Book 1 Walk 17 (in reverse) Plus Book 1 Walk 41 = Woburn Sands to Leighton Buzzard
Distance: 15ish miles/24ish km for the combo with
shorter option of 11.6 miles/18.7km by finishing in Bow Brickhill (i.e. doing
the classic Book 1 walk 17 in reverse). t=1.17
Difficulty: 6 out of 10
Train: Take the 9:24
AM Northampton bound train from London
Euston, changing at Bletchley (arriving 10:12; departing 10:17) arriving at
Woburn Sands at 10:41. Return trains from
Leighton Buzzard are at 08, 34 and 54 past the hour until quite late and from
Bow Brickhill 31 minutes past usually, except for 17:26 with the last sensible
train at 18.31. Buy a day return to Woburn Sands.
So, this will be a bit of an adventure. I have
been eyeing combing these two walks for a while and I guess this is the time….as
a northern walk was needed to balance out the weekend’s current offerings. The
two routes meet at a corner in Broomhills Woods. I thought the combination of routes offered an
interesting mix of woodland, deer park, historic abbey, safari park and canal…..You
can find more information about the walk and download the walk instructions/route
here and here. Since we will be doing Walk 17 in reverse, I would suggest
bringing a print-out of the map or a GPX file….
The suggested lunch spot is the Black Horse pub
in Woburn. There are a few other options available in Woburn of this one is
full. Afternoon refreshments can be had at the Globe Inn along the canal
approach to Leighton Buzzard.
Enjoy the walk!
1 comment:
Just n=6 good natured adventurers on this somewhat epic exploration of Bedfordshire. For future reference the two walks do intersect nicely to make a long walk -- probably closer to 16 miles than the advertised 15.....though, it may be better to start at Aspley Guise which looks to have more direct access to the countryside....We saw some elephants, zebras and wallabies at the safari park, followed by some very exotic looking deer at the deer park....Five enjoyed a very educational lunch at the rightly popular Black Horse in Woburn during which we learned that the exotic deer were "pere david" deer -- originally from China where they were extirpated...However, German and French traders had brought some to zoos in Germany and France and the 11th Duke of Bedford acquired a few from the Berlin zoo forming the base of the significant herd at the woburn deer park. The 14th Duke then gave a number back to China where the population seems to be growing....The picnicker set off ahead of the pub lunchers and did the full walk as advertised whereas the 5 pub lunchers opted to try an "alternate route" bypassing Great Brickhill and possibly slightly shorter....with almost impeccable timing we reconnected with the picnicker in some woods almost exactly where the routes reconnected....and all walked together to the Globe Inn where all but one stopped for a very welcome rest and drink before setting off with a half moon and plenty of evening bird song (and owl hoots) on the final stretch along the canal. A fun long day out in w=mostly-sunny-conditions-with-a-few brief-showers-before-lunch! Many thanks to those on walk for their willingness to test out this experimental route.
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