A walk on the wild side, and a couple of ales too...

Walking in the Chilterns may not seem too wild, but the weather was, and the land got steadily muddy, as heavy showers fell (more like mini storms!), driven through by sudden gusts of wind. Amazing that you can get out to the countryside from London on the tube so easily (Metropolitan Line), and so we (with my brother Dan) started our 16 miles walk (a combination of 2 walks from the Time Out Country Walks Near London volumes 1 and 2) from Chesham...

Because the ground became heavier going the further we walked, we determined to make it to where the two walks joined at Great Missenden without a stop, so shot straight off to Little Missenden on the second walk. Consequently, the first hostelry we visited was the Red Lion in Little Missenden (website - though the link tells me to update Adobe Flash Player, which Chrome won't let me do, anyway, but good luck to you!), a 17th century pub which has starred in the television series Midsomer Murders 3 times... 

Friendly staff, and an ale from the Chilterns among the 3 on offer, Skinners Betty Stoggs and Greene King IPA being the other two. We had a very good ale from Tring (website), ie their 3.6% Side Pocket for a Toad, the same as we had when we visited on our walk in the Chilterns nearly 4 years ago! See old blog. My notes say that this was a nice dry golden bitter, pretty similar to my notes last time, I'm on the ball 😏

Then we walked on to Amersham, seeing 10-12 buzzards soaring above at one stage, then, just before arriving in Amersham, we spotted an individual male hen harrier flying above us. Anyway, we walked into the town and visited the 15th century Kings Arms (website), we entered the bar of the hotel, a previous guest being Oliver Cromwell, but, more recently, another star of Midsomer Murders, plus of Miss Marples, and the film Four Weddings and a Funeral. 

Again, friendly and helpful staff, and from the ales on offer, we drank the reasonably local, though from Hertfordshire, not Buckinghamshire, Paradigm Brewery (website) and their Watercress Ale (3.6%). A hint of pepper in the flavour from the addition of locally grown watercress, and brewed with Columbus hops, producing a very nice and refreshing bitter, good stuff!