Written by Rob
30/07/2024
THE CHILTERNS
I am lucky to get to visit, on a regular basis, some beautiful parts of the UK. Wildside Outdoors runs expeditions in a lot of areas from lowlands across England to the mountain ranges of Eryri and the Lake District.
I, like many other Instructors, have a collection of guidebooks on the areas I work in to enable me to both understand more about the landscape we operate in and to pass on knowledge to those we are working with.
There is one area that until recently I did not have any guidebooks for, which is our home turf: the Chilterns. I’ve been walking in and learning about the Chilterns over the last twenty years or so, but have only just began to buy some walking guides. Whilst I know a lot of the area really well, its really interesting to see new suggested routes and to use the guides to learn about the area’s history.
Wildside Outdoors predominately operates in the area around Ashridge, taking advantage of our local knowledge to create challenging but enjoyable walks. I’ve now started to explore a little further afield discovering new things about the area as I do so. As a family we love to find out about the history of a local area and the Chilterns has loads! There is a ditch which originally ran for about 80km which was dug over 1,500 years ago (by whom is a bit of a mystery) which can still be seen in places, there are watermills taking advantage of the fast flowing chalk rivers which date back to Roman times and beautiful Norman churches.
The Chilterns is pretty special for nature as well. Carpets of bluebells in local woods are a must to see in the spring. A successful project to reintroduce Red Kites in the 1990’s has meant that you can now see these amazing birds on most walks. And, if you know where to look, wild garlic can be found in early summer.
I’m going to continue to look for local guidebooks to learn more about the area around us. The Chilterns is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is great to visit without knowing much about the area. But adding to my local knowledge has helped me appreciate the area even more.
You can find the book I'm using at the moment here: https://shorturl.at/BdM74
