Ascent/Descent: 234
m; Net Walking Time: ca. 5 ½ hours
Toughness:
5 out of 10
Take
the 09.24 Milton Keynes Central train from Euston (Watford Junction 09.41), arriving Cheddington
at 10.04. Return trains: XX.33,
XX.53 and XX.59 (34-47 minutes journey time), on XX.24 you can catch a train to Clapham Junction (68
minutes journey times). Buy a
Leighton Buzzard return.
“A splendid walk through East
Buckinghamshire’s rolling landscape of fields and wooded areas on the edge of
the Chiltern Hills, linking up a handful of delightful hill top villages to
provide panoramic views across pleasant countryside. Broadly following the
Thames/Great Ouse watershed in the morning, it initially heads west, mostly
with grand views of the Chilterns (when not walking in wooded areas), to then
turn north with far views into Aylesbury Vale to the west, on to lunch pubs at
either Aston Abbotts or Cublington. The afternoon route is more level, but
still features the hilltop village of Wing and ends with a fairly tranquil
descent into Linslade (for Leighton Buzzard station).“
It is possible to shorten the walk by taking a bus to Leighton Buzzard station, for
details see the ‘Walk Options’ chapter on page 2 of the directions.
Disclaimer: This walk involves a
level crossing of a dual carriageway.
Lunch: The Unicorn in Cublington
(13.9 km/8.7 mi, food all day), or (a little earlier and 250m off-route) the Royal Oak Inn in Aston
Abbotts (11.5 km/7.1 mi).
Tea: several
pubs listed in the directions, they are all in the Linslade part of town,
i.e. close to the station. There is also
a re-opened pub in Leighton Buzzard’s centre (The Black Lion at
20 High Street), a bit further away, which has been voted ‘CAMRA Pub of the Year Bedfordshire’ in its first year. Or The Bald Buzzard, a micropub at 6
Hockcliffe Street.
1 comment:
n=9 on this walk of small pleasures: undramatic if slightly rolling countryside with some pleasant villages and some nice views, although those were curtailed today in w=dry-weather-with-low-clouds. So much so that The Chilterns were obscured almost all the time. But mysteriously it never rained - until we were on the train home, result! There was a fair amount of mud after recent rainfalls, complemented by overnight downpours, and some of the arable fields (mostly pre-lunch) led to mud assemblages on boots. But for every arable field there were at least two pastures to quickly get rid of the mud again. We made good progress and got to The Unicorn just before some large groups arrived, so the 3 lunchers' orders were reasonably quickly executed. And fine food it was. All picknickers joined us inside for their teas/coffees/cakes, and on we went as one group. We then lost one of the usually fast guys to him falling behind (taken a wrong turning?) and the rest of us got to LB just before 5 o'clock, for the 16.59 train.
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