Pete's Walks - Cadmore End, Radnage, Crowell Hill (page 4 of 5)
The track through Kingston Wood curved left and descended gently. At a junction I continued straight on along a bridleway following a valley bottom, still in woods - High Wood was on my left, further on the wood to my right was Lott Wood. As I reached the end of Lott Wood, I met the lady with her two children and pony again, we'd obviously walked the opposite sides of a rectangle. I then turned right, just inside the edge of Lott Wood, this path going uphill fairly gently. Just after emerging from Lott Wood, I looked through a wide gap in the hedge on my left and saw a Roe deer a short distance away, and I managed to get one photo of it before it scampered off. This was a most unusual sighting for me, only the second time I've seen a Roe Deer in the Chilterns.
The bridleway in High Wood
The bridleway between High Wood (left) and Lott Wood
Start of the path south along the eastern edge of Lott Wood
Roe deer, seen from just south of Lott Wood
The path continued beside a hedge on my left, then descended across a green corn field and went across a paddock to reach the drive to Hallbottom Farm. Here I turned right, going straight on along a footpath into a small wood where the drive bent left. A Muntjac crossed the path just in front of me here. At a path junction I turned left, this path soon leaving the wood and crossing an overgrown meadow to reach a drive by a house name Mallard's Court. I turned right and followed the drive into Stokenchurch.
Looking left (east) from just south of Lott Wood, along the line of Collier's Lane
The path continuing south from Lott Wood
The path going southwest through an unnamed wood
The path going east through an unnamed wood
The path continuing eastwards
The drive or private road going south to Stokenchurch
On reaching a junction by a pub on my right, I turned right and followed a street which soon turned left to reach the A40 in the centre of Stokenchurch. I crossed over and went down a street opposite (initially through part of a green). A track then continued straight on and downhill, almost immediately passing under the noisy M40. I then turned left, following a track that soon curved right and headed towards Penley Wood - just past a gate the path leaves the track, forking slightly right along the bottom of the valley to reach a stile or gate on the edge of the wood. I now had a long and pleasantly easy section, following a valley bottom that was very gradually descending through the woods for a distance of about two miles. I soon spotted another Muntjac, which ran across the path ahead of me and disappeared up the wooded slope on my left, 'barking' several times. Having seen two types of deer already, I was now hoping to see some Fallow deer, and sure enough four of them obliged me. I spotted them in the trees on my left, and they ran off and then crossed the track ahead of me. I was quite chuffed at seeing three species of deer on the same day (as far as I know, they are the only ones in the Chilterns).
Stokenchurch (the shop selling fireplaces and stoves is called 'Flaming Grate'!)
The start of the path from Coopers Court to Penley Wood
The path to Penley Wood
Penley Wood
Penley Wood