I've swapped walks for Wednesdays 09 and 16 November on account of the recent posting of the nearby Bedfordshire walk, Woburn Sands to Ridgmont.
Length: 14.7 km (9.1 miles)
Toughness: 2 out of 10
London Euston: 10-15 hrs West Midlands service to Northampton
Arrive Bletchley: 10-49 hrs Change trains
Leave Bletchley: 11-01 hrs West Midlands service from Bletchley to Bedford
Arrive Bow Brickhill: 11-08 hrs
Return
Leighton Buzzard to Euston: 15-54 (fast), 16-07, 16-34, 16-34, 16-54 (fast), 17-07, 17-36, 17-55(fast), 18-10, 18-34, 18-54 (fast), 19-08 and so on
Rail ticket: buy a day return to Bow Brickhill
This makes for a lovely autumn walk, with some good leaf colour in the afternoon as you walk through Rushmere Country Park.
Leaving Bow Brickhill you soon find yourselves in Back Wood where it is easy to go astray. Paths through the wood can be muddy after rain so please take care and follow the directions carefully. You exit the wood to next walk through another wood before you have to cross the at-times busy A5 road. Be patient and you will cross over safely. You next walk through Duncombe wood as you keep ahead through a stud farm to reach the outskirts of Great Brickhill. Head down the road to find the Old Red Lion pub, your suggested lunch stop today.
After lunch, you cross the road and head down a lane to soon find yourselves in Rushmere Country Park, with its oak and beech trees. There is also a good cafe in the park which serves as a late lunch option. You continue on the Greensand Ridge path through woodland to walk above the River Ouzel on a broad track. You next cross water meadows to come out on to the tow path to the Grand Union Canal. Just down the path you find The Globe Inn, your suggested tea stop (there being sweet nothing in Leighton Buzzard). After tea you have a relaxing leg along the tow path into Leighton Buzzard: the leg through this dull town is tedious but it doesn't last long before you come to the railway station for your journey home.
T=1.41
Walk Directions are here: L=1.41
1 comment:
N=4 on this walk. Perhaps others were put off by the early morning rain, or the dreaded words “Euston” and “Leighton Buzzard” in the walk post. Two other SWC walkers were in fact spotted on the concourse at Euston but did not appear on the walk: so splittist tendencies may be at work. Our internal security has been informed.
London & Northwestern did their best to make us miss our connection at Bletchley, dawdling outside the station and then telling us the Bedford train was on platform 6 (it was platform 5). But in the end we made it without problems.
And so off we set - in glorious sunshine. Yes, reader, it was a lovely morning, the woods full of colour, the sky a lovely blue. Getting to the pub there was a temptation to sit outside on the scenic terrace…but we did not. All four of us ate and service was efficient.
After lunch we emerged to cloudy skies. It even dripped rain for a bit, but this did not last long. So w=sun-in-the-morning-and-cloud-in-the-afternoon. The grey skies were a pity because the leaf colour in the afternoon was glorious - yellow, gold and copper on beech and sweet chestnut, gold on larches. It would have been even prettier in sunshine.
Getting to the canal, my companions wrinkled their noses at the pub. Two of us saw a kingfisher on the way into town (or rather my companion saw it and pointed it out to me - thanks). One diverted to Tesco’s just before the bridge, and if I had had any sense I would have joined him (I bet they have a cafe…). Instead, I followed the other two to Leighton Buzzard station, where as might have been expected the cafe outlet was closed. So we got the 15.34 tea-less and I write this on the train to assuage my withdrawal symptoms….
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