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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 6 January 2018

Saturday walk - Chorleywood to Chesham - The Chilterns by Tube

Chorleywood to Chesham 
Length: 16km (9.9 miles) - with shortcuts possible - see below
Toughness: 5 out of 10

9.50 Metropolitan Line train from Baker Street to Chorleywood, arriving 10.31

Best ticket: Oyster

For walk directions click here. For GPX click here.

Given that it is never more than a kilometre or two from the Metropolitan Line, this walk is amazingly rural. You get your quota of fine Chilterns views, dipping in and out of a peaceful valley, and see some historic houses en route (fans of The Crown might recognise Chenies Court as the location it used for Winston Churchill's house at Chartwell). Mud there will be, but chalky soils can mean paths are not so afflicted with it. On the other hand mud on chalk can sometimes be a slippery combination, so take care

The Red Lion is the usual choice for lunch but the Bedford Arms down the road is more competitive on price than you might expect. Both are popular, but the walk start time is timed to get you to lunch quite early, hopefully giving more choice of seating. For tea the hippyish Drawingroom is very comfortable and has great cakes, but Caffe Nero et al provide a backstop.

Shortcuts: a shorter morning is possible if you get up a bit late (it is a perfectly pleasant route). There is a minor short cut as you approach lunch if you want to catch up with the main group. And (new feature!) there is now the option of ending in Chalfont & Latimer, though this gives a very short afternoon: useful if the weather turns bad, maybe... For details of all three, see the walk directions.

Trains back from Chesham are at 27 and 57 past the hour T=3.81

2 comments:

Tom said...

Great walk - thanks. Natasha - are you ok? (felt unwell at lunchtime)

Ian T said...

N=12 w=fine-dry-mostly-with-a-hint-of-icy-rain-nearing-Chesham
Nice walk with good Chiltern views though I can’t help feeling it should reach Chesham sooner than it does. Maybe they should move it a bit closer. Slightly unusual to walk through a field of alpacas near the end but they were docile. The Red Lion wasn’t open but the Bedford was welcoming and people seemed pleased with what they got. There were plans to visit the Drawing Room at the end. I myself didn’t.