Length: 18.7 km (11.6 miles) Ending walk in Aspley Guise - 10.7 miles
Toughness: 6 out of 10 no steep hills but several ups and downs
London Euston: 10-15 hrs West Midlands service to Northampton
Arrive Bletchley: 10-49 hrs Change trains
Leave Bletchley: 11-01 West Midlands service to Bedford
Arrive Bow Brickhill: 11-08 hrs
Return
Woburn Sands to London Euston, changing at Bletchley: 15-26, 16-26, 17-19, 18-26, 19-21 and 20-26 hrs
Aspley Guise: 2 minutes before Woburn Sands
Rail ticket: buy a day return to Woburn Sands
The highlights of today's walk comes in the afternoons, when having enjoyed the vast expanses of Woburn Park, with its herds of deer, you walk along a public footpath alongside Woburn Safari Park. From this path you usually have fine views of buck, zebra, rhinos, elephants, giraffes then later, wallabies.
Before this, in the morning, the walk starts with a leg through Back Wood, where many a SWC walkers has gone off piste. Once negotiated, the walk continues along the edge of Woburn Golf Club before continuing through a mixture of light woodland and open fields into the attractive town of Woburn, where we stop for lunch. A favourite with SWC walkers is the Black Horse, towards the top of Bedford Street. Further down this street is the Bell Inn, which often has good value offers at lunchtime.
After leaving the Safari Park and Woburn Park, we exit the estate through the gates of Crawley Lodge, to climb steadily up a road to and through the village Aspley Guise. Once past the Parish Church of St Botolph, you have the choice of finishing today's walk at Aspley Guise railway station - by keeping ahead for some 600 metres down the road, or continuing on to Woburn Sands, via a golf course. Your refreshment stop in Woburn Sands is the Station Hotel, surprisingly situated next door to the railway station.
T=1.17
Walk Directions are here: L=1.17
1 comment:
#3 #humid-cloudy-then-sunny Hadn't done this walk before so wore my fav. safari print shirt to help identify all the animals. One who had done it before tried to manage my expectations. Morning through the undulating woods seemed strangely hard work due to the humidity. 1 liked, 2 thought samey. Lunch in the posh pub (it was nice) as the cheaper ones were closed or had no food. (Found a 4th pub further on). On then to the deer and safari park. The deer were magnificent with their antlers, and close (even by Richmond/Bushy Park standards). Then along a fenced in path alongside the drive-through safari. We did see a fair number of wildlife (elephant, hippos, etc), but from a distance. It was interesting, rather than amazing. Having seem the car safari, none of us were tempted to do it. The deer park the safari was in was great, deer of course, redwoods, open vistas, wild goats as well as the deer. Leaving the parkland, we found a new footpath that avoided a section of road. Checking the time, we legged it through Aspley Guise to the station to catch the hourly train @ 6.17 with time to spare. The afternoon was a breeze compared to the morning, all 3 liked it much better. Will give GPX some TLC, and add the Aspley station, and Abbey view options.
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