Pete's Walks - Cowleaze Wood and Radnage (page 3 of 3)
On my previous walk I'd followed the bridleway along the valley for a couple of miles to eventually reach Fingest, passing a pheasant shoot on the way, but today I knew I only needed to follow it a short distance before turning off for Ibstone. Unfortunately I now made a stupid mistake, convincing myself I needed to take the first path on the right - it was only after following it gently uphill for about a third of a mile and then seeing some Chiltern Way signs that I knew I'd gone wrong! I could have simply turned left and followed that route into Ibstone, but chose to turn round and retrace my steps to the bridleway, then take the correct (second) path on the right. At least I'd walked another new path, which I may never walk again - also I saw eight Fallow Deer run across a field soon after I started up the correct path, which I'd probably not have seen without my unnecessary diversion. The path soon followed the left edge of a field, then continued uphill through Hartsmoor Wood, before following the left edge of another field and reaching Ibstone.
Path from Penley Wood to Ibstone
Approaching Ibstone
At Ibstone I ate a very late lunch (it was almost 2pm) on a bench by the cricket pitch, then walked across the common to the far right corner, passing the large Millennium stone. The rest of the walk was now very familiar, as it was the last few miles of Walk 16 of my Chiltern Chain Walk. I turned left along a bridleway that descended through Commonhill Wood to emerge in the attractive Wormsley Valley, in part of the Wormsley Estate once owned by Paul Getty. I followed the bridleway through the valley, joining a drive heading from Wormsley Place for a while, and then turning left (just after a large thatched cottage) on to a footpath that led uphill to Langleygreen Plantation.
The Millennium stone on Ibstone Common
Looking back over Ibstone Common towards the cricket ground
The path descending from Ibstone into the Wormsley valley
The path descending from Ibstone into the Wormsley valley
The path through the Wormsley Valley
The drive through the Wormsley estate
The path up to Langleygreen Plantation
The path up to Langleygreen Plantation
At a path crossroads in the plantation, I turned left and made my way back down into the northern end of the Wormsley valley, the path leaving the wood and crossing a meadow before passing to the left of Lower Vicar's Farm. I'd already seen and heard many Red Kites, and now as I passed Lower Vicar's Farm I not only had one of these magnificent birds circling low overhead, I also spotted a couple of Long-tailed Tits in a nearby bush. My two favourite birds at the same time!
The start of the path down from Langleygreen Plantation towards Lower Vicar's Farm
Looking across Lower Vicar's Farm (at the northern end of the Wormsley Valley) to the slopes leading up to Cowleaze Wood
From the farm, I went a few yards left along a surfaced drive, then took a footpath on my right. It was then a very long and steady climb uphill through a huge empty pasture to return to Cowleaze Wood, and then a walk of half a mile through the trees to get back to the car park.
Looking back across the valley, over the rooftops of Lower Vicar's Farm
The long climb up to Cowleaze Wood
Looking south along the Wormsley Valley - the two blurs in the sky are Red Kites (honest!), this being the area where they were re-introduced in the Chilterns about 20 years ago
Path through Cowleaze Wood
I am sorry that the photos for this walk are so grey and dismal. Unfortunately the forecast sunny intervals never materialised and it remained a dank December day throughout. It would be a little unfair to judge this walk after today, as no walk would be at its best in such grey (and muddy!) conditions. But I enjoyed it and thought it pleasant enough, and hope to do it again in sunnier and drier conditions sometime. There was a lot of woodland walking and quite a lot of ups and downs, and the two short sections of road walking weren't as bad as I'd feared. But the views were disappointing (though I may have missed some because of the grey conditions), and it certainly isn't a patch on my usual walks from Cowleaze Wood (Walk 16 of my Chiltern Chain Walk, or this slightly shorter version) which are two of my favourite walks in the Chilterns.
To see this walk when I repeated it on 26/10/11, click here - Cowleaze Wood and Radnage .