Book 1, Walk 17 - Bow Brickhill to Woburn Sands
Length: 18.7 km (11.6 miles)
Toughness: 6 out of 10
London Euston: 10--15 hrs West Midlands service to Crewe and Rugeley Trent Valley
Arrive Bletchley: 10-49 hrs Change trains
Leave Bletchley: 11-01 hrs Bedford service
Arrive Bow Brickhill: 11-08 hrs
Return: Woburn Sands to Euston via Bletchley: 16-26, 17-12, 18-12, 18-57 hrs
Aspley Guise: 3 mins earlier
Rail ticket: buy a day return to Woburn Sands
Mid-week walkers usually enjoy this walk in high summer. Leaving Bow Brickhill you soon find yourselves in Back Wood, which can be muddy, even after a dry spell. Leaving the wood, you walk besides Woburn Golf Course and head for the village of Woburn, where you stop for lunch. You have a choice of hotels and pubs in the village. The SWC stalwart is the Black Horse gastro pub. For more mundane (but perfectly good) fare, try The Bell Inn.
After lunch you soon walk through lovely Woburn Park with its herds of deer and head for the entrance to Woburn Safari Park. The public footpath takes you along the edge of the Safari Park, allowing you views of Bison, Zebra, Elephants and Giraffe, and later wallabies. You leave Woburn Park by its Crawley Lodge exit and walk uphill into the village of Aspley Guise. You can end your walk in this village by walking to its railway station (one stop up the line from Woburn Sands). Otherwise, you continue your walk via a golf course into the village of Woburn Sands, which contrary to its name, does not possess a beach. Refreshments at walk-end can be had at a Costa Coffee or the Station Hotel, which to everyone's surprise, is situated next to the railway station.
This walk seldom disappoints.
T=1.17
Walk Directions here L=1.17
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n=7 of us for this walk on a w=lovely-warm-summers-day, not oppressively hot as per the previous Saturday, just nice and warm, with the occasional breeze, T-shirt and shorts weather for some.
The paths in Back Wood have now recovered from the severe damage caused by tree felling operations two plus years ago, and for once we encountered no mud in the wood.
The going was good all day and there were not too many overgrown sections or nettles to trouble the shorts wearers.
Three of us dined at the Bell Inn in Woburn, with perfectly acceptable meals arriving promptly, and before the sandwichers joined us for a drink.
After lunch one sensible gent decided to proceed at a more leisurely pace through Woburn Park - we met him on the train home after he had diverted to Aspley Guise station.
The pink legs of the shorts wearers must have scared off the herds of deer usually to be seen in the main Park - we didn't spot any, until we stumbled into two large stags taking a siesta - magnificent chaps.
The footpath beside the Safari Park did not disappoint. Two inquisitive rhino came up quite close to the fence, to check us out, never having seen such pink legs before, and the elephants were showering themselves with dust, to cool off. The Rothschild giraffes were tending to their young, and the wallabies were enjoying themselves, again some with youngsters. Speaking of youngsters, my younger companions could not be persuaded to "Go Ape" and take to the hire wires, so instead we all left the Park by Crawley Lodge, to start the walk on the road uphill towards Aspley Guise. Entering the village two of our ladies upped their pace in order to catch the 16-23 hrs service from the local railway station: they just made it. Now down to a group of four, we headed for Woburn Sands, arriving just in time to have a cooling drink at the Station Hotel (pub) before taking the 17-12 hrs service back to Bletchley. The London bound train was packed but we all managed to find a seat and rest on the homeward journey.
Good travel, perfect summer walking weather, a lovely walk, good company, a good lunch stop, a Safari Park with inhabitants - I've had worse SWC days.....
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