Kites, combes and county tops

I’ve found a few minutes spare to type this blog. In the travel industry, January is our busiest time and it has been really, really manic, but in a good way. Feeling a bit like a wrung rag in the evenings hasn't left much time for anything else so firstly, Happy New Year. Secondly, what thoughts I have been able to muster have turned to holidays for the year, but as those are a little way off, walks closer to home have been on the agenda.

the oxfordshire plain from watlington hill

Here on the north Berkshire, south Oxfordshire border, the weather so far this month (bar a couple of days of unexpected snow) has been really quite good. As someone who used to dislike January and February, we've had a lot of beautiful crisp days with fantastic sun and deep blue skies more reminiscent of spring.

In the south, we don't have too much in the way of big hills; the nearest to us being the Chilterns. Over the decades, we have visited Watlington Hill countless times as it's pretty much the highest point nearest to us, and does have lovely views over the Oxfordshire Plain, some good walks and great places to sit and picnic.

It's an area of chalk downland with mixed woodland of broadleaf and unusually, yew, and is also a Site of Special Scientific Interest for, among other things, butterflies. It's a good place to fly kites or see kites - Red ones to be specific, and there are masses of them - I counted eight the other week. We have two pairs that nest next door but one to us, and once we counted twelve flying around overhead (someone must have put food out I suspect). They are such beautiful birds though, and I love the way they track the dog up and down the garden.

lovely weather for january

Thinking about the high points near us, Bro and I have an app that details various hill lists, and one of those is county tops. We thought we'd try and climb them in the area, and then as and when we travel around. Berkshire's was listed as the top of a road on a housing estate west of Reading, but then as Bowsey Hill, Ashley Hill and Walbury Hill, so we weren’t sure which one it really was. Googling Walbury Hill appeared to be the answer at a whopping 297m, and it has an Iron Age hill fort on the summit, although it’s all on private land, so you can’t actually get to the trig point. We’ve been up there several times and the views are beautiful though. We did 'climb' Bowsey and Ashley Hills (466 and 476ft), but gloss over that; we did.

My overriding memory of Walbury Hill is slipping and falling full length in the mud with Bro filming it and laughing until he saw my muddy bloody knee and at least had the grace to stop laughing, but not to A) help me up, B) give me one jot of sympathy or C) delete the film…

Walbury Hill leads on to Combe Gibbet where there is a replica of the gallows that was originally erected in 1676; a creepy place in the winter when you're the last up there, but beautiful in the summer with far reaching views views and a great starting point for some good walks.

Suffice to say, we haven't really made great headway into the county tops - I think we've done 12 out of 184 but, until we can get up north where it's considerably lumpier, Watlington Hill will do nicely.

more views and with added red kite