Author Topic: Old Buggers' Walking Trip to the Chilterns - 6th - 9th April  (Read 4614 times)

Re: Old Buggers' Walking Trip to the Chilterns - 6th - 9th April
« Reply #25 on: 17 March, 2018, 09:18:00 pm »
Likely to be cycle touring for that.   Just trying to decide where we are going.

Wowbagger

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Re: Old Buggers' Walking Trip to the Chilterns - 6th - 9th April
« Reply #26 on: 17 March, 2018, 10:47:31 pm »
I did 9 muddy miles in the Surrey Hills on Thursday with Her Welshness. Totally different type of mud. I reckon the Chilterns will be the same sort of mud as the Surrey Hills, since they are both on a chalk subsoil.

I am in the process of writing a blog post about it.
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Kim

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Re: Old Buggers' Walking Trip to the Chilterns - 6th - 9th April
« Reply #27 on: 18 March, 2018, 12:04:09 am »
Chiltern mud is chalk covered by up to a metre or so of slippery clay with knobbly stones for added hardness, with a deceptively thin layer of poorly drained topsoil where it hasn't been washed away.  Sort of thing that lets you build up a decent turn of speed on your 1990s MTB before depositing you in a stagnant pool of churned up horsepoo.  DAHIKT.

Re: Old Buggers' Walking Trip to the Chilterns - 6th - 9th April
« Reply #28 on: 18 March, 2018, 09:51:42 am »
A bracing 10 miles this morning, the open fields more like the Russian steppes.

Wowbagger

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Quote from: Dez
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Wowbagger

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Re: Old Buggers' Walking Trip to the Chilterns - 6th - 9th April
« Reply #30 on: 31 March, 2018, 05:29:11 pm »
Giving this a bump.

Things conspiring as they are, I might be on my own for this. I'm also totally cognisant of the fact that the weather has been totally shite and with that in mind I have contacted all three campsites to ask about how waterlogged they are. They are decidedly moist, but will have space for campers on foot or bicycle.

Butterfly, I am convinced that that electric vehicle of yours needs a run out!
Quote from: Dez
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Re: Old Buggers' Walking Trip to the Chilterns - 6th - 9th April
« Reply #31 on: 31 March, 2018, 07:13:22 pm »
I will try and meet you at one of the campsites  :) . It will give me a chance to check out the battery range with a camping load on  :)
the slower you go the more you see

handcyclist

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Re: Old Buggers' Walking Trip to the Chilterns - 6th - 9th April
« Reply #32 on: 31 March, 2018, 10:39:01 pm »
I did 9 muddy miles in the Surrey Hills on Thursday with Her Welshness. Totally different type of mud. I reckon the Chilterns will be the same sort of mud as the Surrey Hills, since they are both on a chalk subsoil.

I am in the process of writing a blog post about it.

Chilterns mud is indeed chalk based - pulling off that remarkable feat of simultaneous stickiness and slipperiness in perfect opposition to characteristics useful to walking (or cycling for that matter).
Doubt is is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

Wowbagger

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Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Wowbagger

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Re: Old Buggers' Walking Trip to the Chilterns - 6th - 9th April
« Reply #34 on: 03 April, 2018, 10:35:07 pm »
Just in case there is anyone contemplating joining me for any of the days/nights of this trip, I think I shall now be setting off on the Saturday morning, intending to arrive at Wendover for 10.30 and then walk to the Bella Vista campsite, and not go to the Corner Farm one. I am planning lunch on Saturday here.
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Wowbagger

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Re: Old Buggers' Walking Trip to the Chilterns - 6th - 9th April
« Reply #35 on: 07 April, 2018, 02:12:04 pm »
Katie Her-Welshness met me at Marylebone. We are at lunch at the Pink and Lily. About 6.5 miles done so far. About 3 to Kati’s train Home, 5 to my campsite. I suspect this might be a single night’s camping as the forecast for tomorrow is crap.
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Wowbagger

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Re: Old Buggers' Walking Trip to the Chilterns - 6th - 9th April
« Reply #36 on: 07 April, 2018, 09:50:12 pm »
Discretion proved to be the better part of valour and I caught the same train as Katie, so all my camping kit was just so much ballast. But we had a magnificent day. My fitbit puts the day at 14.86 miles but that's an exaggeration due to short steps ascending in thick mud. The main walk, from Wendover to Saunderton station, was a little short of 10 miles, which I will get the Garmin to confirm later, but I had well over two more miles walking between stations. 32369 paces, allegedly.

I'm really appreciative of Katie's company because that got me out the door, but lots of the paths were very difficult with deep, squelchy mud. Given tomorrow's forecast, of heavy rain all day, that will only make them worse and trying to navigate with a touch-screen device in heavy rain is asking for trouble. I think I would have found walking on my own through that sort of weather very annoying after our luck with today. It wasn't that sunny, but it was relatively warm and dry and there wasn't much wind. For a brief spell I was thinking of getting down to my shirtsleeves.

I feel completely knackered and will be having an early night.
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Re: Old Buggers' Walking Trip to the Chilterns - 6th - 9th April
« Reply #37 on: 08 April, 2018, 08:37:29 am »
Glad you had a good day wowbagger   :)
the slower you go the more you see

Wowbagger

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Re: Old Buggers' Walking Trip to the Chilterns - 6th - 9th April
« Reply #39 on: 08 April, 2018, 01:09:41 pm »
And how do you feel today?

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Re: Old Buggers' Walking Trip to the Chilterns - 6th - 9th April
« Reply #40 on: 08 April, 2018, 02:59:44 pm »
A little muscular ache in the legs, but nothing too serious. I had a gentle stroll around the park with the dog. I reckon I could probably have done the miles I had originally proposed for today. It would have ben a much shorter day than yesterday.
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