Length: 15.1 km (9.4 miles)
Toughness: 6 out of 10 (a steepish hill either side of lunch - one of which can be avoided)
London Marylebone: 10-13 hrs Chiltern Railways service to Aylesbury
Arrive Princes Risborough: 10-59 hrs
Return: Great Missenden to Marylebone: 16-01, 16-31, 17-26, 18-01, 18-32 hrs and later
Rail ticket: buy a day return to Aylesbury (where the two Chiltern Rail branch lines converge). We are meant to buy the more expensive "Any Route Permitted " day return, as the cheaper day return might restrict you to using one branch of the railway.
This is my favourite autumnal outing in the Chilterns, when the beech woods are usually a blaze of colour.
From Princes Risborough railway station we head along a leg of the Upper Icknield Way before heading over fields then along a road to the village of Loosley Row, with its windmill. The walk continues along field edges and through horse paddocks to Monkton Wood, where hopefully its beech trees will be in full autumnal colour. On then towards the village of Bryant's Bottom for lunch at the Gate Inn. The steep hill through woodland before the descent to the Gate Inn can be avoided by taking the road at the base of the hill all the way to the pub - but the hill route is much nicer.
After lunch we have another climb up a grassy field before we drop down to a hamlet and head up a road before its up over another grassy field which comes out at the Polecat Inn, your late lunch option today. From here you need to take care when walking through Peterley Wood, as it is easy to wander off piste. On then to Angling Spring Wood to the outskirts of Great Missenden, where you have a choice of cafes and pubs for walk-end refreshments. A popular stop is The Cafe at the Roald Dahl Museum (previously known as Cafe Twit) which is Swizzfinglingly Flushbunkingly Gloriumptious - of course it is....... ..
The railway station is just up the road from the High Street.
T=1.45
Walk Directions are here: L=1.45
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Ah, the wiles of weather forecasters! Bright and clear dawned the day, with low sunshine fretting the clear blue sky. N=23 walkers (“nearly a record for the midweek walks” according to our walk poster) flung off their duvets and eagerly set off for their Chilterns treat.
Alas, when 22 of us (one caught up with us at lunch) alighted at Princes Risborough, the sun had been replaced by grey cloud. By lunchtime it was joined by intermittent rain. So, w=disappointingly-grey-and-damp.
Nothing daunted (I was a bit daunted, actually) we set off into the beech woods. Certainly not yet at their autumn best, but showing respectable amounts of colour. The same might be said about the mud: some, but more to come.
The walk poster had booked four for lunch at the Gate. We added a reservation for six more and walker number 23 turned up later and ate also. As it turned out, we were the only clientele. Booking first got the four a nice table by the fire, but the six got to order first. The pub is under new management and the food offering seems to be good. I decided on the “light” option of a veggie pasta, having had a hearty breakfast, and was served a portion big enough to feed a village (though they forgot the side salad…)
Refugee sandwichistas came in to have drinks as we ate, alerting us to the rain outside. This nagged on through the afternoon, but in compensation the leaf colours were best on this stretch. I also got to try out my new waterproof jacket.
Arriving in Great Missenden, nine went to the cafe on the corner (not the thingumy museum one, but a normal one) and one to the George, where he drank a pint alone. Most got the 16.21 train, but three of us (two in the cafe and the pub drinker) got the fairly busy 17.26. And so back to the comforting chaos of the big city. .
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