9 on fine sunny day followed this lovely route to Berkhamsted through a varying landscape of woods and valleys on good paths with sticky but not deep mud and quiet lanes, stopping at the pub where four had lunch and five a picnic followed by a quick drink before continuing the walk and catching the 15.28 train to London grateful to the walk author whom we left in the pub celebrating his birthday.

Very minor correction to Wanderer's report: Elsa D is the walk author of this lovely walk - I just helped her with the Directions write-up.

Happy Birthday Marcus!

Many thanks Pete

I'm catching you up, age wise !

12 walkers, a reasonable turnout on a dull day with occasional drizzle . My attempt to find a less muddy route today was not an unqualified success, and there was at least one unfortunate tumble in the slippery conditions. Still, a good day out in the circumstances.

The group got quite spread out in the morning so I can't account for everyone, but about 7 of us picknicked at the interesting water fountain near the war memorial. We spread out again after the golden valley which was not quite as pretty as I remembered in the damp conditions. The road round Ashridge college was very busy and despite the mud it was a relief to get back into the woods on the descent to Berkhamsted. By this time I was with 4 others, and four of us headed into town where we tried Bel Cafe for welcome tea before the 1550 train.

By the way when we passed the Ashridge College we saw signs for the Bakehouse cafe "open from 8.30 daily" and wondered if that might be an alternative lunch stop - but didn't have the willpower to investigate.

9 at the station and one joining at lunch makes 10 The day was dry sunny and slightly chilly At Cow Roast, we got to witness an unexpected spectacle. Alpacas wresting! Then on through Ashridge where the colours were vibrant. In Little Gaddesden, most had sandwiches in the churchyard but a few went in the Bridgwater for a meal. Mr Tiger wasnt expecting to eat but was fed a few chips by a kindly benefactor.

The group split here, the alfrescos having gone ahead. The noble few continued through Golden Valley (it was) and Frithden Beeches (it was, too). Nobody stopped at the Crystal Palace, as far as I know. Now an independent pub, it was packed and very lively but just a bit too lively for a quiet end of walk drink.

Hi, Sorry, new here... so I'm interested in joining this walk. Do I just turn up at the Tring station at 11am or do I have to sign up somewhere? Thanks, Shruti

You are very welcome. Either catch the specified train, or yes, meet at Tring station at 10.57. The group will assemble on whatever platform the train from London arrives on. You do not have to sign up, no.

Do read this information about our walks, as we are a bit different from other groups:

https://www.walkingclub.org.uk/swc/index.shtml

In particular note that you have to bring a copy of the walk directions or the GPX as there is no specific walk leader.

Can you tell us details of any shortcut please?

Anon- please read the Walk Options para in the Walk Directions. For a short walk you can stay on the canal tow path all the way to Berkhamsted - a bit boring after a while. Or armed with the OS Explorer Map, after lunch you can plot your own route back to Tring. But today's walk is not a long walk, so I'm not sure why anyone would want to miss out on its best bits but cutting it short.

For anyone interested in an earlier start or longer walk in this area, I am planning to catch the 9.24 train from Euston and do the start of the book 2 Tring circular which can join the main walk at various points. This would add 4-5 miles to the walk..

Aside from the blowing gale last year, it worked well and we met the main group at the lunch pub.

Those with packed lunches and "tech" or a map, might like to stroll up to St Peter and St Paul's Church (https://littlegaddesdenchurch.org.uk/ - about 400 m from the Bridgewater Arms) You'll find pleasant Church grounds and a nice vista towards the rear of the Church - weather permitting!

I have been delegated to do this walk report even though I was not on the main walk till lunchtime, being one of a band of seven renegades who got the 9.24 train and walked to Ivinghoe Beacon and then via the Tring Circular (book 2 walk 5) shortcut to the lunch pub. One was also on the 9.24 train but did the posted walk, and 20 turned up on the posted train to do the posted walk, so 28 in all.

The beech colours were gorgeous wherever one went. You can try year after year and never get beech at its best, but this year we hit the jackpot. Everything was a riot of copper and gold. I have put some photos on the SWC group page on Facebook, but cameras never really do justice to the intensity of the colour. It was a pity there was no sunshine to heighten the effect, but you can’t have everything. Instead it was cloudy . The ground was on the whole very dry - weirdly so for November.

