Jersey 1961 & 2017

For our weekend in Jersey we recreated some old family photos. Both my parents, Ann and Michael, and my grandparents, Margaret and Charles went there in 1961. The capital and the airport have changed a lot in the meantime, but the rest of the island is much the same.

Michael, 1961 - View to Elizabeth Castle from St Helier Esplanade

Michael, Jersey harbour in background. 1961

Richard gower12 June 2017Jersey, Channel Islands, CoastComment

Jersey Half Marathon

When: June 11th 2017
Where: Jersey, Channel Islands
Course: Point-to-point from St Ouen to St Helier. First 2 miles down-hill to the north west coast then 5 miles along western coastal roles. Follows the old railway line, now a cycle path to St Aubin with the final 3 miles on the promenade of St Aubin's bay
Other routes touched (walk): None
Other routes touched (cycle): Jersey Cycle Route 1
Finish time: 1:59

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Richard gower11 June 2017Run, Half Marathon, Jersey, CoastComment

Les Platons - Jersey Island High Point

Significance: High point of the island of Jersey, Channel Islands
Elevation: 136 m / 143m (different sources)
Date climbed: 10/06/2017
Coordinates: 49° 14' 39'' N, 2° 5' 35'' W
Route Start / End: Circular from car park on Rue des Platons
Route Distance: 1.7 km (1.1 miles)
Route Elevation Change: +/- 31m
Subsidiary tops on route: None
Other routes touched (walk): None
Other routes touched (cycle): Jersey Cycle Route 1
GPX File: get via Buy Me a Coffee

route-27791251-map-full - Les Platons.png

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Richard gower10 June 2017Trek, UK County Tops, Country High Points, Jersey, Coast, Island High PointsComment

Walking The River Fleet

Start: Heath Brow Car Park 12 North End Way, Hampstead, London, NW3 7ES
Finish: Blackfriars Bridge, River Thames, London, EC4Y 0AF
Distance: 10.4 km (6.5 Miles)
Elevation change: +40m / -161m. Net -121m
GPX File: get via Buy Me a Coffee
Other Routes Touched (walk): Jubilee Greenway, Regents Canal Towpath, Thames Path
Other Routes Touched (cycle): CS3, C6
Map: OS Explorer 173 London North
Guidebooks: London's Lost Rivers: A Walker's Guide, London's Lost Rivers, London's Hidden Rivers: A walker's guide to the subterranean waterways of London
Links: River Fleet, Hampstead Heath, Blackfriars

For our latest London lost river trip, we walked the 6.5 miles of the Fleet from Hampstead Heath right down to the Thames. The Fleet is actually London's largest subterranean waterway and used to flow openly through the centre of the city. However, after centuries of serving as a rather fragrant open sewer—famously mocked by writers like Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift—it was finally bricked over and buried in the 1700s. Nowadays, the only parts of it that are still visible are right near the source up at Hampstead. Despite the lack of an actual flowing river for most of the way, tracing its route makes for a brilliant couple of hours exploring some incredibly interesting places across the city.

We mostly stuck to the route described in Tom Bolton's book London's Lost Rivers. Our main diversion from his path was to veer off to visit Camden Lock about three miles in, and then follow the Regent's Canal down to King's Cross station. The distance works out to be roughly the same, but walking the canal path is much more pleasant than navigating the back roads that strictly trace the old riverbed. Plus, it takes you past the historic gasometers and the spot at King's Cross where the Fleet still silently rushes directly beneath the bustling train platforms.

There is an absolute wealth of London history to take in along the way, including passing the famous Mount Pleasant sorting office, which sits securely over the hidden river, and finishing at Blackfriars Bridge. If you time it right and look closely at low tide, you can actually see the Fleet emptying into the Thames through a grate under the bridge! I will not cover every historical detail here, as Tom Bolton's book is a very thorough guide and well worth stuffing into your rucksack. The Londonist video is also a great primer to watch before you head out.

