buckinghamshire – Neil Baldwin's blog : Warning contains walking, technology, photography, holidays.

Circular walk from Whiteleaf via the Hampdens

The weather on Saturday was appalling so I busied myself preparing stuff for the 3d printer build, of which more will follow in later posts. I was roped in to dropping Helen and our elderly neighbour off at church, so I took the opportunity to grab a weather window and head to the hills for a walk. The forecast was for rain around lunch time.

After a drop off at church I drove over to the car park above Whiteleaf, it would mean I was starting high and intended to remain high up for the walk. The sun was bright and low and the rain over night had really cleared the atmosphere so I was hoping for a few good pictures. There was a brisk wind and the air temperature was low so I was wrapped up well with several layers.

I tried to keep to the woods to be out of the wind but also it is better for bird watching. I headed towards the viewing point but turned left passing The hangings, then on thorough Sergeants wood and eventually got to Solinger house, I then had a choice and headed up Knightons Hill woods, then picked up the path that heads to Hamden house, which is a strange place to house an insurance company. I had a look round the grave yard and took a couple of HDR pictures then headed directly towards Great Hampden, along a very slippery path across a field, as I got the village in my own little world, a jogger made me jump as he warned me of his arrival. He apologised as he ran by.

I had to take a bit of road out of the Great Hampden then took the path through Keepers Hill wood to Redlands End where at the cross roads I took the path that leads to Grimms Ditch, which bought me back round almost to where I had passed earlier. Taking a left I headed towards Green Hailey farm.

Near the farm there is a garden shed build between three big metal posts about three metres tall one of which has a two metre satellite disk bolted to it. The shed has been there for years, and I have often wondered who uses it, my guess was that it was some sort of radio or tv enthusiast. I noticed that the door had been forced so I took the opportunity to take a look inside. I was right the shed was insulated, (you would want it to be if you were to be sitting in it during the winter), and contained coax wires, switches and a couple of electronic boxes. There was not much room to move inside to one side there was a single deep shelf that probably housed the tuning equipment and served as a desk. The other side was shelved floor to ceiling and probably contained the receiving equipment, which had now been removed apart from a couple of boxes. On the desk there were some written notes and print outs of tv stations. Shame it is not used anymore it would have been good to have a chat with the person who used it.

As I headed the last couple of hundred yards towards the farm it started to rain very heavily, so much so I sought refuge in the lee of one of the out buildings, until the rain stopped about 10 minutes later. It was then just a short walk back to the car.

The rain remained for the rest of the day so I was glad I had made the most of the weather.

Cadsden, Whiteleaf circular walk

Sunday morning the weather is overcast but bright so there was a cube of sunny spells. I consulted http://maps.bing.com as it is in my view the best place to look at OS maps and plan walks. I have not been over Whiteleaf direction for some time so I took a screen shot and emailed it to my phone for reference during the walk.

I had a vague plan for the walk but like to play it by ear as I go along depending on how I feel and the weather. I did know where I would start from just past the Bernard Arms (now closed) heading towards Princes Risborough there is a small lay by or parking area enough for a few cars.

From the parking area I followed the signs to the left of the thatched cottage up the track, which is up hill but allows you to warm up as you grind out your steps. At the top of the hill the is a great view looking back over the vale of Aylesbury towards Waddesdon manor. In the area around the top there is a hill fort if you take the time to find it. Strangely there is also a load of Leylandi which clearly are not natural, makes you wonder how and why they are there.

View around Pulpit Hill , Whiteleaf Buckinghamshire

I walk down the other side in search of a bridle path that I had used sometimes when I did a lot of mountain biking. Once found I followed the path to near the car park for Whiteleaf cross, which is where you pick up a foot path that heads back down hill and into Lower Cadsden where there is a pub/restaurant which I may try one day. Today however I had to walk on by up the hill out of the other side of the valley. Eventually I came to an open area of scrub land where you can sometimes see birds such are twite and bull finch.

Out of the other side of the scrub area you pick up a track that runs parallel to the one that you started out on. You will pass a stable before you get to the bottom where you hit the road that leads to Princes Risborough. Cross the road and head down the drive to a house which you pass and then the path bends round back to the road opposite where I parked my car. A great walk.

Autumn walk through the beech woods around Cholesbury Buckinghamshire

We were supposed to be going round A&C’s for a look at their new extension then on for a walk, but C, the Olympic torch bearer, was feeling a bit under the weather so Helen and I decided the weather looked so nice that we should go for a walk anyway.

We decided that we would walk from Cholesbury cricket ground, and keep as much as possible to the surrounding beech woods, as it was mushroom season and there should be plenty to photo. The sun was shining and it was ideal autumn weather. We walked towards the village hall then took the foot path that runs along side it. We passed the church on our left and entered a small section of woods, by crossing the site then following the footpath NW, we then came to an opening where there are usually some horses. We kept to the footpath and enter Buckland Wood, where the footpath seems to peter out but if you keep in the NW direction you eventually hit a T junction with a bridleway where we turned right.

The bridleway lead us to a rural road where we turned right and followed the road for about 400 metres. There were not many mushrooms about, we theorised that the conditions were perhaps not quite right, perhaps it was too warm. There was the odd clump about but not the usual abundance. We soon turned off and followed a path though a small wood then across a field with a crop in it. The small wood had lots of holly in it which had more than the usual amount of berries on it, the birds are in for a treat this winter.

Eventually we hit the track, called Shire Lane, that leads to Hastoe but we turned right away from Hastoe but back to Cholesbury. The lane is a great one to cycle down from the Hastoe end because it is just slightly down hill all the way and you can keep a fair lick going. At the end of the lane we hit the road again which we followed back to Cholesbury cricket ground, just round the bend and after a dip in the road, you can get off the road and go via the woods adjacent to it.

We both agreed that it was a nice short walk, 4.5 miles and took us 1 hour and 40 minutes. There was not many birds about, probably because it was around the middle of the day, traditionally very quiet.