Some of the main group had booked at the Bridgewater Arms. Others of us squeezed in. They huffed and puffed a bit about so many of us turning up (you are supposed to go to pubs with four or five friends tops, obviously…) but they served the food efficiently enough. After lunch all were on the Toms Hill walk route as far as I know. Maybe some did something else.

Berkhamsted (no p!) was in a cheerful mood. Autumn dusks seem to suit it. There were a plethora of tea options - this seems to be what town centres DO these days; provide space for cafes - and at least six partook, probably more. Others went to a canalside pub and ten of us later ended up in a place called the Mad Squirrel, which served distinctly odd “craft” beer (I am not crafty enough, clearly…). Six of us then patronised the Platform Wine shop at the station for “supplies” for the train home.

Last time I did this walk a coronavirus lockdown was looming. This year the prospects look more cheerful. Cross fingers, anyway.

Being one of the 20 who did the main walk, which I had never done this very recommended version before, along the canal, lit with the aforementioned beauty of colours.

Then up towards the Bridgewater Arms. The group split at the space between the Bridgewater Monument and the massive Ashbridge Estate Building, so there were many anarchists around. I thought the meal I had was excellent, mushroom and ale pie. The local Rebellion Smugglers ale was really tasty.

On the way back over Tom's Hill, again never neen here before to the site where there were practice trenches for the first World War. Some including me, walked in the trenches, now green and earth had fallen in so they were not so deep. Slightly bizzare and earie to reflect on the actual horrors abroad.

Unusually, having walked in this area many times before I saw no deer at all. Last time I saw over 20 roe deer in a row.

The Rising Sun on the Grand Union Canal, although a favourite of mine, had been so busy they had not had the time to put more barrels on. So it was cold fizzkeg, or for me a lovely pint of Perry.

I joined the Mad Squirrel crowd, and the bar man lovingly put my pints in the microwave to heat the beer a bit, and help drive out the fizz- recommended. The wine crowd seemed quite happy with their lot though.

I had excellent fish cake and chips at the brilliant very busy Chippy by the station.

To add to the numbers, two renegades did the classic version of this walk via Ivinghoe, so numbers for the day were about 30.

30

I walked the second half of this walk last Saturday and the paths in the woods are very easy and now mostly covered with a layer of leaves so it is relatively mud free. However still recommend waterproof shoes for those stretches which have unavoidable puddles with the current rainfall. Wonderful sweet chestnut trees shedding their nuts as you walk along (be careful) you can then roast...Great walk.

Typo alert

Its the Bridgewater Arms, surely.

Ha! Classic case of the upper brain thinking one thing and the lower brain writing another. Corrected!

If travelling from Clapham Junction, you may prefer to change trains at Harrow and Wealdstone as you don't have to change platforms there, according to the currently advertised timetables. Best to check again nearer the time though, in case things change.

A lovely walk, but beware the locals near Berkhamsted: yesterday on a field edge path we met a man with dog and wife; we'd moved off the path to socially distance from oncoming people including them, and he came very close (dangerously so) and aggressively berated us for killing the crop (winter wheat), assuming I think we had no idea it was a crop that he'd forced us to walk on. We were left bewildered and badly shaken. By far the worst experience in 20 years of such walks - beware of Berkhamsted.

It's a good one.

Very sorry you had such a bad experience. Interesting that you mentioned the wife after the dog, though.

For anyone interested in a longer walk in the area, I am planning to take the 9:24 train from London Euston to Tring and add a circuit out to Ivanhoe Beacon from Book 2: Walk 5 (Tring Circular) and pick up the main walk near the top of Tom's Hill....It should add about 5 miles to the route...

Ivinghoe

Ivanhoe is a novel by Walter Scott.

There was a brief flash of sunshine as we left Euston, raising our hopes, but it was raining steadily, not to say relentlessly, once we got to Tring and carried on doing so all morning. Nevertheless 12 assembled at the station, two of them having adventured into the northlands from Clapham Junction, and it later transpired there was a thirteenth, and one had got the slightly later fast train. Plus three got an earlier train so they could get even wetter by doing a longer walk via Ivinghoe Beacon. (What private griefs they had, alas, I know not that made them do this: they are wise and honourable and will no doubt with reasons answer you...). So, long story short, 17 in all, which ain't bad for a Chilterns walk on a day with a miserable weather forecast.

