This was very much Stuart’s walk which had mapped out himself. But he had been called away to Melbourne following a family bereavement and I was left as stand in leader, not having done a walk over.  Luckily there are better map readers than me in the group.  Twenty one Poly Ramblers started out from Amersham on a sunny Saturday morning.  At one point I thought there were 22 in the group but I must have miscounted.  The walk started downhill through the woods to Old Amersham, where we stopped to admire the memorial gardens which are looking fantastic this year.  Then we headed gently uphill across fields towards the village of Coleshill. It was on this stretch that I appreciated Dominique’s superior map reading skills.  At Coleshill Yvonne decided to return to the town so we were down to 20.  We continued to Winchmore Hill and then into Common Wood where we picked up a long straight uphill path to Hazlemere and the Mayflower pub.  An unexpected short sharp shower just before we arrived at the pub made us stop and dig out our rain jackets, but it stopped after a few minutes.  After a pleasant though lengthy lunch (due to a misunderstanding about starters) a depleted group continued the walk.  Seven walkers decided to take the bus from Hazlemere back to Amersham.  The remaining 13 retraced our steps to Common Wood and headed downhill into Penn Wood.  We had a bit of difficulty picking up the path on Stuart’s map but with the aid of Google Maps we found our way to Penn Street and crossed the busy A404 to Mop End, albeit in the wrong place.  Luckily Rob picked up our mistake and set us back on the right route.  Soon we were heading downhill in open country towards Shardeloes and Amersham cricket ground.  Ignoring the prescribed route we headed back through the old town and back to the station by the same route.  A really lovely walk showing off the best of the Amersham area. Thanks to Stuart for planning, Dominique and Rob for help with map reading and Geoffrey for back marking.

Gillian