Getting there and back is pretty straightforward. We parked at Heath Brow Car Park (NW3 7ES), which is right next to the start of the western source at Whitestone Pond. It is a lovely spot—in fact, it is said that the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley used to sail paper boats there—but while it is highly convenient, it is also rather expensive at £20 for the six hours we needed to complete the round trip. Once you reach the Thames, the best route back is via the Underground: catch the Circle or District Line from Blackfriars to Embankment, then swap to the Northern Line up to Hampstead, leaving you with less than a half-mile walk back to the car.

route-21759131-map-full - River Fleet.png

More London posts

If you enjoyed reading this post, there is plenty more to explore across the capital. I have put together a dedicated London Outdoors page where I keep track of all my other adventures around the city. It is a handy index where I group my posts by the different types of places I have visited: including historic boundary lines, canal towpaths, and some surprising urban high points.

The collection covers a bit of everything: from long-distance cycling routes to tracing the underground network on foot, and ticking off another Saturday morning parkrun. If you are looking for some inspiration for your own weekend outings, head back over to the London Outdoors page to see what else I have been up to.

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Richard gower4 June 2017Trek, London, Middlesex, Thames, EnglandComment

Stockley Park 10k

When: April 23rd 2017
Where: Stockley Park, Uxbridge
Course: Loops of Stockley Park Golf Course & Country Park with start and end in Stockley Park Business Park
Other routes touched: None
Finish time: 56m

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Richard gower21 May 2017Run, 10k, Middlesex, London, EnglandComment

Cycling The River Cut

Confluence with the Thames at Bray Marina

River start: Fish Ponds, North Ascot, Berkshire
River end: Confluence with the Thames between Queens Eyot Island and Bray Lock
River length: ~22.5 km (~14 miles)
Cycle route start: Junction of Hatchet End and Forest Road, North Ascot
Cycle route end: Sumerleaze Bridge, Bray Marina
Cycle route length: 22.6 km (14 miles)
Cycle route elevation change: +230m /- 269m. Net -39m
Other routes touched (walk): Ramblers Route
Other routes touched (cycle): NCN 4
Map: OS Explorer Map (160) Windsor, Weybridge & Bracknell

The Cut is an obscure 14-mile tributary of the Thames. There's no path to cycle or walk next to it, but the roads around it give a nice hour and a half ride through small Berkshire villages. I had crossed it many times before without knowing its name. It even crossed the garden of a house I'd lived in for a couple of years.

The purpose of today's trip was to cycle as close as possible to it from the start at North Ascot to the Thames at Bray. The best place to start is the junction of the A330 and the Forest Road. Here a stream goes under the road and continues south-east through Ascot Golf Course to Virginia Water lake. To the north-west is Fish Pond, in a private estate, where the river flows on towards the Thames.

From here, the cycle route follows mostly country lanes and some larger roads through Winkfield, Newell Green, Warfield, Binfield, Touchen End and Holyport. The only place to cycle next to the river is on the last mile at Bray Lake before it enters the Thames at Bray Marina.

Elevation profile for cycle route

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Richard gower20 May 2017Cycle, NCN, Berkshire, England Comments

Transylvania Road Trip

There was an interesting mix of reactions when we told friends and colleagues that we were planning a trip to Transylvania. Some didn’t think that it was a real place and others only associated it with the Dracula story. Most had never been. This was part of what made it an exciting trip for us: Transylvania inspires a real sense of adventure and a promise of stepping back in time, yet still within a few hours flight from London.

We had other reasons to go too. Transylvania is now part of Romania but used to be part of a much larger pre-WW1 Hungary. Timi, my wife, is Hungarian and had told me a few stories, so I wanted to learn more about its complicated history. It also turned out that we’ve got friends who are from there, something we hadn’t really appreciated until we started planning the trip.

The first thing to know is that it's a big place. Transylvania is 10% larger than Hungary itself and around 20% smaller than England. We were only going for a week, so we picked the central region that covered most of the “must-see” places recommended to us.

Cluj (Kolozsvar in Hungarian) was a good place to start understanding the Hungarian connection. In the centre of the Old Town, in front of St Michael’s church, stands the statue of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary in the 15th Century

On our day trip to the Huedin Microregion (Caikszereda in Hungarian) on day 2 we saw some of the Hungarian villages near Cluj. We stopped at a church in Mănăstireni just as the service was ending and were treated by the pastor to a private tour of the church and its small museum. This was one of the few trips when speaking Hungarian was a real advantage.

