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Walking: Ibstone, Turville and Fingest
May. 19th, 2019 07:19 pmToday we ventured across the Oxfordshire-Buckinghamshire border to try one of the walks in the Ordnance Survey Thames Valley and Chilterns book, a circuit taking in the villages of Ibstone, Turville and Fingest (T: "Isn't there a Fingest in the appendices to Lord of the Rings?") which alternated sections of steepish ascents and descents across grassy slopes covered in meadow flowers with long, quiet paths through beechwoods.
In one of the woods we came across a whole herd of fallow deer. They scattered up and down the hill as soon as they heard us coming (we tried to walk quietly, but couldn't manage to be quiet enough) so I wasn't able to get a photo of them, but there seemed to be at least a dozen. We also saw this very picturesque windmill perched on the hill above Turville.
It ended up being just under eight and a half miles (it would have been a bit less, but we went wrong at the start because I didn't parse gently bearing left while going straight over a crossroads of paths as turning left at the far side of the common we were crossing so went left at the point where we were actually supposed to go straight on across a drive; it didn't help that the instructions didn't mention the belt of trees and bushes between the common and the drive but only trees on the other side of the drive, which made me think we shouldn't be going into the trees) with a couple of decent climbs. Parking at the start of the walk in Ibstone was quite limited; the book advised parking at the side of the road by the common, but that felt awfully exposed, and the lay-by near the cricket club was full up, but the pub were happy for us to park in their car park when we said we'd have a drink after the walk. The weather was hazier than last week's glorious sunshine, but there was a bit of sun and it got quite warm towards the end of the walk; in fact, almost too warm to be walking up a steepish hill in a wood with very little breeze!
In one of the woods we came across a whole herd of fallow deer. They scattered up and down the hill as soon as they heard us coming (we tried to walk quietly, but couldn't manage to be quiet enough) so I wasn't able to get a photo of them, but there seemed to be at least a dozen. We also saw this very picturesque windmill perched on the hill above Turville.
It ended up being just under eight and a half miles (it would have been a bit less, but we went wrong at the start because I didn't parse gently bearing left while going straight over a crossroads of paths as turning left at the far side of the common we were crossing so went left at the point where we were actually supposed to go straight on across a drive; it didn't help that the instructions didn't mention the belt of trees and bushes between the common and the drive but only trees on the other side of the drive, which made me think we shouldn't be going into the trees) with a couple of decent climbs. Parking at the start of the walk in Ibstone was quite limited; the book advised parking at the side of the road by the common, but that felt awfully exposed, and the lay-by near the cricket club was full up, but the pub were happy for us to park in their car park when we said we'd have a drink after the walk. The weather was hazier than last week's glorious sunshine, but there was a bit of sun and it got quite warm towards the end of the walk; in fact, almost too warm to be walking up a steepish hill in a wood with very little breeze!
