Pete's Walks - Coombe Hill and the Hampdens (page 2 of 4)
On reaching a minor road I went a few yards left and then forked right to reach the Plough at Cadsden. I followed the Ridgeway as it turned right immediately past the pub, but at the next junction I decided to vary from my usual route. Instead of going left through a gate and following the Ridgeway straight up Whiteleaf Hill, I stayed on a bridleway, with fences and paddocks on my right. This seemed to keep fairly level, with one or two ups and downs, as it skirted the northern foot of Whiteleaf Hill. After maybe half a mile, it turned. sharply left and headed up through the trees to the top of the hill. It was quite steep, but I arrived at the top far sooner than I'd expected, so the first part of the bridleway that I thought was flattish must have gained more height than I realised.
Near the start of the bridleway from Cadsden around the foot of Whiteleaf Hill
The bridleway from Cadsden around the foot of Whiteleaf Hill
The bridleway up Whiteleaf Hill
Looking back down the bridleway
The bridleway arriving at the top of Whiteleaf Hill
I took the usual photos out over the Vale of Aylesbury and of the Neolithic barrow that surmount Whiteleaf Hill. A short distance further on I left the Ridgeway for good, turning left on a bridleway just inside the edge of a beech wood dropping steeply downhill to my left.
Looking across Princes Risborough towards The Cop, Bledlow, from Whitleaf Hill
The Vale of Aylesbury from Whiteleaf hill
The Neolithic barrow on Whiteleaf Hill
The bridleway going east from Whiteleaf Hill
The bridleway going east from Whiteleaf Hill
At the end of a large field on my right, I turned right - I was now just inside the north-western edge of Sergeant's Wood. At a corner of the wood, I turned left along a track, between the wood and an arable field on my right. I turned right again at the end of that field, the new path lying just inside Kingsfield Wood and leading to a bungalow and a road. I turned left along the road (I always remember this section from Whiteleaf Hill to Parslow's Hillock as being a sequence of alternating right then left turns), and after quarter of a mile turned right onto a bridleway. Beyond a field on the right, this turned left and ran pleasantly through a wood, with the steep Chiltern escarpment to my right. On reaching the hamlet of Parslow's Hillock, I turned left by the Pink and Lily pub (famed for its association with the poet Rupert Brooke) and headed down a lane towards Lily Bottom.
The bridleway south of Sergeant's Wood
The bridleway from the road to Parslow's Hillock (it turns left when it reaches the wood)
The bridleway to Parslow's Hillock
The lane from Parslow's Hillock