Although the region was mostly Hungarian, there were some Romanian towns. It was a policy in the Ceausescu era to move ethnic Romanians into Hungarian villages to dilute the population. Some places have kept their Hungarian names, whilst others like Kolozsvár (Cluj) have Romanian names. Despite being nearly 100 years on from the Trianon Treaty, many Hungarians are still bitter about it. It's unlikely that anything is going to change though as the issue isn’t high on politician’s lists of things to fix.

It's not just the Transylanian issue that concerns people, as we discovered. We noticed “bassarabia e romania” (“Bessarabia is Romanian”) graffiti by the sides of the mountain roads to the Bucegi plateau. This is a historic region that was once part of Romania but now largely part of modern-day Moldova. The more that I read about the region, the more I discovered other territories like Transnistria and Dobruja with complicated histories and territorial claims.

Dracula

The Dracula myth is loosely based on the real Vlad Tepes, Prince of Wallachia in the 1400s. One theory we heard was that Bram Stoker had a relationship with a Hungarian professor from the University of Budapest and had heard stories of Vlad’s brutality. Vlad was famous for impaling the heads of his victims and displaying them along the routes that his enemies would travel along. This was intended to create fear and a sense of Vlad’s army being larger and more brutal than it was. As one historian told us, Vlad was probably no worse than many rulers at the time, it's just that he’s become famous for it, earning the name Vlad The Impaler.

The Dracula myth is actually a combination of influences from Vlad the Impaler, a European legend about a blood-sucking South American and Transylvania’s reputation as a wild and mysterious place. The name Dracula actually comes from Vlad Tepes’ father, Vlad Dracul, who got his name after becoming a member of the Order Of The Dragon ... Dracul meaning Dragon.

Thankfully Romania hasn’t gone overboard on exploiting the Dracula connection. In Sighisoara (Segesvar in Hungarian) we had dinner in a slightly tacky restaurant in the building Vlad was (supposedly) born in. In 2002 plans to build a Dracula theme park just outside the town were abandoned following criticism from UNESCO, Greenpeace and the Prince of Wales, amongst others. Instead, Bran Castle near Brasov is the centre of Dracula tourism. The castle’s connection to Vlad is highly tenuous as he may have stayed there for a few nights. The most interesting Vlad The Impaler fact for us was that he was imprisoned in by King Matthias at Visegrad Castle, right next to where we got married.

The Trip

Our 8-day trip started in Cluj-Napoca, ending in Sibiu via Sighisoara and Brasov. Driving in Transylvania there can be an adventure in itself. Roads are badly maintained and mostly single carriageway. Lorries share the road with horse &carts and often overtake without warning. This means that driving times between towns are longer than similar distances in other countries.

Highlights were:

Sighisoara, a UNESCO World Heritage town. We took a fascinating guided walking tour with Peter from the Cultural Heritage InfoPoint near the Clock Tower.
Viscri Fortified Saxon Church, also a UNESCO site. It’s 10km along a very bumpy dirt track. Well worth the effort though for a few hours of peace in a beautiful old village.
Cycling from Sibiu to the ASTRA open-air museum at Dunbrava National Park.

Things we wish we had known:

Don’t go to Turda Salt Mine on a national / bank holiday. It was rammed in there.
Heroes Cross and the Transfaragasan Road are only doable in the summer. We tried to get to Heroes Cross but only made it as far as the cable car station.
Sinca Veche is really weird. We’d heard reviews of people who had experienced strong energies there. We just didn’t get it.

Day by Day

Blue = Day 3, Cluj-Turda-Sighisoara; Green = Day 5, Sighisoara-Viscri-Brasov; Red = Day 7, Brasov-Bran-Sinca-Sibiu

