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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Saturday 17 September 2016

Second Walk - A Chilterns Variation - Book 2 Walk 3c: Saunderton Circular (via West Wycombe & Wheeler End)

Length: 24.1 km (15.0 mi)
Ascent/Descent: 692m; Net Walking Time: 6 hours
Toughness:  9/10
[to shorten: walk the ‘normal’ version (5/10) or even the ‘short’ version of this walk;
to lengthen: add the short version of Book 2 Walk 2 to this at the end; for details see the webpage(s)]      

Take the 09.13 Aylesbury train from Marylebone (09.22 Wembley Stadium, 09.32 Denham etc.), arrives Saunderton 09.55.  
For the shorter walks the 10.13 is sufficient. Return trains are on xx.50 (46 mins journey time).

The standard version of this walk combines a fairly easy stroll in The Chilterns through a mixture of woodland and sloping meadows, with an optional visit to Hughenden Manor and Hell-Fire (West Wycombe) Caves. The route heads south east over the Chiltern Hills to Bradenham, and continues through Naphill Common, and Flagmore Wood to Hughenden Manor. The route from Hughenden heads west across Downley Common to West Wycombe for lunch/early tea. Today’s walk will then extend this by a westerly loop to Wheeler End (possible late lunch), adding a fair bit more undulation to it, before picking up the standard walk again in Hearnton Wood.

Lunch or tea:
Hughenden Manor Tea Room (8.0 km/5.0 mi, hot food to 14.30, 01494-755 576);
Le De Spencer’s Arms in Downley Common (9.8 km/6.1 mi, food to 15.00, 01494-535 317);
Hell-Fire Caves in West Wycombe (12.6 km/7.9 mi, 01494-533 739);
The George and Dragon Hotel in West Wycombe (12.9 km/8.0 mi, food to 14.30, 01494-535 340);  
The Chequers in Wheeler End (16.3 km/10.1 mi, food to 15.00, 01494 883 070).
Golden Cross  in Saunderton (at the end of the walk, 01494-565 974).

For summary, map, height profile, photos, walk directions/options and gpx/kml files click here.  
(for the posted extended walk you'll need both the normal pdf and the Wheeler End pdf!)
T=2.3.c

3 comments:

Thomas G said...

15 minutes of rain upon arrival, then later 15 minutes of driving drizzle, else w=overcast-but-dry-with-some-piercing-wind. new walk to me personally. very nice walk with a mixture of grassy slopes and ridges, plenty of woods and fine views (considering the low clouds), enjoyed by n=9 walkers, who occasionally lost the route due to the old enemy of staying on course: too much chat.
But with several 'leaders' and 1 follower-of-a-line-on-a-screen, we always got back on route quickly. Major changes at the NT-property Hugenden Manor, else the directions stood up well.
A vote was taken at West Wycombe and we decided to push on to Wheeler End for late lunch at The Chequers. After some delay due to a First Aid necessity (painful looking damage to a wrist, with the patient later off for an X-ray to the nearest A&E from Marylebone station), we had a great lunch: tasty food, attentive staff, a very pleasant place.
The 16.50 was narrowly missed, so it was off to the Golden Cross with its grand selection of cakes.
En route we had overtaken a group of 10 Young Uns, whom we met back at the pub. Turned out they were work colleagues who had done the 'normal walk' off the 10.13 train. They had enjoyed themselves and asked to pass on many thanks to the walk author (David, are you reading this?). I tried to encourage them to leave a comment on the website, we shall see...

Heidi said...

Thanks to everyone on the walk (after a ridiculous fall on and into a mudbath) for helping with the process of cleaning me up which everyone helped with including pain killers and backpack sorting out! Thank you Thomas for taking me to A&E which it turned out was the right thing as 3 XR's later (and about 3 hours later!)diagnosed fractured wrist and obligatory POP for 4-6 weeks. Despite all great walk, great team effort. Heidi

Kelda said...

Heidi - sorry to hear your wrist is actually broken. I hope you're fully recovered and fighting fit again soon!