Totternhoe walk in reverse

20/01/2009 by pete.

Today I did my circular walk to Totternhoe once more, only doing it in the reverse direction (clockwise). This was the first time that I’d done it that way round. It was a beautiful day for a walk, with blue skies and just a few thin, white clouds high up. It was quite frosty in the morning, the temperature lifting to maybe 5-7C about lunchtime.

I saw a Treecreeper along the bridleway betwen Whipsnade and Bison Hill. I then saw a small flock of Fieldfares on Bison Hill. As I followed the foot of Dunstable Downs, just as I was about to turn left past the Gliding club, I managed to photograph a Kestrel sitting on a nearby bush.

In the bright sunlight there were some quite extensive views from the top of the castle site at Totternhoe Knolls. The footpaths were very muddy today, worse than I’d expected - I’d forgotten just how much rain we’ve had recently, mainly because its largely been overnight. The paths were particularly bad betwen Totternhoe and Sewell, which didn’t surprise me as I remembered them being bad on previous occasions.

I had lunch quite late, about 1.40pm, when I got back to the top of the Downs. It was nice to sit there on a bench, eating my sarnies and admiring the view over the Vale of Aylesbury. I then managed to get a photo of a Rook, which was sitting on a sign by the old car park. Unusually it was its own, Rooks normally flock together.

The path round the far side of the quarry was also pretty muddy, and I was disappointed not to see many birds at all there. Today I seemed to be quite keen to photograph birds rather than just go for a walk, and a few of the shots I took today may end up on my web site as they are better than those already there.

I got home about 3pm, having been walking for around five hours.

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