Ashridge Estate

My mate John and I had this Monday afternoon in the diary for a while. We looked nervously at the weather forecast but were lucky. It rained in the morning and had only just stopped when we set off. But by the end of the hour's drive to Ashridge some blue sky had arrived and it was a lovely afternoon for a hike.

This is a National Trust property with a little visitor centre by the Bridgwater Monument. The monument is a curious structure, in memory of someone nicknamed the Canal Duke for his services to the English canal network. It is a very sturdy looking tower, a thick stone fluted column with a copper or bronze urn on top.

But my real hope for coming here was to see the renowned bluebell woods before the bluebells were over. I was not disappointed. There were many stunning patches of blue haze, to which my photos don't do real justice.

We went on  long walk - about 4 hours and I think 8 miles or thereabouts. Emerging from the woods there are some fine views across the Chilterns. And unlike say, Epping Forest, one does get away from car noise. This feels properly like you are in the country. Once we had cleared the vicinity of the car parks we didn't see another soul, apart from the odd serious jogger training up on the hills.

Ann unexpected sight was the lion on the hillside. This is not an ancient monument. This chalk figure  was created in the 1930s as an advert for nearby Whipsnade Zoo.

There are some wonderful spreading ancient trees like this beech.

And while there are supposed to be orchids a plenty, I think we were to early for them, but gay displays of cowslips made up for it.

 We walked right up along the chalk ridgeway. Trust me this is very exposed - the wind nearly took us off out feet.

We took a slight detour off what was labelled the Wildlife Walk to climb up Ivinghoe Beacon, which is actually an iron age hillfort with terrific views all around.

But the unexpected and joyous bonus of the trip was being able to walk alongside a display of swooping red kites. We saw six along the ridge. They were much more exciting than these photos suggest. Have you any idea how hard it is to photograph a swooping raptor with a pocket sized camera and not come out with anything other than an insignificant dot? Getting both zoomed in and focused is a nightmare. This was the best of many attempts.