Book 1, Walk 17 - Bow Brickhill to Woburn Sands
Length: 18.7 km (11.6 miles)
Toughness: 6 out of 10
London Euston: 10-13 hrs Birmingham New Street service
Arrive Bletchley: 10-49 hrs Change trains and platforms
Leave Bletchley: 11-01 hrs Bedford service
Arrive Bow Brickhill: 11-08 hrs
Return Woburn Sands to Euston via Bletchley: 15-26, 16-26, 17-12, 18-12 and 18-57 hrs
Return from Aspley Guise: 3 mins before Woburn Sands
Rail ticket: buy a day return to Woburn Sands
Leaving Bow Brickhill station you are soon walking through Back Wood which is slowly recovering from forestry works eighteen months ago which disgracefully ruined all the footpaths. Onwards then through a golf course to the town of Woburn, where you stop for lunch. Although the suggested place is the gastro pub-restaurant the Black Horse, I prefer the less pretentious and walker friendly Bell Inn.
After lunch you enjoy a long walk through Woburn Park. You can detour to Woburn Abbey but time on today's walk does not make a visit practicable (you would have to take an earlier train from London).
Leaving the main part of the Park the public footpath conveniently takes you along the side of the Safari Park, which allows the resident animals a good view of strange human walkers. Leaving the Woburn Estate you walk uphill through the village of Aspley Guise, where you can end your walk at its railway station. Otherwise, you continue via another golf course to Woburn Sands. The pub next to the railway station - the Station Hotel - makes for a pleasant tea stop before your return journey to London
T=1.17.
Walk instructions here: L=1.17
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1 comment:
n=9 on this walk with most of us having to take taxis from Bletchley to the start of the walk after our train missed the connection to Bow Brickhill. So it goes.
the forest route looked a bit different from my earlier recollections with some open spaces and new planting but the trails were in pretty good nick.
I set the bar pretty low for pub food and sadly on this occasion the Bell Inn easily sailed under it. My fish pie just reached the threshold of edibility but the broccoli did not. Another walker had a sandwich bereft of either butter or margarine. Not a good experience and lets hope it was just an off day.
We ambled round the perimeter of the safari park, glimpsing a black bear and meeting Rajah the bull Indian elephant who obligingly approached us for photos. A helpful park warden identified some deer we walked close to in Woburn Park as Pere David deer which almost became extinct in the 20th century. They look a bit like red deer but are grey in colour with larger pointy antlers.
I find the stretch after leaving Woburn Park a bit boring and when we reached Apsley Guise one went to the nearby station while the rest of us continued on to Woburn Sands and drinks at the nearby pub and Costa.
Back at Euston 3 of us enjoyed a delicious glass of dry cider at the Euston Tap whilst waiting for the commuter numbers to reduce. A fine day out with the weather w= cloudy-humid-and-dry.
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