t=2.1
Length: 21km / 13m
Toughness: 7 / 10
Transport: Take the 9:27 train from London Marylebone, arriving in Wendover at 10:16. Return trains at 16:54, 17:54, 18:24, 19:24, 19:46, 20:24
My favourite autumn walk in the Chilterns: Lunch in the cozy Red Lion in Princes Risborough before steeply climbing up to Whiteleaf Cross for a magnificent view along the Chilterns escarpment, then onwards to Pulpit Hill with its iron age fort, and finally a second steep climb up to Coombe Hill with another great view before descending into Wendover for hot cholocate or tea at Rumsey's, cheese and wine at No2 Pound Street or pub fare at the Shoulder of Mutton. Hopefully, the woods will display spectacular autumn colours.
9 comments:
The stated length of this walk on its home page is 11.5 miles, not 13 miles
The GPS route (dated 2017) shows 12.5 miles, so the published version was probably under-estimated. And a comment on the walk page mentions a detour for the HS2 works, so 13 miles seems about right. [Dirk is also proposing the alternative Coombe Hill ending, but that looks about the same length].
I take your point regarding the GPX length.
The comment refers to the standard ending of the walk, ie not going over Coombe Hill. I strongly advise walkers NOT to do this at present, as it does indeed go right across HS2 works. Coombe Hill is much prettier anyway.
There may possibly be a minor diversion at the start due to HS2 works, but it shouldn't add more than a few hundred metres. All the rest of the walk is unaffected.
After one of the previous postings of this walk a walker mentioned that his GPS measured 21km. So did mine. Hence, I quoted 21km. The reason for this discrepancy is unexplained at this time, but there are some walk options before lunch, as well.
Dirk
🧙🏻♀️🧹👻 Pre Halloween HS2 spooky spacial distortions perhaps? 👻🧹🧙🏻♀️
9:27 cancelled, any suggestions?
Only option is the 10:27
Update with ne sugestion: Take the 9:38 to Princes Risborough. I will make up a walk from there.
As can be seen from the comments, an early problem on this walk was that the specified train was cancelled, with the next not due for an hour. But Saturday Walkers are a resourceful lot and n=7 of us soon regrouped and got the 9.38 to Princes Risborough.
On the train we discussed options. One was to do the Wendover Circular as a Princes Risborough Circular, but the lack of obvious tea options weighed against this. So instead our walk poster quickly compiled and shared a GPX which provided a longer route to the Red Lion in Whiteleaf, the usual Wendover Circular lunch stop.
This proved to be a very pleasant walk in the woods in w=mainly-sunny weather. The beech colour, though far from its best, was very vibrant in places, and there were some interesting fungi. We got to the pub at about 1pm (?). Six ate, exploring all facets of the relatively short menu, while our backmarker caught us up and enjoyed his trademark cider and shared chips.
After lunch we had the Big Climb and then the Big Descent, which the backmarker cleverly avoided by taking the Little Side Path, meeting us on the other side. Our walk poster then took us up a shady gully, after which we crossed Pulpit Hill. Past Ellesborough we walked through a yellow field of mustard (?) and climbed the near vertical side of Coombe Hill (good training for next year’s Scotland trip apparently).
It was now 4pm and still sunny, but the sky to the south west forecast the imminent arrival of rain. So we hurried down to Wendover, where five us of managed to worm our way into Rumsey’s on condition we drank out of paper cups and ate cakes out of cardboard boxes using wooden forks.
Through all this we had been watching the return trains, which were in a proper mess, with no fewer than four cancelled. But luckily the 17.54 and 18.24 survived the slaughter, and after a brief drink in the Shoulder of Mutton all seven of us caught the former, emerging from the pub into torrential rain, which we were happy not to have had to walk in.
The train was packed, with many young’uns in fancy dress. We raised the tone by discussing the role (or otherwise) of Christianity in setting human standards of morallity. Before we knew it we were at Marylebone and it was back to our humdrum daily lives…
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