Walk – Page 26 – Neil Baldwin's blog : Warning contains walking, technology, photography, holidays.

Rising Sun Little Hampden

Bought Helen some boots at Foxes of Amersham then off for a walk round Little Hampden. Red Kite, Wood Pigeon, Great Tit, Rook, Jackdaw, Pheasant, Goldcrest, Long tailed Tit, Magpie, Buzzard, Chaffinch, Jay, Wren. Big loop of a walk from the pub. Got a bit lost after hampden house, but got back on track and founds the pub again, for a pint of Adnams shock horror it was shut, we were half an hour late.

Jumped in the car and went on down to the Black Horse in Great Missenden for a spicy bean burger and chips. Lovely burger with thin chips and a side salad, washed down with a pint of Black Sheep.

The wild cherry walk

Out for a walk with the people who live on the hill side. Started near the pub (that means we end near a pub), and walked round Frithsden, Nettleden, and Potten End. Weather cool but sunny, very clear atmosphere got some good photos. Towards the Potten End part of the walk you end up walking on roads so not that dog friendly.

There are a lot of cherry trees on the walk, hence the walk name, but we are out of season. The plums however were spot on just about falling off the tree with ripeness. Found some that looked like giant cherries. They were a bit sour but would make great jam.

Finished the walk back at the pub called The Alford Arms, for a pint and something to eat. The menu was great we had crispy szechwan squid, and crab and broad bean salad. Other highlights included, poached duck eggs, slow cooked Chiltern lamb, smoked Grimsby haddock, courgette dauphinoise with broad bean pistou. The pub website is at www.alfordarmsfrithsden.co.uk

An old favourite

Went for the favoured walk around Swan Bottom with John and Angela, starting & finishing at the pub. No yellowhammers today but saw buzzards and red kites. A bit squishy in places and Belle ended up with muddy paws. Lots of ragwort in the fields. Lunch in the pub garden, a few too many wasps about but a good pint of Adnams, Cornish Tribute & Chiltern Ale were had (that’s not one of each for all!).

Where is the ark?

Thought I would give you all an update on my walk to work routine. Things are going well I have not missed a day yet, in the three weeks I have been walking.

I am getting to know the wildlife that is about on the route, and this morning I thought may be there was an ark nearby, as all the birds seem to come in two’s. First I saw a Grey Heron fly along the canal, and later another one fly the other direction. In a regular spot I saw two Bull Finches (male and female), they seem to always been in the same short section of the canal, and I suspect that are always there unless someone has passed before me and scared them off. Then I saw a Kingfisher fly past twice, it was a bright iridescent blue because it was flying away with the sun behind it. It may have been the same bird twice, but I am claiming it as two different birds!

Other stuff that is often out there are Hares in the fields adjacent to the Buckland Road, as well as an elusive warblerish bird that I have yet to get in the binoculars.

Walk home times

Thought I would time my walk home and get some timings for a few landmarks on the way. My previous times have been arounf 35 minutes.

Work             0:00    28:50
Canal bridge 1   4:30    24:20
Canal bridge 2  11:00    17:50
A41 bridge 30   16:30    12:20
Queens Mead     21:37     7:13
Village Hall    24:14     4:36
Home            28:50     0:00

BuddyWay

I have recently been trying out a new (free) GPS tracking system called BuddyWay (link). It works with any GPS enabled phone (pucks work too), you can set the frequency of the updates and how often they are sent to the site. there are clients for most mobile phones. See the screen shot of a walk Helen and I did at the weekend.

Titchwell RSPB

The final day of the weekend, we were determined to make the most of the weekend in terms of birds seen and time spend by the sea. We were first in for breakfast, a great veggie affair mushrooms, potatoes, eggs, beans, spinach and tomatoes, then we checked out and headed down to the car park at Titchwell, strangely we were not the first birdwatchers to arrive.

Apparently there was another very high tide which was about to turn, this meant that all the waders that normally spend their time on the mud uncovered by the tide would be on the scrapes of the bird reserve! True to form there were hundreds of them, knot, godwits, plovers, turnstone, the full monty. We headed on out to the beach (eider in eclipse plummage), then took a stroll down the beach for a mile or so to the end of the sand spit.

On the way back we spotted no less that 5 spoonbill, and a bloody-nosed beetle, and so after spending some money in the RSPB shop we had to head home.

Burnham Overy Staithe to Holkham

The weekend of great weather continues. On Saturday we decided to revisit a walk we had done when we were staying at Salthouse in May. We dropped the car off in Burnham Overy Staithe, which proved to be difficult because there was a very high tide early in the day and all the sailors were out sailing and the normal car park was underwater. We found a spot and left the car, the plan was to walk to Holkham then get the bus back to the car.

We headed off along the sea wall, the tide was higher than we have ever seen. It was on the turn and the currents were quite fast, and there were not a lot of waders about. When eventually got to a junction where right is to Holkham and left is towards the end of a peninsula where we had spied a couple of bird hides in May. In the way we came across a big flock of Linnet. At the end of the spit we could see all the sailors that had either sailed out or got a ferry to the island.

We walked along the beach and after a few hundred yards got our shoes and socks off. We then spent the next couple of miles bare foot paddling through the waves. We were however not as unclad as the nudists on the nudist section of the beach, (why do they insist on standing up and strutting about rather than just sunbathing like the rest of us.

We eventually got to the strange area that gets flooded by the sea but not on every tide. There was lots of Samphire growing around there and the sand/mud was very slippery. We then reluctantly joined the public masses and headed for a bite to eat at the Holkham cafe. The bus then took us back to the car, but before heading back we checked out an Art exhibition in the local village hall.

That evening I had Samphire for a starter folled by Mackrel with runner beans and a mustard and gooseberry sauce!

Thornham to Holme and back

I have not updated the blog of a couple of weeks, not sure why but here you go I will make amends. This weekend Helen and I have been to Snettisham, for the weekend, we stayed at The Rose aand Crown a great pub with real ale and some rooms to stay in. The food is great. If you want to stay I would recommend the new rooms rather than the quirky ones up the stairs above the bar.

We arrived on Friday at lunchtime after having spent the night at Mum and Dads, (thanks for the roast veg and couscous lovely), and had lunch at the pub, before setting off for a bird walk.

The walk was from Holme to Thornham, we parked in Thornham then got the Coast Hopper to the Holme coast road stop. Whilst walking up the coast road there were loads of plum trees of different types all of them very sweet and ripe. We headed off over the golf course and then along the board walks to The Firs for a break in the hide to wait out a rain shower. Then it was off again through the woods and out along the sea wall. There we saw loads of butterflies everywhere we spotted about 15 different varieties, including a few we had not see before. As we got back to Thornham we had great close up views of three marsh harriers and we saw what we think was a bank vole.

There is a track of the walk and bus journey here.

Whipsnade on a hot bank holiday Sunday

Mad dogs and English men go out in the midday sun. So we got there early to ensure we were out in the midday sun! Met up with Kev, Ron, the kids, Marie, and John at Whipsnade Zoo.

We arrived just before the gates opened at 10. The queues went very quickly and we soon found ourselves in with Lemurs from Madagascar. It certainly was hot we started to find the shade and had to slap on the sun screen. We probably managed to see all the animals except the farm. As for the shows we only managed the bird show, which was excellent, but nothing was tickable.

Everyone enjoyed themselves despite Ben complaining about the pong. Left the Zoo at about 16:30 so we managed to make the most of the day. Later that evening we met up with Rory and Lizzie for a well earned pint at The Buck (does that make us regulars?). The were off to see the cheese rolling on Sunday.