Hexton Hills - The Return

12 miles - 5 and 1/2 hours (...ish)

Seeing as the navigation managed to baffle me when we tried this route as a team, I felt I had some unfinished business, so on the first weekend of January, I decided to have another shot at it. As the rest of the team usually train in the Abingdon area whilst I live in Cambridgeshire and we only all get to meet up about once a month, this was going to be a solo expedition. It also meant that I left a bit later than previously, as obviously there was no rush and I wasn't in any danger of keeping anyone waiting.

The first section of the walk was easy and I quickly ticked off the first of the hills in the Barton Nature Reserve. When I came to the place where it had all gone horribly wrong before, I made sure I followed what the compass was telling me and headed south. This time the map, compass and walk directions all stayed in agreement and I was able to relax and enjoy things much more, especially when I finally found the real Barton Farm and, more importantly, the next small footpath leading up to Galley Hill.

Heading south.....

....and getting it right this time!

Slowly, I made it up one hill after another: Galley(186m), Warden(195m), and Telegraph(184m). There were some terrific views of Northamptonshire and even Luton along the way. Over a very late lunch, I got chatting to another walker who was training for a trek up Kilimanjiro in a few weeks. He was carrying what looked like a heavy pack but his pace was impressive when we got walking, so I let him speed on whilst wondering if a Cornish pasty was really the right choice of high energy food.

Galley Hill

By mile 10, my feet were beginning to hurt and I was missing the rest of the team, who would normally keep me distracted. I can see why Trailwalker is a team event as the route passes much quicker when you're chatting to (or taking the Mick out of...) someone.

Dusk began to fall as I made my way to Deacon Hill (172m), the final hill for this route, (should have left earlier!) but I still managed to catch the satisfying views across the area I had just walked before the sun set properly. I did begin to think that I had messed up the navigation again, missing the peak of Deacon Hill, and was resigning myself to heading back to the car when I came across one more climb that looked worth doing. The peak was not visible at first but slowly, out of the darkness, I began to make out the shape of a trig point and I was able to finish the day with all the peaks on the route ticked off.

Trig point at Deacon Hill.

(Don't worry Dad! It wasn't as dark as the photo suggests!)

If anyone's interested, here is a link to the walk description I used for this walk: Hexton Hills