Helen was meant to be getting a flu jab and had tried to book an appointment at the drive-through facility at The Maltings. The website offered her 8.00 on Sunday. Not having heard anything she set off to get there just in case, only to find a confused person setting things up and saying that they didn't open until 10.00. So we returned for 10.00 and after multiple scans of the QR code on her phone she finally got her drive-by injection. The achievement was slightly dampened on being told she had had the special "over-65s" vaccination. But at least we could now set off for Sandon.
We had already ticked off several buzzards and red kites on the road up to Sandon. The parking space next to the church was free and there was time for a quick Whatsapp photo to James before we both managed to remember to start our watches, and we set off towards Wallington. The path led through the fields to Roe Green and then followed the Icknield Way off the top of the ridge and across a valley towards Wallington. The route here did three sides of a rectangle around the village, which meant we missed the church but did see the rather nice gardens of the big house.
Today was a day of berries in the hedgerows, in what is clearly a good year for them. Everywhere there were red hawthorn berries and blue-grey sloes on the blackthorn. We walked along a wonderful red hedge of rose hips glowing in the sunshine. But berry of the day went to the plump red berries of black bryony which seemed to be everywhere once you had noticed it. I blame that for us missing the turning south of Wallington. We doubled back about 100m past the junction and found the correct route again, complete with a Hertfordshire Way sign horizontal at ground level on a bridge. This was one of the better stretches for birds. There were the normal red kites and buzzards, along with a great spotted woodpecker investigating a large oak tree in the hedge. I then caught sight of a dark brown shape gliding silently into an oak followed by an explosion of pigeons deciding it was time to be somewhere else. Put it down as a probable sparrowhawk.
At Clothall Bury we reached the A507, the first main road since Royston. Having successfully crossed this we were less successful crossing the ploughed field next to it. The path had disappeared, but after a debate with local dog walkers we set off across the field in roughly the right direction and imagined that various lumps and bumps were indications of where we should be going. Eventually we got to the far corner but looking back we decided that we had probably just missed where the path should have been. I was reminded of the Silva Hill Race from Dorking across the North Downs, where the optimum route down from The Nower for those in the know was to "turn left where the bench used to be".
Coming out of Clothall the Church of St Mary the Virgin sat nicely up on the opposite hill for photo opportunities. Then it was down into the chalk valley with steep slopes rising on either side. The Baldock bypass was somewhere not far ahead cutting through this section of chalk we were about to climb There was always going to come a point where we met someone we knew on this circumnavigation. That point turned out to be now. The couple walking towards us had looked vaguely familiar, and I was all set for it to turn out that it was a couple we knew from Hertfordshire Orienteering Club. It was indeed, although not the couple I had initially guessed. Helen had a lengthy discussion about what their girls and our boys were now doing, whilst I watched red kites floating over the chalk ridges as they tried to ignore the crows that were trying chase them off. We climbed the ridge a few minutes later to the loud sound of mewing from the kites in the trees.
It was not far now to Weston. Lunch was at Holy Trinity Church, sitting next to Jack O'Legs' Grave. This is a somewhat underwhelming two stones and a wooden sign, showing the alleged burial place of Hertfordshire's own version of Robin Hood. We checked out the adjacent car park which would be the start of the next leg just as a kestrel dived into a tall tree in the churchyard.
There was a convenient loop through fields back to Clothall. We had a five-minute stop to watch a large flock of chaffinches and tits as they passed along the hedgerow. We retraced the route down past the church, but this time turned right in the valley and climbed for a long stretch along the Icknield Way back to Wallington. The view back across the valley was spectacular with the green of the trees and fields and sun reflecting off the gathering clouds. Another kestrel appeared from a clump of trees ahead to keep the red kites company.
At Wallington we got a chance to see St Mary's Church that we had circumnavigated on the way out, and there was then no real choice but to retrace our steps for the last three kilometres back to Sandon. We had a short rest while I tried and failed to take a photo of a shield bug, but now I've read the manual I know what I was doing wrong so look out for super-large insect photos in future reports. A final short-cut on the path behind the school in Sandon probably added an extra 200m and we got back to the car at exactly four hours. A long but enjoyable day.