Richard gower7 May 2017Roadtrip, MountainComment

Southampton Half Marathon

When: April 23rd 2017
Where: Southampton, Hampshire, UK
Course: Mix of city centre, country parks and bridges over the River Itchen. Through the football stadium at mile 10.
Other routes touched (walk): Itchen Way, Solent Way,
Other routes touched (cycle): NCN 2, 23, 236
Finish time: 1:55

trip-14145914-map-full - Southampton.png

A highlight of today's Half Marathon was seeing how many people had misread the online registration form. There was a section that asked how you want your name to appear on your Race Number. Most got it right and wrote in their name, nickname, charity or running club. It's mainly there for spectators to cheer you on as you run past. Some clearly misunderstood and had "yes", "no" or "N/A" printed on them. There was even one guy who would have had people shouting "Well done ..."Just the number please"" as he ran by. Fail

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Richard gower23 April 2017Run, Half Marathon, Hampshire, England, CoastComment

Walking The River Wandle Trail

Morden Hall Park on a sunny day — Morden Hall Park

Start: East Croydon Station, Croydon CR0 1LF
Finish: Thames Path at Wandsworth, SW18 1EJ
Distance: 21.2 km (13.2 miles)
Elevation change: +55m / -117m. Net -62m
GPX File: get via Buy Me a Coffee
Other routes touched (walk): Vanguard Way, Wandle Oaks Link, Capital Ring, Thames Path
Other routes touched (cycle): NCN 20
Map: OS Explorer Map (161) London South, Westminster, Greenwich, Croydon, Esher & Twickenham
Guidebooks:
- London's Lost Rivers: A Walker's Guide by Tom Bolton
- London's Lost Rivers by Paul Talling
- London's Hidden Rivers: A walker's guide to the subterranean waterways of London by David Fathers
Links: River Wandle, Croydon, Carshalton, Morden Hall Park National Trust, Wandsworth

Just like last week's Lea River trip, this one started in a grim New Town and ended at the Thames in London. There may be some pleasant parts of Croydon, but they are not immediately obvious on this initial stretch of the Wandle.

I was following the river along the course described in Tom Bolton's London's Lost Rivers. Unlike the other subterranean waterways described in the book, the Wandle is mostly still visible today, with only a few sections having been covered up or converted to sewers. Once you leave the concrete of Croydon, it's a very pleasant walk, run, or cycle through some surprisingly green and hidden parts of the capital.

The route starts at the 120-year-old Swan and Sugarloaf at the south end of Croydon High Street. Once a grand historic pub and hotel built in the 1890s, it's now a Tesco Express in a rather dingy part of town, though the beautiful Victorian exterior remains intact. The river has been covered up in this area, so the best plan is to head north quickly. If you are not bothered about visiting the exact historical source, the Wandle surface car park, slightly further up, is an alternative place to start.

The Wandle finally becomes visible about half a mile in at the south-east corner of Wandle Park. Interestingly, the river here was buried in a concrete culvert back in the 1960s but was successfully dug back up and restored to the surface in 2012. The truly scenic part of the trip only really starts at Waddon Ponds—which is actually fed by springs that form one of the river's official sources—and this is where the signs for the Wandle Trail officially begin.

The river meanders for roughly 11 miles through a mix of parks and old industrial areas before reaching the Thames at Wandsworth. Because it drops rapidly in elevation, it used to be one of the hardest-working rivers in the world, powering over 90 mills for everything from copper and leather to lavender and snuff.

Along the way, there are some brilliant places to stop for a rest. Beddington Park is a highlight; it was originally a Tudor deer park where Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I used to hunt. A bit further along is Morden Hall Park, a beautiful National Trust property where you can still see the old snuff mills sitting right over the water.

The confluence with the Thames is just north of Wandsworth centre (the town actually takes its name from the river: the "Wandle's worth" or enclosure). I have crossed the bridge here several times on the Thames Path, completely not realising what it was. From here, I picked up a TfL Santander Cycle just around the corner at Smuggler's Way and took a 6-mile route via the Thames Path to Victoria Station. Regular trains go from here back to West Croydon.

Trip1: Levada Dos Tornos

Start: Botanical Garden Cable Car, Caminho das Voltas, 15 Ilha da Madeira, 9060-329 Funchal
Finish: Casa Velha Do Palheiro, R. da Estalagem, 23 - São Gonçalo, 9060-415 Funchal
Distance: 9.5 km (5.9 miles)
Elevation change: +272m / -307m. Net -35m
GPX File: get via Buy Me a Coffee
Other routes touched (walk): Levada de Bom Sucesso, Caminho Rev. Padre Eugénio Borgonovo, Levada dos Tornos,
Other routes touched (cycle): None

Like Tenerife, where I spent many childhood family holidays, Madeira has a north-south climate divide. The north and mountains get a lot of rain whilst the south is dry. Madeira solved this by laying over 2000 km of miles of drainage canals. These take the water down to the south where it's used both for irrigation and drinking water. Funchal, the capital, is positioned at the confluence of a few of the larger Levadas as they reach the sea.

