UK Mountains Walking, Mountaineering and Equipment Reviews

Final day and the only day I was on a timescale. I had to be at Tring Station by 3pm. I was pretty confident that I could do it but even so wanted to get away as early as possible. Disappointingly breakfast didn't start until 8am but I figured if I left by 8:30am latest I'd be fine. Not being particularly hungry I had scrambled eggs on toast.

Already fully packed, as soon as I'd eaten I was away and setting a good pace out of the town. The walking was pleasantly varied but mostly woodland. Along the way I caught up with the people I'd seen at the start and at Sparsholt, also on their final day. Seems they'd left Wendover at 8am so I'd done well to catch them. Briefly chatting I soon pressed on wanting to get the walk done and to the Station in good time. Wiggington was 6 miles from Wendover and I'd made it in a little over 2 hours so quickly realised I had plenty of time in hand. This was around the half way mark to Ivinghoe Beacon so I reckoned I would be at the Beacon around 12:15-12:30 which was more than ideal.

The route passes Tring Station which is mildly frustrating as there is still another 3 1/2 miles to go (and back). Ivinghoe Beacon is a very long drag seeming to take forever to reach. Also it was incredibly windy once out of the trees, so much so that I took my hearing aids out for a while as I was fed up of the wind noise. Eventually I arrived at the summit which was something of an anti-climax; there was nothing much there, it doesn't give the feeling of being a summit, more the end of a ridge, the views are nothing special and there was still the issue of having to walk back to the Station.

I paused for a few minutes, taking a few photos, then set off back down. It was not even 12:15 so I had more than 2 hours to get to the Station and it had only taken me 1 hour and 10 minutes to get up.

Wendover to Ivinghoe Beacon
Ivinghoe Beacon

Surprisingly it's not all downhill back and there are a few little rises to test tired legs but eventually I reached the Station again with lots of time to spare but rather that than running to avoid missing the train.

Today I walked 15 miles in just under 5 hours.

The total number of miles my Garmin recorded was 98. I can explain away about 6 or 7 miles as additional off-route walking but that still leaves around 90 miles which is interesting as the guides and website claims 87 miles. I guess that's within acceptable parameters as they say in Science Fiction films.

Not that I place any store by this, but I did 191,809 total steps apparently, which is probably my target for the next month!

Overall I enjoyed the route, it is incredibly well sign posted and almost impossible to get lost, although I met a couple that managed it! I met some nice people along the way and stayed in some very pleasant hotels and B&Bs. Some of the days were quite tedious with little changing either scenery wise or underfoot and I was glad to be past those. I doubt I will walk it again, mostly because there are too many other trails to do, but I'd recommend it to anyone wanting a reasonably easy walk with few real climbs but a sense of adventure and thirst for history.

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