Another weekend, another adventure. Alex and I were pleasantly surprised by the weather this weekend so grabbed our hiking boots and packs on Saturday and headed out to go walk some hills.

We decided to follow the Ashridge Drovers Long Walk for a good 6 mile Saturday afternoon escape. A quick train to Tring, and we caught up with the trail right outside the train station. Again, dressed in our hiking best, we felt a bit out of place with clunky boots & walking sticks, but really enjoyed taking the trails at a slower pace than usual.

The trail took us through Aldbury and then up, up and up to the Bridgewater monument. From there we followed the boundary trail (that was much more popular with mountain bikers, I was jealous of their wheels) towards the Ridgeway.  Lovely and green with sneak peaks of the valley below it was a perfect afternoon walking route.

We met up with the Ridgeway and followed it over Pitstone Hill (even our hiking boots couldn’t stop us from a quick sprint race to the top) and down through Aldbury Nowers. Everything was so lush it was so nice to be outside.

I took my new trekking poles with me. Last week the nice people at Trespass emailed to ask if there was anything I needed for my upcoming Kilimanjaro trek. I’ve been hesitant to buy some poles as I hate how heavy they are, but can’t afford (or afford to break!) the super light ones I really want. These are a nice middle ground pole and I think will do the job for 5 days up Kilimanjaro.

I felt like a bit of a n00b with them on the walk on Saturday (clearly as I didn’t even get a photo with them!) on such an easy trail, but it’s all good practice for the big event.

2 hours and 6 miles later we were back near the Tring station ready to hit up a pub for much needed food & drinks. This is where our planning went wrong. Tring station is no where near Tring. It would be another 30 minutes walk down a horrible busy road to even find a pub. We should have done the walk clockwise and stopped in Aldbury for our drinking needs, but didn’t realise that until we were done. It was sad times on the train back home eating the last of our jelly babies and nutrigrain bars, but we survived the hardship. Thank you for your thoughts.

I highly recommend the Ashbridge Drovers Long Walk (~6 miles) for a day out. I’d love to come back and run it, maybe including the little 2 mile detour up to Ivinghoe beacon too.