Length: 12.8 miles (20.6km) 4 out of 10
You can shorten the walk after lunch to 10 miles, by doing the circular walk to Tring.
This is a lovely walk. "The first part of this route - following the Ridgeway along the Chiltern escarpment to Ivinghoe Beacon - is exhilarating, offering downland scenery as fine as anything on the South Downs. Then you are into ancient Chiltern woodland. The paths are generally pleasant and easy underfoot, but note that on the Ridgeway the exposed chalk in some of the paths can be slippery in the wet, and in the woods the paths can be very muddy in winter.
Trains: 0934 London Midland train from Euston to Tring 1017, (freedom passes only valid to Harrow & Wealdstone). There is also a Southern train to Tring which wends its way through London, and arrives at 1039 (Clapham 0939) if you don't mind making up the time.
Berkhamsted has a 15 minute service back to Euston, or the Southern trains are hourly xx39.
Lunch: Bridgewater Arms, Little Gaddesden, 01442 842408
Directions are here
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N=19, including two late starters. One of the latter came on the Clapham Junction train but only because of a mix up at Euston. No one else got this train that he noticed. The other came on the Clammy Junction train an hour later, did a short cut to lunch and then followed his own route in the afternoon - but he had lunch with us, so we are counting him. The day started w=rather-misty-but-sun-came-out-later. So we had the bits with the nice views in the mist, and sunshine after lunch in the woods. But the golden light on the bare trees was lovely and it felt almost - dare I say it? - springlike. Bliss it was in that afternoon to be alive.
At least one group insisted on using an out of date edition of the book. Be warned by their story! They went the wrong way at Ward's Hurst Farm and got attacked by a gaggle of geese (admittedly while on a public footpath). One was bitten. Later in the pub we googled how to deal with aggressive geese and it turns out turning your back and running is not advised. It spurs them on, apparently.
Twelve wanted a pub lunch so we phoned the Bridgewater Arms when we set off from the station and were told categorically they could not accommodate us. So we arrived anyway in dribs and drabs and they accommodated us fine. Indeed they seemed to me to be never more than two thirds full. The food was a tad slow coming but only a tad. Portions and quality were good. The Vegetarian Indian Feast was a rare veggie meal served in walker (or Walker)-sized portions.
I don't know who did what later but four of us at least walked to Berkhamsted in the lovely sun and went to the Crown in the High Street. On the way I stopped by the canal at dusk. And at that moment a blackbird sang..... Two, actually. My first of the year.
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