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:
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...
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