As a warm up for longer more adventurous hikes later in the week, we set off to do the Levada dos Tornos. This one is very easily accessible from Funchal. The start is about 10 minutes walk from the top of the cable car station that connects the Old Town to Monte and its Botanical Garden.

The thing we'd wish we had known about was that the start of the Levada walk was closed due to a huge forest fire in the summer of 2016. Signs at the bottom of the cable car would have been helpful. Obviously, no one had thought to warn people before spending 10 euro each to get to the top. We considered bypassing the barrier and giving it a go, but the locals at the cafe near the top were adamant that it would be a bad idea. Apparently someone had died attempting and several others had to be rescued. An enterprising taxi driver came to the rescue by offering us a ride to the other side if the valley for "only" 20 euro. As a ride back on the cable car would have cost the same, it seemed like a good option.

We started the walk at Choupana where the road crosses the Levada. This was the site of the Choupana Hills Resort, once a 5 star spa hotel which was completely destroyed in the fire. The diversion cut off the dangerous part, shortening the walk by an hour.

Immediately leaving the road you see the effects of the fire with trees barely clinging to life and others reduced to charred stumps. Villas and hotels that backed onto the Levada are now burnt out ruins. Look up and you can see the giant football stadium perched high up on the hill. It's one of the weirdest locations for a stadium, accessible only by steep, winding local roads.

One mile in and we reached the Hortensia Tea House. It's well situated for the full hike from Monte but felt a bit early for the reduced trip. We stopped anyway: we were on holiday so we didn't need much excuse for a cake, a beer and a nice view down to the coast.

The rest of the walk is a further 40 minutes down to Palheiro Gardens. This is part of a large privately owned estate which also has a golf course and 5 star hotel. It's a pleasant, quieter alternative to the bustling Botanical Gardens back at the cable car station.

We ended the trip at the hotel at the lower end of the gardens, taking a taxi back to the city. It would have been another hour to walk to the centre, but we opted for a nap and an early dinner instead.

Trip 2: Pico Ruivo

Start: Parque de Estacionamento Pico do Areeiro
Finish: Rua Dr. João Abel de Freitas, Médico 6, Santana
Distance: 8.6 km (5.3 miles)
Elevation change: +493m / -708m. Net -215m
GPX File: get via Buy Me a Coffee
Other routes touched (walk): PR1 Vereda do Areeiro, PR1.2 Vereda do Pico Ruivo, Vereda da Ilha, Vereda da Faja da Nogueira,
Other routes touched (cycle): PR03a, PR17

This was the highlight of our winter break in Madeira. Billed as the Madeira Three Peaks, it actually reaches the summits of the 1st and 3rd highest points on the island. The 2nd highest point was previously accessible but a land slip in 2016 has closed the path so the route now follows tunnels through Pico das Torres.

We chose to do the trek as a guided walk with Madeira Explorers. For the 2 of us it was only 20 euro more than hiring a car for the day and it solved the logistical issue of a point to point walk.

The route starts at Pico do Areeiro, the 3rd highest peak. You can drive all the way to the top where the summit is marked by a stone pillar behind the military "golf ball" radar station. From here the route descends gradually to a lookout point.

The stone path is well made and maintained. It's also exceptionally clean for a route that gets so many visitors. Much of the path also has strong cable handrails on the steep or exposed sections. Be careful though as some are loose or broken. Even without them it's not an especially dangerous walk.

Around an hour in, you pass the junction to the closed path leading up to the top of Pico Torres. Avoiding this, the routes continues and enters Pico de Gato Tunnel, the first of three on the trip. This is the longest one at about 100m.

