Win a Short Break for Two at Our Hotel of the Year 2020: Birch, in Hertfordshire

Where Was I?

“Ee bah gum, lad,” exclaimed Friend, borrowing his words from a neighbouring county. “You mean they set off from down there and walk all that way, over country like that?”

“Yes,” I told him, “and they’ve been doing it for 55 years.”

“Magnificent,” said Friend, and we gazed north-northwest from a narrow ridge towards a village in the valley below us — and on to the hills beyond. The village looked tiny, despite being the start of something big.

But now I was worried. My hope had been to walk a rough horseshoe, above and around the valley immediately south of us, finishing with a pint in a 16th-century hall that’s now a hotel. It’s in a second village, three miles southeast of the first, and only half a mile from the nearest railway station.

Friend had been keen too. First, we’d climbed to a 12th-century castle keep, built on a limestone outcrop to guard the area’s mineral wealth. But then, as we’d traversed one of the best-known peaks in the district, Friend had started to rhapsodise about the wild, flat-topped landscapes to the north. So much so that I’d begun to fear for my pint.

“Come on,” I told him. “I don’t want to miss our train.”

“Sorry, Chuck,” he said, “I’ve gone over to the dark side. I want to go north.”

“But what about my beer?”

“Don’t be an old nag,” he said. “Let’s head to the inn down there instead. I can see there’s a station too.

“And besides,” he added, pointing southeast over his shoulder, “I don’t want to look at that cement works any longer. It’s not what I expected in a protected area like this.”

Then he marched off, leaving me to scurry in his wake, feeling suddenly hopeless.

— Sean Newsom

Last week’s prize

The answers are Cunetio and Stonehenge. Dylan Steenkamp of Surrey wins a Michelin-starred break for two in Edinburgh at The Balmoral.