Hiking in the Malvern Hills, Worcestershire

One thing I really miss about Los Angeles is the abundance of day-hikes. From my old apartment in Hollywood I could walk out the door and in 15 minutes be alone up on the pathways of Griffith Park, with only the sunshine and my dog, George, for company. Whenever visiting friends and family were in town, we inevitably drove the 5 minutes up Beechwood Drive to the Hollyridge trail-head and followed the steep, dusty horse-trail to the lookout above the landmark Hollywood sign--a good hour-long power walk. Alternately, on clear, sunny weekend days I often drove for 30 minutes over to the Pacific Palisades and spent a happy hour doing a loop on the hiking trails in Temescal Canyon for views of Malibu and the Pacific.

Since the Midlands district of England is mostly flat to moderately hilly, there aren't really any hikes I can get to on a regular basis for a quick workout, but D has promised to take me to some of the different spots that are within an hour or two of us on the motorway. Hopefully when winter is over, there will be a few more nice weather days for us to venture out and see them!

Before winter attacked, we did have a chance to spend one sunny Saturday afternoon hiking in the Malvern Hills. After driving for about 45 minutes south west from our house in Wythall with D's dog, Mia, we arrived in the quaint village of Great Malvern, and then wound our way up through the trees above the town to a carpark where we found one of the many trailheads providing access to the Malvern Hills. During the first 10 minutes of hiking, we wound our way uphill through a grove of dense trees, but finally came out at the top of the ridge to find mostly grassy hilltops with small bushes of wildberries scattered alongside.

We let the dog loose on the trails and walked for about 25 minutes up to the highest point in the hills. The view was amazing as we could see in all directions, but I was a little disappointed to learn that the highest point was a mere 1395 feet! After hitting the viewpoint we wandered down and around the hills across some of the different trails that seemed to go on endlessly, but finally made our way back to the car after about 2 hours. On our way home we stopped at a picturesque pub on the banks of the River Severn just outside of Worcester for a beer and some sandwiches in the sunshine--it was almost enough to transport me back to the LA sunshine!!