I make no apology for re-posting this walk so soon after Mr. Tiger posted it. I understand the walk was scuppered by transport problems, so here is another chance to do it. This walk should provide plenty of lovely autumn colour and starts off along the Grand Union Canal, and takes in the Ashridge Estate, Berkhamsted Common, the delightful Golden Valley, abd World War One training trenches.
Length: 9.6
miles
Effort: 4/10
Trains: take
the 9.54 from Euston, arriving at Tring at 10.32
Return
trains from Berkhamsted are xx.20; xx.28; xx.50; xx.58
Ticket type:
Return to Tring
Lunch:
the Bridgewater Arms (tel 01442
842408 ) in the village of Little Gaddesden
Picnic: If you walk along towards the church behind
the pub, you will come across a playground with benches.
Tea: Lots of
places in Berkhamsted for tea or something stronger. Just before the railway
station you come to the Crystal Palace pub on the canal and if you are running
out of time there is a kiosk in Berkhamsted station next to the ticket office
selling tea/coffee/alcoholic beverages.
Full details
of the walk, directions and GPX can be found here: https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/walk/tring-to-berkhamsted/
L=swc.366
1 comment:
A dozen of us at the start of this walk, most of us having survived the 100 metre dash at Euston to get from concourse to train in the five minutes between the platform being announced and the train departing. One walker, it later transpired, had failed this test by a whisker and had to get the next train. She and a companion nevertheless managed to get to the lunch pub before us. So N=14
It was w=a-gorgeous-sunny-morning. Layers quickly came off as we walked along the canal in the sparkling light. One walker skipped this and did a shortcut, but met us again in the woods. At one point there was a huge diesel slick on the water caused by a careless canal boat.
The leaf colour in the woods was excellent. It is hard to catch beech tints at their best, with gold, copper brown and yellow evident at path level. But today we nailed it. A perfect choice of walk, and pretty much no mud, despite last night’s deluge.
The Bridgewater Arms was busy - or at least its bar was: I didn’t look at its compulsory table service restaurant. But the four of us who wanted to eat found a table between comfy sofas (the two late starters were already at a table). Three of us had the cheese-topped “signature shepherd’s pie”, which was absolutely delish. I added a side of onion rings because that is the kind of daring fellow I am: they were excellent too, crisp and juicy.
In the afternoon it clouded up, but the leaf colour was if anything even better. We stopped at the Ashridge House cafe but thought better of it when we saw how slow-moving the queue was. So we carried on to Berkhamsted, arriving at 3.30pm. Here two went to the Crystal Palace (reportedly very busy) while four of us headed to the High Street. There we found several independent cafes looking a bit cake-less, so Gail’s it was. Very generous-sized pots of tea, I thought.
We got a train at 4.20(-ish), just as the rain was starting, and by chance ran into the pub duo on the platform. So all six of us were together on the ride home. We spent it discussing how little alcohol we had drunk in the past week, among other topics.
Post a Comment