Ibstone circular walk

There’s no accounting for muppets! Whether it’s those who bounce my carefully crafted grant applications (you know who you are!), who vote to leave the EU (you know who you are!) or who delete the GPX coordinates from the GPS just as you’re about the start your walk. I’d love to blame Nigel Farage for the last but in this instance there is no escaping the blame-my fault entirely!

Still, it creates an interesting dilemma…can we still do the walk we planned but from memory rather than with the route displayed on the GPS? Well, our plan was to walk via Turville Heath, Pishill (honestly!), Stonor, Turville and back to Ibstone. Comparing our actual route with the planned route (map) it turns out we were almost entirely on track, just a loop halfway and at the end that we missed (10.8 instead of 11 miles). Still feeling smug about that, even now!

This is the best walk we’ve done in a while. Perhaps the weather helps (I’m sure it does) but quiet Chiltern valleys, a few steep climbs with beautiful views and a couple of interesting landmarks (Stonor Park & Cobstone windmill, Turville) make for a really enjoyable morning (3hrs 55mins), finishing at the Fox Country Inn for a cold drink. We’ll certainly do this walk again, perhaps next time including the extra loops!