Out in the Chilterns this time and looking for bluebells in the woods. This explore starts at Tring where I walk beyond Tring Station towards picture-box perfect Aldbury. It’s the type of place you expect an Agatha Christie to be set. On the way I spotted these fellas across the field. We watched each other for some time until they decided they should run for it.

Up through the woods then into the Ashbury Estate. The path upwards was a hollow-way, clearly ancient. At the top I met the hurly-burly of the visitors centre on a bank holiday weekend (and the first weekend with decent weather in forever). However, if you are willing to brave the mud, you can find a quiet spot in the woods. I missed the best place for the bluebells but nevertheless found some patches and a sun-dapped spot to sit in a damp log and eat my sandwich. I have bluebells in my garden but their blue is nothing compared to the blue of an English bluebell in it’s natural surrounds.

I eventually managed to leave the woods, despite the mud making several of the paths almost impassable. There were whole families of several generations still attempting to get through some of the worse patches when I left (come on grandma!). I followed the Icknield Way, an ancient pathway that was thought to bring the first people over from continental Europe when the land bridge was still in place. It’s still well used today, mainly by a large Japanese tour group making their way gamely through the mud. The wild garlic were pretty spectacular – they obviously like the damp conditions.

Eventually I made higher and drier ground and could see my destination of Ivinghoe Beacon. Joining the Ridgeway, another ancient pathway, I converged with what felt like hundreds of other people all making our way to the top. It didn’t feel crowded though and the views were expansive. Looking to my right I could see what looked like a prehistoric chalk figure on the far hillside. However, unlike the Uffington White Horse and other similar figures, this is a more modern addition I believe and is a lion representing nearby Whipsnade Zoo.

I rested a while at the top of Ivinghoe Beacon, enjoying the peace even although I was among many other people. It’s a place that people have been drawn to for millennia, the site of Bronze Age burial chambers and an Iron Age hillfort, as well as a beacon place for sending signals to far-off places. It’s not hard to understand why when you see the extent of the view.

Ivinghoe Beacon is the start (or the end) of the Ridgeway National Trail, which runs for 87 miles to Overton Hill near Avebury in Wiltshire. It is here that the Ridgeway and Icknield Way intersect; an auspicious place! I take the Ridgeway and on my way look back towards Beacon Hill. The chalk foundations of the Chilterns are clear in the path worn by many feet.

This area has been mined extensively for both flint and chalk over many years. The land either side of the path is pitted and pot-holed by ancient miners but now grassed over. To the right of the path a large lake below is the flooded remains of a chalk pit that still shows some evidence of being in use. I love the other-worldliness of flooded chalk pits, as they change colour depending on the light, from dark blue, to aquamarine to green.

Just some final hills to descend, down through woodland to return to Tring. It has been the first properly sunny day after a long, wet spring. Look at the greens though! Clearly the conditions have been perfect for the manufacture of chlorophyll. I could drink in this view forever.