As the route ascends towards Pico Ruivo you see more greenery. This is part of the Laurisilva, a UNESCO designated heather forest covering much of the north of the island. At around 8k the path reaches a hut which is a good place for a rest before the final push to the summit.

The final climb is only 10 minutes from the hut along a steeper section of the stone path. Although cloudy on our trip we could still see Achada do Teixeira, the neighbouring peak to the west. The summit is marked by 2 stone columns.

The trip concluded with a 2km gentler walk down to the car park on the east side of Achada do Teixeira.

Trip 3: Ribeiro Frio

Start & Finish: Ribeiro Frio Restaurant, ER103, Funchal
Distance: 6.9 km (4.3 miles)
Elevation change: + / - 395m
GPX File: get via Buy Me a Coffee
Other routes touched (walk): Levada do Furado, Levada do Poco do Bezerra, Caminho Real 24
Other routes touched (cycle): None

We did the Ribeiro Frio walk as a part of a 1 day east Madeira road trip. The 3 hour circular walk starts and ends at the Ribeiro Frio ("Cold River") restaurant. It's a 40 minute drive north of Funchal on some steep, and sometimes scary mountain roads. Once there, the walk is an oasis of calm and greenery.

The first hour of the walk follows the Levada do Furado. An alternative walk takes this all the way to Portala in the east, but our route branched off following the Levada do Bezerro. Whilst the first part was pretty busy, we had the route to ourselves apart from an American family that we occasionally met.

The Levada do Bezerro is a pretty steep climb. For the first 20 minutes were weren't convinced we were following the right path. The guide book said that there would be fast flowing water in the Levada but this was dry. The reason was clear about half way in, a landslide had damaged the conduit sending the water over the cliff to the river below. Further damage beyond this gave us some tricky places to clamber over.

The source of the Levada is a small series of pools on a cascade. The water here feeds the river below and some is siphoned off into the Levada. It's a nice, quiet place for a rest before the final 20-minute climb.

After the pools the path cuts up through the trees, reaching the Chao das Feiteiras plateau. Further on, at the highest point on the trip, is a small hill with some amazing views of the central mountain range. From here we could see the route of Wednesday's walk, from the radar station at Pico do Areeiro, through Pico das Torres, the summit of Pico Ruivo and Achada do Teixeira.

From here the path crosses some farm buildings and down a steep stone track meeting the Trout Farm. We'd timed it right as the restaurant at the bottom was quiet, with most of the tourist busses already having passed through earlier in the day. Grilled Trout with herbs and garlic bread were a great reward for one of the best short hikes I can remember.

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Richard gower25 February 2017Trek, Mountain, Madeira, Portugal, Island High Points Comment

Cycling The River Wye, Buckinghamshire

Part of the Chiltern Rivers Series
River start: Bradenham, Buckinghamshire
River end: Confluence with Thames at Bourne End, Buckinghamshire
River length: 14 km (9 miles)

Cycle route start / end: Parking in Bourne End Village Centre
Cycle route length: 33.6 km (21 miles)
Cycle route ascent: +/- 223m
GPX File: get via Buy Me a Coffee
Other routes touched (walk): Chiltern Way, Wycombe To Bourne End Disused Railway Trail
Other routes touched (cycle): Chilterns Cycleway
Map: OS Explorer Map (172) Chiltern Hills East
Links: River Wye, Bradenham, West Wycombe, High Wycombe, Wooburn Green, Bourne End

For my 3rd Chiltern River after the Chess and the Pinn, I chose the Wye for today's mini cycle adventure. The Wye, unlike its larger Welsh namesake, goes easily unnoticed. Despite having lived within 10 miles of it for most of my life, I'd barely heard of it until recently.

The Wye rises at Bradenham, near West Wycombe, travelling south-east for 9 miles before joining the Thames at Bourne End. The junction with the Thames is on private land so I started my trip on Bourne End High-Street, cycling toward the source.

The first couple of miles is fairly pleasant. After Bourne End, the river follows the A40 to Wooburn Common. From there navigation gets tricky as the river gets lost amidst housing and an unpleasant retail park hiding under the M40 flyover. The route through Loudwater continues along similarly unremarkable territory before a more pleasant cut through the Wycombe Rye park. One particular point of interest is where the Wye crosses under the route of the disused Wycombe to Bourne End Railway. You can see this by taking the small footpath from the A40 up onto the old railway embankment opposite Pinions Road shortly before Wycombe Town Centre.

