In spite of mud and bog warnings and heavy rain for the past 24 hours, ten Poly Ramblers still turned up at Gerrards Cross on Saturday morning in sunshine punctuated by heavy showers.  We crossed the common, passing some impressive properties (including one that Andew remembered visiting),  and paused to view an Iron Age hill fort, not much to look at, I admit.

We crossed under the M40 and then through field paths to reach the village of Hedgerley.  This was a figure of eight walk with the village in the middle so we ignored the pub and continued on our route.  Just out of the village we were halted by an impassable lake in a lane.  We tried walking through it but it was overtoppimg our boots so we scrambled into a field and over a barbed wire fence instead.  We carried on but with conditions getting more boggy we decided to amend the route to allow for a detour to avoid the lake on the way back.  Eventually we made it to the White Horse without further mishap and we enjoyed an excellent lunch.  The return leg was less eventful though still very wet.   We passed Bulstrode House, a grade II listed tudor style building.  Sadly it was covered in scaffolding so we were unable to appreciate it.  The site was the home of notorious Hanging Judge Jeffries in the late seventeenth century,  Another diversion along the busy A40 was needed to avoid a boggy field which had been difficult to negotiate on the walkover three days earlier and we assumed would be impassable now.  We were back in Gerrards X by 4pm but a broken down train meant a long journey home via bus to Uxbridge for some.

Gillian

Photos by Rob and Gillian