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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.

Wednesday 19 April 2017

Wednesday Walk - Something New: an early start (with later option), Chiltern Hills and Woods with a very nice pub

SWC Walk 10 Little Kimble to Saunderton
Length: 17.3 km (10.8 mi)
Ascent/Descent: 400/385m; Net Walking Time: 4 ½ hours
Toughness:  4/10                       

Take the 09.15 Aylesbury train from Marylebone, arrives Little Kimble 10.04. [Full Price £21.20, with SRC etc. £14.00]. For a later start (but with a much longer journey): 10.13 Aylesbury train, change at Aylesbury onto the 11.29 Marylebone service (via Princes Risborough), arrives 11.37.
Return trains from Saunderton are on 15.50 (48 mins), 15.53 (76 mins), 16.50 (49 mins), 17.26 (44 mins), 18.26 (42 mins) etc. Buy a Little Kimble return.

This is a little gem of a walk, showing all the characteristics of the Chiltern range of hills. In particular, there are lots of fine beech woods on the walk, which show display vibrant autumn colours in late October or early November. But more importantly this time of year: several of the woods, particularly in the later part of the walk, also have bluebells. The walk is not all wooded, however, and has some good open stretches and a number of fine views. Though the terrain is gently undulating most of the time, gradients are in general not taxing.
Note: there are many paths in the woods, more than on the OS maps, so taking a compass is recommended. 

Lunch: The Pink & Lily, Parslow's Hillock (7.8 km/4.8 mi), a favourite inn of the poet Rupert Brooke. This pub has gone through a welcome transition to a walker-friendly, yet nicely refurbished bright pub with an interesting good quality menu and long weekday lunch hours (last food orders 14.45). For the late starters, The Plough at Cadsden is an early option. 
Tea: The Golden Cross, which usually has a fine selection of cakes and serves proper tea. 

For summary, map, height profile, some photos, walk directions and gpx/kml files click here.T=swc.10

Next Week: Tuesday SWC 8 Billingshurst to Amberley & Wednesday Book 1 Walk 9 Shiplake to Henley

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

getting the later starting train in accordance with swc midweek walks tradition ! anyone else?

Thomas G said...

8 walkers off the early train in w=brilliant-sunshine, which stayed with us all day. 1 more was met at the lunch pub, she had driven to Saunderton but arrived too late to catch the scheduled train due to the rush hour traffic, so made her way to the pub by foot and bus to pick up the walk there. 1 of us was 'on-call' and unfortunately got that 'call' some time between ordering lunch and getting it. He had to call a taxi to get to work.
As for the walk: a nicely undulating route through very quiet countryside, with a fair mix of varied woods, with the sun breaking through the tops, very pretty indeed.
We arrived at the pub bang on 12 o'clock, so were the first to order food, but it still took an age to arrive. So much so that the 4 who took the later train arrived before we had left. They were helped by their own ingenuity in getting off the Aylesbury train at Monks Risborough and improvising an alternative start for the walk (rather than travelling all the way to Aylesbury and then back to Little Kimble).
The afternoon route had some very pretty valleys and more woods to offer, incl. 1 that was dominated by blue carpets in every direction (not quite at their best yet), before the final prolonged descent to Saunderton. 3 paid a visit to the Golden Cross's sunny back garden for tea & cake and/or beer. The rest went for the 15.50 train. n=13