Pete's Walks- Watlington Hill and Russell's Water (page 5 of 5)
If you are considering walking this route yourself, please see my disclaimer. You may also like to see these notes about the maps and GPX files.
I crossed the lane and took a bridleway that started down the drive towards Wood Farm. Beyond a large paddock on my right, the bridleway went right and started a very long and gradual descent towards Dame Alice Farm. It seemed longer than I remembered (many paths did today, for some reason) and I thought it must be tiring to come the other way (I've done it a couple of times at least, and don't remember it being too bad). It was a pleasant section today, despite being very muddy. When I eventually reached Dame Alice farm, the bridleway continued along the surfaced drive from the farm.
The drive to Wood Farm
The bridleway to Dame Alice Farm
The bridleway to Dame Alice Farm
The bridleway to Dame Alice Farm
The drive from Dame Alice Farm
When I eventually reached a junction of tracks and drives, I turned right and made use of the permissive path here, that runs the other side of a hedge from another farm drive. There was now a large empty pasture on my right, while ahead I could see Watlington Hill. At the end of the path I turned right along a road for maybe a quarter of a mile, then went left along a footpath that started along a gravel drive (with a security gate). I soon took a footpath going left from the drive, which ran between hedges for some distance, then started the climb up Watlington Hill. It was now about 4pm and the sun had sunk below a hill behind me, so the light was fading and hence my photos of this last section of the walk aren't too good. It was quite a long bit of uphill, but never very steep and the path had the great virtue of taking me straight back to the car park where I'd started.
A close-up shot of Watlington Hill
The permissive path
The short road section at the bottom of Watlington Hill
The path to Watlington Hill
The same path, now going up Watlington Hill
The same path, now going up Watlington Hill
The same path, now going up Watlington Hill
The same path, now going up Watlington Hill
The same path, approaching the car park on Watlington Hill
I wanted to walk 15-miles this weekend, and was delighted when I spotted this walk on my 'Walks in 2012' page. It includes several paths that I really like (e.g. the bridleway from Christmas Common, the path through the park land above Swyncombe House, the bridleway down to Dame Alice Farm) and a section either side of Magpies that I'd only walked a couple of times before. It certainly didn't disappoint me today, despite the muddy conditions and the rather grey weather to begin with.
It took me about 5 hours 40 minutes to walk the 15.3 miles. At first I thought this was a little slow, but in fact it was only 5 minutes longer than when I did the walk almost four years ago. In any case, it was pretty muddy and I've always thought that a 15-mile walk can take me up to half an hour longer than usual in such conditions. The good news (for me, anyway!) is that I managed to walk 15 miles for the first time in over three years and didn't feel unwell afterwards - fingers crossed that I am finally over whatever lurgy I've been suffering from since February 2013.