Where: Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire

Distance: 17 km

How to get there: Metropolitan line to Rickmansworth, return from Amersham/Chesham

Navigation: Signposting varies a lot, I definitely recommend taking the detailed instructions provided here: https://www.chilternsaonb.org/uploads/files/Walks_and_Rides/Chess-Valley-Walk-Leaflet-For-Web.pdf

This one is for the tree lovers.

The perfect day hike for traffic-weary Londoners. Walkable at any time of year, the Chess Valley Walk provides a pleasant combination of lovely forests, farmland, and open fields. I would perhaps recommend it slightly more during the lighter months. I hiked the trail in mid-November and started a tad late in the day. Do not underestimate how long it takes to get there, the Metropolitan line is unexpectedly slow and you are going further out of London than you think. While I got to enjoy a beautiful sunset towards the end of my hike, it was less ideal trying to navigate the last forests, tunnels, and town-outskirts after dark in the cold!

I hiked the CVW after a period of heavy rain, and the trail was often extremely muddy. Boots with grippy soles are definitely a must on this hike, I even saw some people splash through the worst in wellingtons. However, as I often find in the UK, the landscape is not that season-dependent to be beautiful. I am from Norway, where our landscape is completely drained of colour for more than half the year. Every plant is dead, and unless there’s been a fresh snowfall and you’re in a semi-urban area, it’s far from pretty. But in the UK, even at the height of winter, nature retains its colour and beauty – just with a changing palette. I can imagine the Chess Valley Walk is gorgeous in spring and summer when it’s dry and flowers are in bloom. The highlights are definitely sectioned to the middle, you will be navigating a few roads to get out of Rickmansworth and into Amersham and Chesham. The town walk section is longer if you walk to Chesham, as the forest ends on the outskirts of Amersham station.

The trail begins in a less than picturesque suburban setting. Once you get past the Waitrose, football field, and primary school however, you come onto a super romantic path lined by the Chess river. Tall grass, willows, a wooden bridge… lovely stuff. Once past the bridge you have to suffer through a less scenic section where you trace corrugated iron fences along small backyard roads before crossing a bridge above the M25. However, as the motorway sounds drift away behind you, you can stride confidently into pristine woodland.

At this point, the day was drifting into the late afternoon, and there was a properly cold nip in the air as I ambled over shallow brooks and through dewy fields. It had rained on and off for almost two weeks, and the ground was a lush green but definitely muddy. I sat down to have one of my favourite lunch meals – a Pret a Manger wrap with falafel and halloumi – on the clean white trunk of a massive fallen tree. The field stretched steeply behind me, while the lively river Chess bubbled to the left of the trail. The CVW is reasonably trafficked as it intersects with many other popular walking routes, and it has a reliable supply of cute dogs.

The sun hung low in the sky as I picked my way between pools of mud. I was torn between annoyance at the sloppy ground underfoot, and being distracted by the beautiful forest scenery all around me. I have said this a thousand times before, but England truly has the loveliest “soft nature” in the world. The British Isles will never compete in majestic alpine scenery, craggy peaks, or wild terrain – but the almost literary beauty of fields, hedges, and the trees floors me every time. You can tell how Tolkien developed his love for trees on his walks through the British countryside. Without the utter uniqueness of every leafy tree in England, we wouldn’t have Treebeard, the White Tree, the Party Tree, or the Old Man Willow. Works such as Anne of Green Gables have also instilled in me the appreciation for every bit of nature for its singularity. The oak trees along the CVW are just sublime. Let that avert your eyes as you splosh through the shoe-swallowing mud between horse paddocks and little houses. At one point I hung onto a rickety wooden fence in an absurd imitation of a bouldering traverse to escape the ten inches of mud that coated the whole path.

Once past the paddocks and fields, you are treated to the most beautiful part of the whole walk. A wall of oak trees on your right, you traverse the top ridge of a massive field overlooking the valley below. The dirt track stretches in a wide arc along the line of trees, the grass is impossibly green for that time of year.

However, the sun was about to disappear over the horizon. By the time I tickled the muzzle of the friendly bay horse down at the valley floor – after a slippery descent down a rooty hill – it was officially twilight. There were still a couple of other walkers around, but darkness was settling fast. The path became less clear as I briskly strode through a dozen gates and through a creepy old tunnel below tube tracks no longer in use. I cursed myself for having started so late as I semi-jogged through a small forest. I’d abandoned the maps and aimed only on direction, very much done with the adventure. The forest came to an abrupt end on the edge of a pastoral-looking neighbourhood, which I found out later was close to Amersham station. Having read that the official path goes all the way to Chesham, I stupidly navigated along the dark town roads on my phone until I finally got there. Take my word for it guys, just aim for Amersham and be done with it. Once on the warm tube, I sank down and stretched my aching legs. ‘Twas a long journey back to London.