Pete's Walks - Southeast from Cadmore End (page 4 of 5)
On the other side of this second lane another field path started, initially to the left of the garden of the house named 'Arbon', then forking right to squeeze between hedges before crossing the corner of a ploughed field (the farmer had re-instated the path with deep tractor ruts). The path then descended very gently beside a left-hand hedge to reach the most northerly point of Homefield Wood. There was then a very pleasant section of woodland walking, the path dropping slightly before rising and then gradually descending over a long distance. After about half a mile I reached a valley bottom, where I turned right. For the first time since Shillingridge Wood I was back at somewhere I recognised, this broad track through the adjoining Homefield and Heath Woods being part of the Chiltern Way.
The start of the path from 'Arbon' to Homefield Wood
The path to Homefield Wood
Approaching Homefield Wood
Homefield Wood
Homefield Wood
Homefield Wood
Homefield Wood (approaching the Chiltern Way, running along the valley bottom)
I followed the track along the wooded valley - it continued westwards for a few hundred yards before turning north, and I had now moved from Homefield Wood to Heath Wood. The Chiltern Way soon turned very sharply left (I once met a couple of people near Flamstead who were doing the Chiltern Way, and they told me that they had missed this turn and later had to look at my web site to see where they went wrong) but I remained on the broad track and thus entered unexplored territory once more. A little further on I spotted a solitary Fallow doe in the trees that sloped up on my right. After a while the broad grassy track ended, but a narrow path continued northwards beside a tall wire fence on my right. I soon came to a path crossroads at a corner of the wood, where I turned left and followed the new path gently uphill with a nice view out from the edge of the wood on my right (Update 9/02/17 - the view is now obscured by a plantation of young trees).
The Chiltern Way, heading from Homefield Wood into Heath Wood
Heath Wood (just after the Chiltern Way turned sharp left)
Heath Wood
Looking north from the edge of Heath Wood
At a second path crossroads I turned right, resuming my northwards progress through the woods. After a while I had to go through an opening in a tall wire fence, where a gate lay in the mud. I then followed a tall wire fence on my right until I came to a corner where the fence turned left, across the footpath, and I was rather puzzled as to how to get through the fence. Fortunately two mountain bikers turned up at this moment and between us we managed to work out that you had to lift up and move a section out of the fence - one of the bikers gave me a hand putting it back in place after we'd gone through, I'm not sure how I'd have managed it on my own (I could understand why the corresponding 'gate' where I'd entered this fenced enclosure had been left in the mud). A little later I left the wood and crossed a small paddock, with a couple of horses in it, to reach a lane, close to a junction.
Heath Wood, approaching the junction where I turned right to head northwards again
Heath Wood
I went a few yards right then turned left at the lane junction. I now had about a mile and a quarter of lane walk ahead of me - while there are several east-west footpaths in this region immediately east of the Hambleden valley, there are no north-south paths, making a lengthy lane walk inevitable, and this is one reason why I had not explored this area before. The lane soon reached the hamlet of Rockwell End, where it curved to the right so that I was heading north again.
The lane nearing Rockwell End
The lane passing through Rockwell End