Length: 13.9 miles T=SWC.36
10.10 Chilterns train from Marylebone to Denham (Chilterns strike day service), arriving 10.30
The only part of the journey which is not within boundary zone six is the one stop from West Ruislip to Denham on the outbound journey.
You could just follow the South Bucks Way all the way from Denham to Old Amersham, which would be a mile or two shorter than my suggested route, but its route through Denham is a bit dull so I have created a longer loop that takes in a nice stretch of the Grand Union Canal. This then returns to the South Bucks Way and follows it to Chalfont St Peter and Chalfont St Giles. After this my suggestion is to reverse the morning of the Amersham Circular walk - again, slightly longer, but perhaps more interesting than the South Bucks route.
The first option for lunch is Chalfont St Peter, after 6.6 miles. I am hopeful about the Greyhound Inn here - its website was not working at time of writing, but it had very recent updates to its Facebook page. The other pub in the town - the White Hart - seems to be drinks only. There is a Co-op and takeaways in its high street.
Failing that, in another two miles (so after 8.6 miles) you come to Chalfont St Giles, the lunch village for the Beaconsfield Circular and Amersham Circular walks. Merlin's Cave here seems to have reopened and to do food all afternoon. Last year walkers also lunched at the Feathers.
At the end of the walk (13.4 miles) Old Amersham has tea places and pubs.
Metropolitan line trains back from Amersham are at 22 and 52 past. The Chilterns services at 11 and 41 past will not run due to the RMT strike
2 comments:
Map - https://maps.walkingclub.org.uk/os.html?center=51.62544,-0.51927,13&gpx_url=https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/test/peterc/Denham_to_Amersham.gpx
N=9 on this one-off rail strike adventure into the Chilterns, not put off by a grey, wet start to the day. In fact it was only w=drippy-in-the-morning-with-sun-for-a-time-in-the-afternoon. Slithery mud underfoot provided exercise for the lateral leg muscles.
This walk actually had a sneaky extra agenda which I did not put in the walk post, which was to pass some HS2 construction sites. There was a preview on the last leg of the train journey from West Ruislip to Denham, which gives a good view of the line emerging from its long London tunnel. Early in the walk we then went down Moorhall Road, where piers for the two mile long Colne Valley Viaduct have already been erected.
A tranquil section on the Grand Union Canal followed, then a walk along the edge of one of the area’s many lakes (former gravel pits, now charmingly set amidst trees). We passed under a completed section of the viaduct where it crosses the A412 and then headed up into the hills. From Old Shire Lane (a bridleway) there was a fine view of the vast HS2 “factory site” for the viaduct and Chilterns tunnel, which will later be turned into 90 hectares of chalk downland using the tunnel spoil.
After this it was into Terra Incognita - across a golf course and down into the not unpleasant (though rather traffic-laden) town of Chalfont St Peter. The Greyhound Inn here made a perfectly pleasant lunch stop.
After lunch we slithered up the Misbourne Valley, the surface mud from the overnight rain being a bit of a nuisance. But the skies were by now brightening and there was an abundance of birdsong. In all during the walk I heard 20 blackbirds, as well as chaffinch, wren, mistle thrush and lots more besides. One very brief burst of chiffchaff.
Once we got to Chalfont St Giles we were reversing the morning route of the Amersham Circular walk, a pleasant climb up into the hills. The sun came out. I stripped down to shirtsleeves for the first time since September. Springlike sentiments flooded through my mind.
After passing through a stupendous bluebell wood (not yet out) on the edge of a golf course, two peeled off to do a shorter ending at Chalfont & Latimer station. Two others we did not see after lunch. So five of us continued down into Old Amersham.
Here the tea room had disappointingly just shut. We went instead to the modernised Griffin pub, which had disturbing artwork on its walls, but which served us tea, fruit cordial and gin and tonic with courtesy. One then left to get the 6.22 Metropolitan Line train from Amersham while four of us walked up through a birdsong-filled dusk wood to be far too early for the 6.52. We had a nice chatty ride back to London, not fortified by two surreptitious airline bottles of wine from Tesco’s, because that is not allowed on the Underground.
Post a Comment