Some more pictures from Wendover

And the sun came out!

When we emerged from the lush, wooded area, the sun was out and we were dry and happy!

But soon after, it started to get dark and we had to rush to get back to our train and out of the wilderness before it became pitch black at 4:30. The last leg of our walk was through very muddy fields. We agreed that the stiles were no longer as charming as before and the general mood is reflected in this picture of me:

But we made it back just in time to take our train and when we got to the tube everyone avoided sitting next to us because we were muddy and had bad hair. What an adventure!

After the pub, full of grease, mayonnaise and steak, we hiked straight up a very steep incline and were rewarded with this view:

And then we got lost for a while, but eventually ended up at the site of the remains of some fort. We couldn't actually figure out what were the remains...mostly there were fallen down trees on the ground. This picture doesn't really show it, but these tall pines were VERY spooky.

And soon we found ourselves descending into a valley via this wooden staircase. We were surrounded by ferns and moss and lush, deep groves of trees--a completely different scene than where we had been just a few minutes before.

Eventually, the rain got us a little down. At one point, the directions started rubbing off of the page, the book pages were sticking together, we were feeling soggy and tired, and then, pheasant hunters started shooting all around us. So, with the help of some boy scouts, we found an alternate route to a pub nearby, where we could get some lunch and dry off a little bit. But not before Jim slid down a muddy hill on his bottom. Being a supportive wife, I laughed my bottom off once i was sure that he didn't hurt himself:

The pub we visited was called the Red Lion. We refreshed ourselves with some pints, a steak burger sandwich, a tuna sandwich, and lots of chips and then resisted the urge to call a taxi and continued our journey...and we are so glad that we did, because things got even more beautiful as we went along. Here is a picture of Jim soaking wet with his pint.

And here is Jim, under the Red Lion sign, as, still soaking wet, teeth chattering, we continued on for 7 more miles or so. We felt pretty tough, because while we were in the Red Lion a whole walking group came in talking about how horrible the weather was and how they hadn't been able to walk.

And then the rain started....

In this picture, you can see the torrential downpour that began and didn't stop for the next few hours.

We took "shelter" in this woods for a few minutes.

And then we gave up and decided to brave the weather. Here I am forging a flash flood...a little later, I had water up to my knees and both of us were completely soaked. But we persevered!

Wendover...blog #4

The beauty of the Chiltern Hills is not done justice by our pictures. This is the view just before our walk down the hill and then our sprint through the ram pasture.

And this is at the bottom of the hill, splashing in a stream, a foreshadowing of what was to come...major rain.

Our friend Bramley--Wendover

Shortly into our walk, we met a friendly horse who we named Bramley. Incidentally, Jim fed him one of our Bramley apples. Not long after that, we met some very eager ducks, who we fed one of our peanut butter sandwiches. Each duck got a piece, which preventing any ganging up.

 

Jim and Claire do Wendover--blog #2

Walking in the English countryside is VERY different than walking in the US...or, at least, veyr different than in Texas. First of all, the trails are incredibly maintained and mapped. Throughout the countryside, there are public walks and bridleways and something that threw us off at first was that there are wooden step type things called stiles, which are specifically created and available so that walkers can just hop over fences and walk from field to field. We are so used to posted land and no trespassing signs and the fear of getting shot that we really felt funny just hopping over fences. At one point during the walk, we encountered a pasture full of rams, which our book told us to enter (neglecting to mention the rams) and we debated for about 10 minutes whether we should cut through the ram pasture (partially because we were kind of scared that the rams might, "ram" us.) By the end of our walk, we were perfectly comfortable with cutting through pastures of farm animals and scaling fences.

Here is a picture of me, climbing over my first stile. It was raining just a little bit at that point. We were in good spirits. Jim was even moved to do his best Sound of Music Impersonation:
 

Cold and wet and muddy...our first country walk in Wendover #1

Today, we got out of London and went on our first walk in the English Countryside. The walk was supposed to be 11.5 miles long, but we got a little confused so I think we walked more like 13 or 14 miles...we are composing a letter to the editor of our country walks near London book, in which we will detail just what was confusing about the directions.

We woke up early this morning and were on the tube by 6:45. We took a commuter train from London Marylebone station to Wendover--about an hour outside of London. Here is a picture of a sleepy eyed Jim on the train:

We arrived in Wendover at around 8:45 and started our walk. The walk was rated a 7 out of 10 in difficulty...and we figured out why.

Here is Jim outside of the train station, which marked the beginning and the end of our walk: