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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.

Wednesday 16 September 2020

Wednesday walk Harpenden to St Albans - a Hertfordshire Town and a Hertfordshire City linked by commons, parkland and a new woodland forest

SWC 351 - Harpenden to St Albans

Length: 18.65 km (11.6 miles)
Toughness: 3 out of 10

Car drivers: Harpenden is one stop up the line from St Albans City station. Probably easier to park in Harpenden, close to the railway station.

For those comfortable using public transport during Covid times, your recommended train is:
Thameslink service, from Brighton to Bedford, with stops at:

East Croydon: 09-51 hrs
London Bridge: 10-05 hrs
St Pancras: 10-21 hrs
St Albans City: 10-41 hrs
Harpenden: 10-47 hrs

Return: St Albans City to St Pancras and beyond: up to 8 fast trains an hour, plus stopping trains
             St Albans City back to Harpenden (for car drivers): 8 an hour
   
             St Albans Abbey to Euston, changing at Watford Junction: 16-54, 17-45 and 18-32 hrs

Rail ticket:  Buy a day return to Harpenden. Note: if you opt to return from St Albans Abbey station (with its much nicer approach walk) you will need separate single tickets for your two rail journeys today.

Rule of Six

As of Monday, 14 September, we are required by law to limit the size of our groups or bubbles to a maximum of six. Thus before we start walking we will separate into groups of six or less, and groups will set out a suitable distance apart. During the course of the day the groups must stay apart and not converge or meet up. We must all share contact details with the members of our group of six.  Responsibility for compliance with the new law is down to everybody attending the walk today.

                                                                     ******

The two previous attempts to post this new walk from Elsa on a Wednesday were thwarted (1. Not enough daylight, and 2. Coronavirus lockdown) so let's hope it's third time lucky, although the new Rule of Six will not help. Saturday walkers gave this walk its inaugural outing a couple of months ago, but not many showed up. So despite Covid restrictions I hope some Wednesday walkers will attend today to appreciate what is an excellent new walk with variety, views and a stretch through a brand new woodland forest - Heartwood. All is explained in the Prelude to the Directions found here: L=swc.351
Lunch is taken today in the village of Sandridge where you are spoilt for choice - 3 good pubs (all should be open for lunch today) and a popular Tearoom adjacent to the village stores where you can purchase provisions for a picnic.
The afternoon takes you along a leg of the Hertfordshire Way before you walk through the Childwickbury country estate, then down over fields into St Albans. If you have time you can explore  some of the sights in this historic city, including the Abbey if still open.
T=swc.351


2 comments:

Mr M Tiger said...

N=11 on a day that was w=muggy-at-start-sunny-and-hot-later
No worries about dividing into small groups. Thameslink did that for us. Their timetable was in chaos, with delays and cancellations. This was due to something or other. So we arrived in Harpenden in ready-made clumps, the first having caught the 8:43 at 10:01!
The group I was with, the first, soon tired of me and cast me aside. I was too slow for them. I was a walking pariah, detached from my bubble. The other bubbles overtook and passed like gravitational waves. Fshoom.
And so we laboured across a golf course and through Heartwood to the Queens Head / picnic ground. The pub was fine, service a bit slow but I wasn’t eating so hey. I watched the others. Huge portions. It was like watching a pie eating competition. I didn’t stay to watch the coffee. I made a head start so they could have more fun overtaking me again. Which they did. The afternoon took us through a large estate and through the old part of St Albans. Directions mostly clear with one or two minor niggles which I’ll put in walk comments. A grand day out. An interesting walk and mercifully flat.
Those that returned from St Albans City found that the chaos was still going on. Still due to something or other. But we did eventually get home. I say ‘we’, I mean ‘I’.

Marcus said...

Thanks Ian, for your corrections noted in the Comments section of this walk. I will update the on-line Directions with your suggested changes.
I believe we all enjoyed Elsa's walk. We were fortunate with the weather if not the travel today. On the return journey - which stopped everywhere - my companions alighted at West Hampstead. At the next stop Kentish Town, and one before my destination St Pancras, we were told due to continued signalling problems we would be held at the station for 20 minutes. Most of the passengers disembarked, but I said "sod it" and stayed put, planning to have a kip. The train moved off 2 minutes later - leaving most of its passengers stranded on the platform. I was denied my kip !