My eyes were met by an even layer of snow over roads and rooftops as I opened my curtains on Saturday 31st January. This was quite localised, and as I drove to the start point of today's walk, the evidence of snowfall diminished to just a feint sprinkling on grassy areas.
Eight of us gathered in the car park at the foot of West Wycombe Hill for this 8 mile walk that began with the steep and slippery slope up the hill. Pausing at the top to admire the Dashwood Mausoleum (and to get our breath back) we next passed St Lawrence's church with its unusual golden ball spire.
Flakes of snow began to fall as we followed the path through the Hearnton Wood along the top of West Wycombe Hill. Soon we were descending into the Chawley valley, crossing Chorley Road into Chawley Green Farm and through Chorley Farm and uphill again into Chawley Wood. I'm guessing that these places were named before spelling was standardised and now the differences have stuck.
Anyway, it was downhill again into another valley and into the hamlet of Piddington. Then uphill again as we followed the steep and narrow Piddington Lane to Wheeler End Common.
We stopped for our picnic lunch on the common. We didn't hang around after eating as it was quite windy on the common and only about 3°C. Next stop was The Chequers Inn to warm up!
On leaving the pub, we headed down to Denham Wood and back up again through Great Wood, then down again to Fryers Farm, where we saw a shooting party. We'd heard some gunshots earlier on and now we knew where they came from. We could also hear the occasional roar of the spectators at Adams Park, watching the match between Wycombe Wanderers F.C. and Portsmouth F.C.
After descending into Hellbottom Wood it was then another steep uphill path to Druid's Hut and then Towerage, where we got a view of West Wycombe House. Then we descended from High Wood down to West Wycombe and the car park, getting a view of the church and mausoleum on West Wycombe Hill on the way. See our route on Bing Maps.
With 608m (2000ft) total ascents, this walk had been a good workout for us and the physical exercise had kept us warm in the low temperatures.
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