Before setting off two said they might just walk the canal to Berkhamsted. The rest of us followed the main walk route. Along the canal the shrubbery was getting a bit overgrown in places, narrowing the path: I hope someone will give it a clip over the winter. Once we got up to Toms Hill the autumn colour was glorious, the beeches a riot of gold and russet, the sweet chestnuts too. Back in the summer I had thought the walk would also have the advantage of dry tracks underfoot. Well, I was wrong about that, but it was more paddling than mud (though certainly a bit of both).

Approaching the Bridgewater Arms several sandwich eaters went....wherever sandwich eaters go in a torrential downpour. I tried my luck in the pub where I had joined four others already there. The pub was pretty empty, but they nevertheless put another group (ie not SWC walkers) right next to us. Otherwise the social distancing was scrupulous and the service very efficient, though being a Grinch I could have done without the Halloween costumes.... The three long walkers turned up a bit later and ate at a separate table.

Among other pressing topics, we discussed over lunch when or whether the rain might stop. It was thus a huge surprise when we finally emerged from the windowless gloom of the pub to discover bright sunshine. But oh my God there was a cold wind. Just for once I did not think I had brought too much clothing. The sun also had an annoying habit of sinking low behind the trees, but for the last ridge stretch into Berkhamsted shone glorious. So for the record very wet and then sunny and cold

In Berkhamsted there was a, shall we say, fin-de-siècle, last drink on the Titanic feel as we awaited a certain government pronouncement (future readers: about the second Covid lockdown). We went to the Boat pub, where all the layers again came in useful as we sat at an outside table demolishing a bottle of wine. Getting to the station, we discovered it had, of all things, a wine shop. Our duty to support small businesses being clear (Spend money: Save livelihoods!), we purchased another bottle and demolished that on delayed 6.12pm train back to Euston.

I'm hoping to do this walk, but will be arriving from the North and the hourly trains don't fit in well. What I'm wondering is if you could divide in to groups of 5, if numbers permit, so that I can 'latch on' after I start (at 11.18). Failing that I'll just turn up and see how it goes!

Hi Mike, we will sort something out on the day.

I accidentally deleted Marcus' report so I'm reposting it for him.

"Twenty assembled outside the railway station and two joined us later, so that is 22. It was good to see the return of some regulars including SWC's resident "Rear Gunner"- welcome back !

We enjoyed a lovely warm summers day with a pleasant breeze which prevented radiators boiling over: near perfect summer walking weather.

After the gentle introduction to today's walk - the stretch along the canal - we said hello to the lamas, who looked at us with quizzical expressions, before tackling Toms Hill, in pleasant shade. Onwards then through the Ashridge Estate and over the golf course and we were in Little Gaddesden where 10 of us dined in the garden of the Bridgewater Arms. With their participation in the 'Eat Out to Help Out" scheme and efficient operation of Covid-security the pub's management did their best to give customers an enjoyable and inexpensive experience.

It was warmer when we set off on the afternoon leg but again, several sections of the walk were in the shade, and the breeze was still with us. We walked through the WW1 trenches on Berkhamsted Common and enjoyed views of the town as we descended to complete the walk. Finding the Crystal Palace pub closed up and looking a bit forlorn we set off eastwards along the canal to the next pub, The Boat, where 10 of us enjoyed post walk refreshments on the pub's verandah.

I believe most of today's participants liked this new walk - perhaps one or two of you could add a comment to confirm or contradict this. Feedback is always appreciated - even negative vibes !

I conclude my report by sending my own thanks to Elsa for writing this new walk."

The first bit was single file along an uneven section of towpath. When we turned off,I didn't spot the llamas, otherwise I might have dallied.

The ascent of Toms Hill was easier than I had feared. The Bridgewater wasn't too busy but Marcus had booked a table anyway. Service a bit slow but better than no service.

The directions were clear throughout - they felt slightly vague along the front of Ashridge House but did the job - and later, at point 21, someone had kindly mowed the field, rendering the 'clear path' invisible, but the directions got us through.

A grand day out.