After a short drive passing much of what we would later run through, we parked next to the church at Bovingdon. There was a lot of blue sky with light cloud but it had got noticeably colder. We set off through the churchyard again but this time turned left at the well in the High Street and passed Anvil Close and Farriers Close hinting at a previous local industry. There was slight confusion when a parked van blocked the path out of the housing estate, but soon we were into open fields. Extensive greenhouses lay off to the right and a large radar dome appeared in the distance behind them. A first red kite of the day put in an appearance. All pleasant enough but nothing special. And so it proved for the rest of the day.
Across a road and down a surfaced lane with moss growing down the middle. I remarked that the holly hedges were quite thick and well-tended all along the lane. Helen pointed out that might be why it was called Holly Hedges Lane. We turned off and went through an area of runnable woodland with the equally appropriate name of Woodman's Wood. A ring-necked parakeet squawked loudly from the trees around Woodman's Farm and we had made it to Chipperfield.
Chipperfield Common has a rather green orienteering map that reflects the extensive brambles and holly, and also seems to be quite muddy and frequently snowy whenever we run there. The Hertfordshire Way runs along the south edge of the woods so we missed out on St Paul's Church and the various large Spanish chestnut trees and bronze age burial mounds and had to settle for Apostles Pond. This caused some debate since I was convinced it was a different pond to the one we first came to. Helen thought this one probably was Apostles Pond, which indeed it was so it is just as well I went back to take a few photographs. The name is meant to derive from twelve trees that were planted around what was apparently once a monastery fishpond.
We continued on and passed a pond that wasn't Apostles Pond, and wasn't even the pond that I thought was Apostles Pond, and crossed the road to leave the common and set off across the fields towards Kings Langley. Somebody had put in a lot of time and effort to build a series of double fences around the fields but it was not clear what these fences were intended to separate from what. We crossed a large valley and headed up the path along the hedges on the other side. This got muddier and muddier as we got towards the top of the hill, only to find that we should have cut off from the hedge quite a long way back and taken the nice dry grassy route to the gate visible ahead.
A field full of six-inch stalks of what used to be sweetcorn led us to the bridge over the A41 and we got a view of the Gade Valley and the West Coast Main Line with the M25 crossing them on a viaduct and Watford further beyond. The large Renewable Energy Systems wind turbine also came into view and will turn up again at the start of the next leg. As we passed through the farmyard at the bottom of the hill we passed a young woman setting off up the hill in bright white trainers that probably weren't going to survive the first 10 yards.
All Saints Church was just too far to the left to merit a visit so instead we pressed on and arrived at the Grand Union Canal and the end of the Hertfordshire Way for today. Now it was simply matter of turning left and following the canal to Hemel Hempstead.
The canal was quite busy and we spent the time dodging walkers, cyclists and fishermen. What I initially assumed was a fish that had just been caught turned out to be the bait for whatever monster this particular fisherman was after. The standard birdlife was around, enlivened by a cormorant that flew over and a small flock of tufted duck on a fishing lake. Three mute swans paddled past and Helen spotted an orange leg ring on one of them. 4BED turns out to have been ringed at Tringford Reservoir just north of Tring in May 2009 and since then has been reported at various places along the canal between Tring and Watford. Most recently it had been seen at Croxley Common Moor earlier this month and in Hemel Hempstead in July.
We passed a lot of nice houses backing onto the canal, a suit of armour standing in a back garden, three canoeists (average age 70+?), a mountain bike track set up amongst concrete ruins in an area of small hills, the council offices where Helen has had meetings and which now had a drive-through Covid test site in the car park, and lots of locks and bridges including one under the West Coast Main Line.
All this brought us to Apsley Waterside and Marina which wasn't at all what I was expecting in Hemel Hempstead. The shiny apartment blocks set around a large basin full of canal boats proved a good place for a quick snack break. Just around the corner we came to "The Paper Mill" pub next to what used to be Apsley paper mill. This is one of seven paper mills that used to exist along this stretch of the Gade Valley, or Paper Valley as it was known. The Frogmore mill just ahead was the location of the first mechanised papermaking machine in the world in 1803.
We ticked off a few more locks and bridges, a gorilla statue peering from a hedge at the bottom of a garden, and various Canal and River Trust maintenance vessels including one named "Pride of Slough" and reached Boxmoor. Passing under the A414 we were now on the Boxmoor East map and I completely missed the opportunity to take a photo of a key location. The clue is that this area is known as Two Rivers and that the A414 at this point is also known as Two Rivers Road since this is where the River Gade joins the Grand Union Canal and the River Bulbourne. From Kings Langley we had been running up the Gade Valley. This now heads north through Hemel and up towards Great Gaddesden where we crossed it on leg 8. We were now heading west along the canal and River Bulbourne back towards Berkhamsted and Tring.
The Church of St John the Evangelist lay just through the trees across the canal, but yet again we didn't quite get there so the only church on this leg was to be at the start and finish at Bovingdon. Further away across the cricket pitch the blue KD Building (or Kodak House as it used to be) dominated the centre of Hemel, as it had when viewed from a lot further away on leg 11. And somewhere just out of sight next to it was the magic roundabout with its six mini roundabouts arranged in a circle to provide entertainment for any driver who has never been to Hemel Hempstead before.
We soon turned off the canal and started the climb back to Bovingdon. A short stretch on a road took us back over the West Coast Main Line and led up to the former chalk quarry at Roughdown Common. The climb continued through woodland and over the A41 to Sheethanger Common. We passed Little Felden House and Helen wondered what the full-size house would be like. The answer was that Felden Lodge is the Boys Brigade National Headquarters and is indeed quite large but lies hidden away behind high fences and hedges.
After a final section through woodland full of brambles we picked up the Chiltern Way again and started out along the field edges. The large valley just before Bovingdon was the same one we had crossed much further down when leaving Chipperfield. The church came into sight and we went through the gate into the final field to be met by a welcoming party of horses and two donkeys.
A red kite flew over the car as we were getting changed, as is becoming traditional. And finally we were treated to a flock of thirteen red kites circling over the east of the village as we drove home.
