Penn Bottom to Sheepridge and return

What a dismal context! However, we can be thankful that we'd seen Bertie yesterday and that all is well there, and we can also be thankful that we managed this walk today. We had only one car with us, so walked out and back on approximately the same route. It was a sunny day, though muddy underfoot in places. The route crossed the M40 and, more significantly, the urban corridor along the A40 at Loudwater, between High Wycombe and Beaconsfield. However the two ends of the walk felt quite remote, which was particularly surprising near the southern end of the walk at Sheepridge, which is less than a mile south of the M40. The walking was mostly through glorious rolling Chilterns countryside.

The fastest driving route to this area from Milton Keynes is sometimes given as via the M1, M25 and M40, but we avoid this whenever possible. These are not our favourite roads and it is about 20 miles further than our preferred route past Leighton Buzzard then across the Chilterns. Travel time to the very convenient little car park at Penn Bottom (SU922939) was just over an hour and we were surprised to have the car park to ourselves when we arrived around 9.15am. There were quite a few other walkers about, especially at this end of the walk, so we suspect there must be other car parks in the area, though there is no obvious sign of them on the ground or the internet and the car park advertised for walks on the Penn House Estate, across which we were walking, is the one we were using. We'd expected we might have difficulty parking, so we weren't complaining!

The car park is right on the route of the Chiltern Way and we set off on a track to the west, climbing slightly, with characteristic Chiltern clumps of trees on the hillside. We swept around towards Twichels Wood and followed the route of the Chiltern Way religiously as it headed up into the pretty wood, then out of it again to rejoin the path around the edge. We turned briefly left onto the road in the village of Penn, then took a path to the right. This led through more pretty but very muddy woodland to a driveway where we turned sharply left. An attractive "tunnel" though trees led out into attractive open countryside...and another very muddy section of path; we were walking between two fences and as is usually the case, mud it most problematic where a path is tightly constrained - the horses in the fields on either side of the path probably had it rather easier.

We passed through the delightful Coppice Hoop (which might also be known as Penn Coppice) and reached the point where the Chiltern Way divides, with the "Berkshire Loop" taking the left-hand option whilst we forked to the right. An attractive undulating section, past Sniggs Wood, led to a path around the edge of the Wycombe Heights Golf Course, high above the valley of the River Wye and with lovely views. We descended on a path around the greens (being amused by golfers queuing up to tee off in socially-distanced fashion), then turned left near the club house and car park and continued to descend on the main access road. A path through a wood and under the railway line brought us to the main road opposite a little industrial estate in Loudwater, and just on the other side we crossed the River Wye. "Loudwater" was apparently so-called because of the sound of watermills, but now it is loud with the sound of traffic.

A path alongside the little River Wye led to a recreation ground. We followed around the edge of this to the car park, but here the directions didn't seem very clear so we emerged onto Kingsmead Road and walked along it. It wasn't too busy but it was distinctly suburban, so we were pleased to see the route of the Chiltern Way signposted on a pathway between houses. This quickly brought us to a lovely woodland and we climbed up through it steeply, with views opening up behind us. We were approaching the M40, but it wasn't too intrusive and we passed underneath it by way of an underpass. On the other side of the motorway we were still in woodland, but following around the edge of the housing estates of Flackwell Heath.

We turned right onto Heath End Road, heading past some upmarket houses and the end of Spring Lane near the Wycombe campus of the Buckinghamshire College Group. We were heading out into open countryside and soon took a path heading almost due south. What a delightful surprise. We were walking almost into the sun, which made photography difficult, but it was glorious and just got better. We were heading for the hamlet of Sheepridge and to our delight, to the right there was a ridge with sheep grazing on it. Less poetically, we were looking for a parking place to use next time we were here, and our attention was drawn to a lot of people parking 4 by 4s in a yard just at the point we reached the road. It didn't take us long to work out that this was private land, but what was going on? A shoot perhaps but what were they carrying? At first we thought it was guns but they looked more like sticks. We walked along the road to The Crooked Billet, and amazingly, just opposite spotted a fair-sized lay-by. That should do nicely for the next leg of the Chiltern Way, whenever we are able to return.

For now, we retraced our steps. Opposite the sheep ridge we stopped for our lunch, climbing up from the path onto the bank beside it, where we had a good view of the people with sticks as they climbed up the field in a row. Ahha...the sticks had fabric on the end and these were the beaters; we watched as they did their job then the pheasants etc rose into the air and we heard shooting. We took a slightly different route from Loudwater to and around the golf course, then in Penn we were able to avoid one of the particularly muddy stretches by walking around by road, passing a number of distinctly des res houses. We walked around the edge of Twichels Wood rather than walking through it, and there were again lots of walkers about as we approached the Penn Bottom car park; we didn't quite have it to ourselves this time, but there was only one other car.

Following leg