Chohem two

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I walked this from Hemel Hempstead to Chorleywood on a cloudy Saturday morning. There was not a lot of rain in the last week, and all the paths were easy going.

From Hemel Hempstead, I had some trouble getting to the south side of the station. Apparently you can only get out on that side if you have a special swipe card. So instead, I had to walk around and cross the very busy London Road to get to the start of the "real" walk. (photo #1)

There was a fairly long climb up through Felden along a road with no pavement, but also luckily with little traffic (photo #2). Much of the walk was be on a path, track, or road with hedges along each side. But it was never unsafe as there was very little traffic, and the traffic that did show up wasn't moving very fast.

After crossing Rucklers Lane, there was a long trek up and down a hill through grassy farmland (photo #4). At the bottom a lovely track brought me to "Tower Hill", where footpaths through fields were easy to walk. I did not like the signs "bull in field" though. Luckily, these signs were a lie. After a lovely walk through some woods, with some good views of a village in the valley below, I ended up crossing a road.

My pre-planned route (Chohem 1) had me go along the road, but luckily there is now a permissive footpath that avoids the road, where there was fast traffic. At the end of the field, there was now a pavement to make the walk safe, and a path through the woods allowed me to avoid another road walking section.

After walking past Rosehall Wood, Chohem 1 suggested I go through some fields to Dawes Common before going over another hill to get to the river
Chess. However there were a fair amount of horses in the field, and as I don't really trust these animals I decided to walk around them (photo #7). This is why there is now this Chohem 2! Unfortunately that meant a little road walking, but luckily again, there was little traffic.

This route also avoids a hill, and another few fields of horses. It also meant that I walked along the lovely river Chess for a fair distance, as part of the
Chess Valley Walk.

I spotted the first snow drops of the year along the lanes and the Chess Valley Walk themselves, and in the river a Little Egret (photo #9). Once I had crossed the river on a wooden bridge, the rest of this first section went through the Chorleywood House Estate, and Chorleywood Common (photo #11) to end up close to the tube station.

A lovely walk, even though there is some road walking involved.

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