Hiking
Great Chalk Wood and Hartslock Wood sit on the Chiltern Hills adjoining the Thames Valley near Pangbourne in Berkshire. Views as pretty as any in the hazy sunshine of late autumn, maybe a bit reminiscent of the valley of the Dordogne and Vézère in Perigord. Contrasts between the fine tracery of the trees and the geometric regularity of the man's interventions.
The Great Western Railway bridge over the river Thames was completed in 1840 and now looks part of the landscape. Railway electrification will reach this line shortly, with centenary wires and posts strutting above the metal rails.
The pill-box in Hartslock Wood was on the GHQ Line - Red (General Headquarters Line - Red) which was part of a system of defensible positions intended to resist progress of an enemy invasion in the 1940s. Fortunately it was never tested; it’s easy to imagine the well-intentioned Home Guard of this affluent area feeling that they were doing their bit by standing guard in this attractive location in the woods alongside the river.
A “seize the moment hike” in borrowed kit took advantage of a fantastic clear November day took us to 500 m. altitude above the town of Die on the river Drôme, which flows in to the Rhône at Valence, south of Lyon. We hiked up the zig-zag path called “Les 40 lacets” (the 40 hairpin bends) which also included fording a number of streams in spate following heavy rain. The fine view with fresh snow on the cliffs is of the Montagne de Glandasse and the Cirque de Archiane, which form part of the southern cliffs of the Vercors plateau. A great place for a midday casse-croute, today it was fresh bread with rabbit pâté.
Berlin's Tiergarten is a city park which offers welcome relief from the unrelenting city architecture and general rudeness of the Berlin city. No matter the traffic, including tourist buses passing between Berlin landmarks peeking through the depressing grey gloom.
The origin of the Großer Tiergarten is as a royal park for hunting. My little hike would have been much more lively with a European bear or two around, rather than just statues, squirrels, birds, ducks and sleeping bats. And sunshine!
An autumnal walk through Berkshire passing Sunningdale church and war memorial, with commemorative wreaths and poppies freshly laid. We enjoyed that peculiar seasonal pleasure of walking through autumn leaves in the woods alongside The Valley Gardens near Virginia Water.
On to Windsor Great Park and down from the 1829 Copper Horse statue of King George III by the Long Walk to Windsor castle: you can readily identify this from an aircraft window on take off from Heathrow nearby. The Royal Standard was flying on Windsor castle, indicating the monarch in residence, presumably after this morning's ceremonials at The Cenotaph in Whitehall.
Thanks again to GOC London for organising this walk.
Boston Manor, Syon House and Osterley House are all in walking distance of each other in West London. They're grouped around the Main Line of the Grand Union Canal, the Main Line of the Great Western railway to Paddington, the M4 motorway and the flight paths to the runways at Heathrow. But the old houses and their magnificent trees were built long before these modern transport arterial routes. Boston Manor Jacobean house was completed in 1623; the exterior of Syon House dates from 1547 and is still the Duke of Northumberland’s London home; the current Osterley House was constructed from 1761 in the Georgian style by the architect Robert Adam.
