”, “101 Dalmatians”, “Sleepy Hollow” amongst other things.
The afternoon walk took us through the church and the village and up to Pheasants Hill. Along the way we saw a number of Red Kites circling above us, a nice little pond and observe some well kept gardens by the local residents. Having squeezed our way through a narrow path we had another steady climb to undertake. As always, this was completed by the group without alarm other then, perhaps some puffed out cheeks.
The footpath took us out to a farmstead at Pheasants and then Bushes Wood. I was beginning to lose count at how many woods we were navigating through. A short stretch on tarmac soon followed before we veered off along one of the footpaths we took to earlier. For the second time in the day we had to negotiate our way past the fallen tree and observe the abandoned tractor again. It wasn’t too long that we were the homeward bound and taking a fairly direct route back to Hambleden although the slippery mud made for a slightly trickier descent then we would normally expect.
Walk completed most of us that had remained headed to the hostelry next door to sample one of their fine ales or other refreshments. It was certainly a perfect way to end a lovely day with the Berkshire Walkers.