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This Week's Walks - Archive

Please see the Saturday Walker's Club This Week's Walks page.

This is an archive of walks done by the Saturday Walker's Club. You should only need to use this page if the SWC website is down.

Sunday 10 April 2016

Sunday Walk 2: The Delectable Clappers

Harlington Circular SWC walk 230
17.3 km 10.7 miles. Toughness 4/10
Can be extended to up to 15.2 miles, toughness 6/10, by finishing in Flitwick.

The second of today's walks also has a literary connection. The author of Pilgrim's Progress was a native of Bedfordshire and parts of this walk follow the John Bunyan Trail across the Sundon Hills and the wonderfully named Sharpenhoe Clappers. These hills were the inspiration for his "Delectable Mountains”. After lunch in Pulloxhill, your route takes you back to Harlington, past Bunyan’s Oak, where Mr B used to preach.
Any hardnuts wanting more can opt for the full 15 mile walk to Flitwick. Slightly softer nuts can shorten that to 13.8, 13.3 or 11.9 miles.
Trains Get the Thameslink (Bedford direction) from Blackfriars at 9:24 or St Pancras at 9:34. (This train stops at a number of other stations on its way through London including East Croydon 8:56, Kentish Town 9:38, West Hampstead 9:42, Hendon 9:48). Arrives Harlington at 10:32.
To return to London.
From Harlington, xx:20  xx: 50.
From Flitwick; xx:16, xx:46
A return to Harlington will do for the circular but a return to Flitwick, the further station, costs no more and covers both endings.
Lunch
The circular and most main walk options take you to The Cross Keys, Pulloxhill, (01525 712 442).
Any taking shortcut 1 are catered for by two pubs in Westoning.
Tea
Harlington has two pubs: The Carpenters Arms (01525 872 384) and The Old Sun (01525 877 330)
Flitwick offers plenty of options for any taking the main walk, and there is an earlier recommended stop in Steppingley (see notes)
Walk Directions here
The circular walk uses the “alternative ending in Harlington”
T=swc.230.a

4 comments:

Ian T said...

N=7 w=dry-sunny-cool-breeze-patchy-cloud-pm
Yours truly trailed behind the others and managed to get hopelessly confused in the fields at the start and miss the turn into Sundon CP. Went up plenty hills alright including some of the Sundon Hills and the Bunyan Trail but never in a way that seemed to be heading for the Clappers. So, with Giant Despair’s thunderous footsteps getting closer and closer, I gave up on the Delectable Mountains and headed for the “prominent water tower” in the distance. At Sharpenhoe, I re-found my place in the directions and followed them to Pulloxhill. The Cross Keys denied all knowledge of a previous group of walkers - so where did they go? Did Giant Despair get them? I know where I went. Back to Harlington as planned.

David Colver said...

The core of the Harlington group made it uneventfully to the Cross Keys pub, where the roast potatoes were agreed to merit a score 3.5 out of 5.

Alone among the customers, we ate outside, which is why we might not have registered in the minds of the bar staff consulted by Ian T.

And alone among the group, I followed the posted walk back to Harlington, wondering all the way how I came to do a walk identical to one I'd done in perhaps November; the others preferred to go the greater distance to Flitwick.

BestFootForward said...

And another on the trailing edge - I caught a later train so was 30 mins behind the group, but made it all the way to Flitwick. Small detour into some lovely bluebell woods near the Clappers. Also came across a lost walker in the same area and we walked chummily along to the Clappers car park. Only saw 2 other walkers all day, so I guess I either overtook the group while they were at the pub, or possibly more likely, I continued at the trailing edge in a leisurely fashion.

Anonymous said...

Actually, the previous posting of this walk was mid Jan.