The following mile or so, cutting past High Wycombe Town Centre and the Desborough Estate, is best completed as quickly as possible. It's only at the edge of town, approaching The border with West Wycombe, where there's anything worth slowing down for. The final place to see the Wye is on a bridge looking into the National Trust Estate at West Wycombe where you can see the lake that feeds the river.

West Wycombe High Street is a good place for a coffee stop before starting the second, much more pleasant, half of the trip. After West Wycombe, the route follows the A40 for a mile or so, joining the Chiltern Cycleway. Bullocks Farm Lane, now heading back South needs the lowest gear for 10 minutes of slog to the routes highest point.

From here, the Chiltern Countryside comes into its own as pleasant country lanes take you through Wheeler End, Lane End, Freith and down to Marlow. From here the A4155 forms an easy final 3.5 miles back to Bourne End.

Red = course of the river, blue = cycle route

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Richard gower5 February 2017Cycle, Chilterns, Disused Railway, Buckinghamshire, England, ThamesComment

Farnborough Half Marathon

When: January 22nd 2017
Where: Farnborough Airport, Hampshire
Course: Mostly airport perimeter roads, plus off-road trails & Basingstoke Canal
Other routes touched (walk): Basingstoke Canal Towpath
Other routes touched (cycle): None
Finish time: 1:53

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Richard gower22 January 2017Run, Half Marathon, Hampshire, EnglandComment

Walking The Icknield Way Through The Chilterns

Having been on a (literal) high following our completion of the Ridgeway we were keen to continue our winter walking adventures. The Icknield Way was the obvious continuation as the 2 paths meet at Ivinghoe Beacon. From there the Icknield Way heads north-east for 110 miles to Knettishall Heath in Norfolk which is also the start of the Peddars Way. I loved the idea of connecting my 2 previous adventures, so Wife and I started our Icknield wander.

We broke our first section, Ivinghoe Beacon to Chalk Hill, into 2 separate Sundays. This worked well with our new routine of ~5 mile point-to-point winter walks leaving a car at each end. Although the sections of the Ridgeway trip were all short car trips from our home, the driving was getting long enough to start getting boring by the time we’d finished this first section. Next time I’d be back would be 2 years later for the next section.

The guidance below will help you navigate but don’t use it as a fully accurate turn-by-turn guide. Always take a map and/or a GPX route and prepare well for the weather and terrain.

Part 1: Ivinghoe Beacon to Chalk Hill

Start: National Trust Car Park at Ivinghoe Beacon (LU6 2EG)
Finish: The White Lion Pub, Watling Street / A5 (LU6 1RS)
Distance: 17.5 km (11 miles)
Elevation: +197m / - 307m. Net -110m
GPX File: get via Buy Me a Coffee
Other Routes Touched (walk): Ashridge Boundary Trail, Chiltern Way
Other Routes Touched (cycle): NCN 6
Maps:
- OS Explorer Map (181) Chiltern Hills North
- OS Explorer Map (181) Chiltern Hills North
- OS Explorer Map (193) Luton and Stevenage
Guidebook: The Icknield Way Path: A Walkers' Guide
OS Trig Pillars: TP1099 - Beacon Hill and TP0379 - Dunstable Down
Links: Icknield Way Wikipedia entry, www.icknieldwaytrail.org.uk, www.icknieldwaypath.co.uk
- National Trails page on the Icknield Way Trail (Rider's Route and Walker's Route)

From Ivinghoe Beacon the Icknield Trail follows the Ashridge Boundary Trail for just over 2km before reaching a farm at the top of a hill. Leave the Boundary Trail here and turn left. Continue in a north-easterly direction to the B440 / Main Road East and turn right to pass through Dagnall. The Red Lion Pub is a nice place to stop and it’s also close to the start of the River Ver. After Dagnall School, take a left off the main road and follow the Trail as it passes through Whipsnade Park Golf Club and around the perimeter fence of Whipsnade Zoo.

