When I was a graduate student in London I often escaped city life for the day to go walking in the countryside. These images are the second in a series that features my favorite country walks near London.
These photos were taken during a walk through the Chess Valley in July 2011. The Chess Valley is located in the Chiltern Hills about 20 miles northwest of Central London. You'd never guess it from the valley's pastoral character, but it's within a short walk of the London Underground's Metropolitan Line.
On this particular trip I reached the Chess Valley Path from Chorleywood Tube Station (on the Metropolitan Line's Chesham/Amersham Branch), followed it westward through the most rural part of the valley, and then returned to the Metropolitan Line at Chalfont & Latimer Station. The path in its entirety follows the valley from Chesham to Rickmansworth (both on the Metropolitan Line) for a distance of 10 miles, but this is my favorite 3-mile section.
