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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 2 January 2016

Saturday Third Walk - Chilterns: From Wendover to Missenden


SWC Walk 140b – Wendover to Great Missenden

Length:  21.6 km (13.4 mi)
Ascent/Descent:  360 m; Net Walking Time: ca. 5 hours
Toughness:  6 out of 10 
                or
Length:  16.4 km (10.2 mi)
Ascent/Descent:  290 m; Net Walking Time: ca. 4 hours
Toughness:  4 out of 10 
  
Take the 09.27 Chiltern Railways train from London Marylebone to Aylesbury, arrives Wendover 10.15, for the full walk. Or the 09.57 Aylesbury Vale Parkway service, if walking the short version. Return trains: XX.04 and XX.34 hours (46 minutes journey time). 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 several varied and characterful woods. A few beautiful valleys are crossed in between and the finish is a scenic descent into Great Missenden.

Lunch is either early in The Lee at the Cock and Rabbit Inn with its  reassuringly (or frighteningly, depending on your perspective) traditional Graziemille Restaurant (7.3 km/4.6 mi) or at the thoroughly recommended The Old Swan in Swan Bottom (10.0 km/6.2 mi). This has been awarded Cask Marque accreditation for its ales, and serves sandwiches as well as a limited but diverse menu of high quality dishes at reasonable prices. This pub has gone ever so slightly upmarket over the last years. It is advisable to book ahead, unless you are happy with a place in the bar area or in the large garden. For tea in Missenden, the rightly popular Cafe Twit has now got competition beyond the Cross Keys pub, in the shape of the Coffee Approach, on the roundabout just before the station (as well as a Costa Coffee next door to that). There’s also the Pantry on Platform 1, as you wait for the train, but in my experience it’s a bit of a hit-and-miss to actually see it open.

For walk directions, map, height profile, photos and gpx/kml files click here.
T=swc.140.b
L=swc.140

1 comment:

Thomas G said...

n=4 w=wet
Four walkers apparently. 2 first timers, 2 regulars. All doing the full length walk. V muddy, v nice.
As being told today on Cowden to Eridge...