Walk through Whipsnade Tree Cathedral. Just after the 1st km at Bison Hill the route will take a right angle and switch from a north-westerly to a north-easterly direction. The Trail will soon meet up with the Chiltern Way again as they pass over the top of Dunstable Downs. You can see for miles here and its a good place to stop and check out the National Trust Visitors’ Centre, the Bedfordshire County Top and have a picnic whilst watching the gliders take off and land below.

Follow the trail down off the Downs and cross the busy B489 onto Green Lane. After ~1k the Trail will take a sharp right off Green Lane into farmland. Follow the Trail for ~2km past Maiden Bower Hill Fort and Sewell Manor before reaching the A5 Watling Street and the end of this section.

Part 2: Chalk Hill to Pirton

Start: White Lion Pub Watling Street, Houghton Regis, Dunstable, LU6 1RS
Finish: The Motte & Bailey, 1 Great Green, Pirton, Hitchin, SG5 3QD
Distance: 31 km (19.4 Miles)
Elevation: +435m / -470m. Net -35m
GPX File: get via Buy Me a Coffee
Other Routes Touched (walk): Chiltern Way, John Bunyan Trail, Walk on the Wild Side
Other Routes Touched (cycle): Chilterns Cycleway, Icknield Way Trail (cycle route)
Map: OS Explorer Map (193) Luton and Stevenage
Guidebook: The Icknield Way Path: A Walkers' Guide
OS Trig Pillars: TP6734 - Warden Hill and TP2743 - Deacon Hill
Links: Icknield Way Wikipedia entry, www.icknieldwaytrail.org.uk, www.icknieldwaypath.co.uk
- National Trails page on the Icknield Way Trail (Rider's Route and Walker's Route)

It had been 2 years since I’d started the Icknield Way and I was eager to get back to it. Other adventures had got in the way, but I had a new motivation for it once I’d decided to explore the “North Chilterns Exclave”. This is the north-eastern part of the Chiltern Hills National Landscape that’s cut off from the rest of it. The Chilterns’ rolling chalk hills stop abruptly after Dunstable Downs followed by a flat gap featuring Dunstable, Luton, the A5 and the M1. I’d have to get through this section before the pleasant parts start again near Sundon. So, when I was looking for this year’s Winter Solstice long walk, the next section of the Icknield Way was the obvious choice.

In a change to my previous Solstice walks, I wasn’t alone as my friend Brian came too. It was great to have a buddy this time and there was an added logistical advantage by being able to leave a car at each end. After a bit of parking logistics we set off from the White Lion pub as the sun rose over the newly built distribution centres. We were already firmly in logistics country: a corridor of fields along the M1 that are being gradually replaced by huge warehouses. Within a mile of our start we were already on a diversion of the trail as it skirted round a building site that would soon be a new growth on Dunstable.

At Wingfield we were back on course and in pleasant countryside again. The next 5k was fairly unremarkable as the trail crossed the gap between the 2 parts of the AONB, crossing the River Flit, M1 and mainline railway. Immediately after rail bridge, the trail ascends 60m reaching Upper Sundon and the border back into the Chilterns. This next section before lunch was lovely with great views for miles to the north and a pleasant route along the John Bunyan Trail and into Sharpenhoe National Trust land.

Streatley is a great stopping point a little over half-way into the route. It also had the only pub that we found on the trail and it conveniently opened for lunch shortly after we arrived. After a pretty large Surf-and-Turf and an hour of warming up we headed South back on the trail. The route briefly dips out of the AONB as it skirts the northern edge of Luton before a steep climb up through South Beds Golf Club to the top of Warden Hill. Here we took a minor diversion from the trail to bag our first Trig Pillar of the day. From the Trig you can see right across Luton, which sits right in the middle of the gap in the Chilterns, and Dunstable Downs in the distance.

The final few miles was on a straight path heading north-east and keeping on high ground. We took another diversion up Deacon Hill to bag the 2nd Trig Pilar of the day. By now it was getting dark and misty so we quickly returned to the trail and start the final descent to Pirton. My energy was noticeably depleted after Deacon Hill and the final mile seemed to go on for ever. The end point at the Motte and Bailey was a very welcome sight, as was the table by the fireplace to warm up next to before the drive home.