With old friends I often walk in the Chiltern Hills. One of us lives the other side of Oxford so we split the journey to be fair about time and cost. This week we walked on a day that until the last minute begged to be cancelled for the weather forecast!
A simple and attractive route from Stokenchurch was 6.5 miles - (thin blue line on the map) and mainly downhill but with a very steep hill to get the height back! On the hill, in Great Wood close to Ibstone, we found a man training for a race up Snowdon in the near future. He chose the hill because he thought it was the steepest in the Chilterns! He ran up and down twice while we were grinding our way to the top and still had the breath to tell us about it!
The night before there had been thunderstorms and heavy rain so many puddles had formed after a few days of drying out but it was far from the worst we've seen this last winter and for much of early April. All in all, very pleasant.
The photos include wild garlic, cowslips, wood spurge, yellow archangel (dead nettle) and of course, bluebells! Bill is holding up one of many huge old beech and oak trees along the route. The black mould is known as King Alfred's Cakes!
There is nothing better than walking in beautiful, natural surroundings with people you value.
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