End Of The Line

I was delighted to share most of today’s Chiltern escapade with my close friend Philip, who many of you may remember as my companion on the first three days of my LETJOG trek nearly two years ago, and again last winter on a section of the South West Coast Path back down in Cornwall. Well today we took on 19 miles of The Ridgeway Path in Buckinghamshire from Princes Risborough to Ivinghoe Beacon; the final section of the Path if one takes the usual approach of walking west to east. This long day out entailed two buses from Berkhamsted to our start point, followed by seven hours of walking and around 2,500 feet of climb ahead of a rendezvous for my lift home from Rachel at the end of day.

The Ridgeway Path follows an ancient drovers’ route along 87 miles from Overton Hill near Avebury in Wiltshire to Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire. Designated a National Trail in 1973 this ancient trackway lays some claim to being Britain’s oldest road – I last walked its entirety about 20 years ago and can recommend the six-day trek as one of southern England’s most pleasant walks. Today the low cloud-base produced an almost monochrome landscape of muted greys and greens, and aside from a chill breeze on the scarp-tops the benign weather seemed to keep everyone and everything inside and under cover. So for the most part we had the path to ourselves, whilst the wildlife seemed particularly scarce, even the usual red kites thinking better of circling with their would-be prey lost in the mist.

Our path took us first up onto the Chiltern scarp at Whiteleaf Hill, a steep climb indeed with which to start the day, before a pleasantly undulating section through woods to Lower Cadsden, then back up through the grasslands and juniper bushes around Pulpit Hill and past Chequers to our coffee stop at Buckmoorend Farm Shop. Suitably refreshed we ascended to the monument at Coombe Hill and then down into Wendover across the (hopefully temporary) devastation of the HS2 site.

After a swift picnic lunch by the stream in Wendover we exited this charming Chiltern village via the wonderfully-named Hogtrough Lane before our next climb, up into Wendover Woods. A super walk through the Chiltern beech-woods brought us eventually to Hastoe, and thence through Tring Park and over the A41 to Tring Station.

The final leg of the walk I undertook alone, as Philip’s prior commitments took him home, with an ascent into Aldbury Nowers Nature Reserve and back into the woods, before some final miles over the chalk downs of Pitstone and Steps Hills to my destination at the top of Ivinghoe Beacon.

My song-title Blog heading today might seem a little contrived: if the Ridgeway Path is a line, then it is certainly a rather undulating one and with many a wiggle. But ‘End Of The Line’ suggests the completion of a journey, and that is very much how I am feeling this evening! Recorded in 1988 by The Travelling Wilburys (the ultimate super-group, comprising Brits George Harrison and Jeff Lynne alongside Americans Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty), the song is a Harrison composition credited to all five group members, in keeping with their ethos. Perhaps fittingly ‘End Of The Line’ is the last number from the first album (of two) by this relatively short-lived combo, and it was recorded just before Orbison’s passing – the accompanying music video, shot later aboard a moving train, features most poignantly his guitar on an otherwise empty rocking chair.