With the closure of The Old Swan in Swan Bottom, which came halfway through this walk, we are left with The Cock and Rabbit, which comes inconveniently early. So, let’s walk it backwards. Always opens new perspectives anyway…
Length: 21.6 km (13.4 mi)
Ascent/Descent: 296m
Net Walking Time: ca. 5 hours
Toughness: 5 out of 10
or
Length: 16.4 km (10.2 mi)
Ascent/Descent: 230m
Net Walking Time: ca. 4 hours
Toughness: 3 out of 10
Take the 09.57 train from Marylebone to Aylesbury Vale Parkway
(Harrow-on-the-Hill 10.09), arrives Great Missenden 10.40.
Return trains: xx.27 and xx.57. Buy a Wendover
Return ticket.
This walk combines some of the finest elements of the Chiltern Hills,
while having very little overlap with other walks in the area. After leaving
Wendover in a south easterly direction on the Ridgeway the walk rises into
woods. It then passes along fields to get to the picturesque green in The Lee,
a conservation area village. From there it continues through woodland and the
beautiful Lee Common to a 16th century lunch pub at Swan Bottom. The
afternoon offers constantly changing scenery. It completely avoids settlements
and roads, mostly following grassy fields, while still passing through a
variety of varied and characterful woods. Several beautiful valleys are crossed
in between and the finish is a scenic descent into Great Missenden.
Lunch: The Cock and
Rabbit Inn (14.3 km, food to 14.30) in Lee Green. Picnic lunch on the short walk!
Tea: Plenty of options
in Wendover, incl. several pubs (some with decent food), cafés, a
chocolatery, a tapas and wine bar, restaurants…
For walk directions, map, height profile, photos and gpx/kml files click here. T=swc.140.a
1 comment:
Marylebone Station was a hub of many a walking group assembling, from 'One of our own' leading an Inner London Ramblers Group along the main Wendover Circular option of this walk, via a Capital Walkers group heading to Saunderton for a circular walk to some Meet-Up-py looking groups going to Wendover (as it later turned out).
5 SWC-ies alighted at Gt. Missenden on a w=sunny-to-lunch-then-grey day. Walking this in reverse was quite interesting indeed: we saw more of the HS2 work sites than you would the other way round, while the rolling hills and dry valleys were just as beautiful as always of course.
We passed the creator of the original version of this walk, leading his Ramblers group, just after joining the main route, and arrived at the rejuvenated Cock & Rabbit Inn just before 14.00 hours.
3 sat down for lunch in the cafe part of the now restauranty pub, and were joined by a speedy late starter who had overslept, while 2 picnickers re-joined us for drinks later.
The n=6 of us got to Wendover with 20 minutes to spare before the 17.27 train, which we spent in the King & Queen pub (Star Pubs, i.e. Heineken, but quite nice actually, if you like your Real Ales and Cider).
Sping flowers aplenty, mainly daffs, celandines and some wild garlic, while the plentiful bluebells on this route were not in flower yet (ie behind Wiltshire even 2 weeks ago), apart from on some sunny hedge margins and fringes of woods.
Hardly any other walkers were passed, apart from numerous young 'uns prepping for DoE with very overstuffed backpacks and some miserable facial expressions (that's what we thought they were doing anyway) and very very few cars anywhere.
Still plenty of mud along enclosed paths and in woods and plenty of birdsong in the skies...
And the HS2 viaduct SE of Wendover seems near complete!
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