Pete's Walks - Cadmore End, Radnage, Crowell Hill (page 5 of 5)
I sauntered along through the woods - some patches of blue sky had finally appeared just before I reached Stokenchurch, and it was now quite sunny. The only names shown on the OS map are Penley Wood and then further south Twigside Bottom, which I suppose is the name for the whole valley. Eventually I left the woods, and followed a hedgerow along the valley bottom until I reached a lane.
Penley Wood
Twigside Bottom
Twigside Bottom
Twigside Bottom
Twigside Bottom
Twigside Bottom
This is now a bridleway, continuing south towards Fingest
Here I turned right, heading towards the village of Fingest, but after a hundred yards or so I turned left onto a footpath. This followed a wooden fence between two large pastures (there were sheep on the other side of the fence), initially reasonably gently uphill but then steepening quite markedly. Coming almost at the very end of a 15-mile walk, this long steep climb up to Hanger Wood was a bit of a struggle. But the views up and down the valley were good - especially looking right, over Fingest towards the Hambleden valley.
The lane to Fingest (the route turns left uphill beside the fence)
The path to Hanger Wood (my camera is lying, it's steeper than this looks)
This shot towards Fingest and the Hambleden valley gives a better idea of the gradient
The path continued uphill steeply through Hanger Wood, soon becoming a track. Where this turned left, a footpath went straight on, soon crossing the track and ending at a T-junction with another path. Here I went left, following the path through the trees until it merged with a bridleway on the edge of the wood. The bridleway continued between hedges and then fences for a few hundred yards to bring me back to Cadmore End. I turned left towards the car park, feeling a bit incongruous as I passed numerous smartly dressed people arriving for a wedding at the church.
The path continuing up through Hanger Wood
The bridleway from Hanger Wood to Cadmore End
Approaching Cadmore End
I really enjoyed this walk when I did it in the opposite (clockwise) direction about six months ago, and the only slight disappointments today were the weather conditions (until late on) and the horrifically muddy state of the paths. On a nice sunny day with dry ground underfoot, I'm sure this would be a very good walk indeed. Having said that, I do think it would be better in the clockwise direction. For one thing, I suspect the views are a bit better going that way, as several times I found myself looking back to admire views I'd have otherwise missed. Also, some people might not appreciate the long steep climb (by Chilterns standards) to Hanger Wood that comes at the end of the walk if you do it anti-clockwise (that was why I chose to do it clockwise the first time I did this walk).