Saturday 28th August Stockgrove Walk led by Tony M

 Unfortunately this walk clashed with the Harlington Village Show so several of us could not attend.

Tony P, Beryl, Tony M & Penny. photo by Sue

Thursday 26th August Harlington walk led by Tony Price 6.5 miles - 12 walkers

 This walk was originally supposed to be led by Sue, however as she was unable to do it because of work to her house extension Tony Price gallantly stepped to assist. 

Leaving Harlington village hall we made our way out through Harlington spinney and towards Dyers Hall farm

A water stop was taken at the Bottoms that is currently blocked off to traffic, then making our way to follow the track below the Sundon Hills

Continuing along the bottom of Moleskin Hill then out on to Sharpenhoe where we had a Pinochet stop

Continuing on back towards Harlington and returning to the village hall.

                        Track of walk, walked in anti-clockwise direction

 

Saturday 21st August Harlington - Flitwick led by Sue & Graeme

This walk was 5 miles with an additional 2.5 miles if you wanted with a return by train to Harlington.
Thank you to everyone who joined us on our walk today.
13 members joined us for what seemed an almost ‘ back to normal’ TRC Walk.
We left Harlington Village Hall car park at 10am & headed off towards Flitwick for the first part of our 5 mile walk.
Up past Harlington Upper School on Goswell End Road stopping to admire the views at the top.
Then along a small part of the John Bunyan Trail through fields, some full of field beans turning black for animal feed, even the pond had dried up despite the rain we have had, heading towards Sampshill Road Westoning.
It was lovely to listen to the chatter and laughter of our friends and to see the return of members and meet John and Mary for their first walk. 

Andy, Brigid, Mary, John & Beryl in the church porch

We stopped at Westoning church for coffee. It was lovely to find the church open and take a look inside, many of you know just how much I love to go inside. The smell of polish hit us as we went in and talked to the young man cleaning.
Off we went heading towards Flitwick woods, taking a wide berth around cows with calves and then over the stile.

Sue, Ann, Brigid, Kate & Tony P avoiding the calves

We passed Priestleys farm shop and then taking a right passing their vast crops. 

 

At the gate

Brigid leading across the bridge

Eventually passing Wood farm heading  to Flitwick woods for our lunch stop.
We all managed to sit on a fallen tree and again the chatter and laughter continued. 

Lunch stop in Flitwick Woods

Then we headed off along Steppingley Road towards the train station. Here we said goodbye to most members as they caught the train home to Harlington or walked home.
Five of us then continued the walk across the railway bridge heading towards Flitwick moor nature reserve meeting Nita along the way and saying goodbye to Sandra and Paul.
We entered opposite Flitwick water mill and walked along The River Flit. Across the board walk chatting and enjoying ourselves. It really is a lovely peaceful place to walk through. 

Graeme, Tony R & Nita on the boardwalk

Graeme, Sue, Tony R & Nita on a bench in Flitwick Woods

Nita headed off home, Tony to his party and Graeme and myself headed off for the train to Harlington.

Track of the walk

Thursday 19th August Westoning / Pulloxhill walk led by Maureen & Malcolm Graham

This walk had 11 walkers & started from the Graham home in Westoning & was 5.5 miles in length.

Malcolm & Jean S, Malcolm G, Penny, Sue, Christine, Kate, Maureen, Nita, Hilary & Tony P

Kate, Christine, Penny, Hilary, Malcolm & Maureen, Jean & Malcolm & Tony P

Map showing track, walked in clockwise direction

Circular walk from from Harpers Coffee Shop in Pepperstock. 6.5 miles Leaders Nita and Beryl

We met at Harper's cafe with no difficulty, thanks to the very clear travel instructions (and a little help from Google maps and sat navs): for all of us it was a new part of the county. The thirteen walkers including two new members- Brigid and Andy Connor, plus Nita, Beryl, Penny, Malcolm & Jean, Tony P, Tony R, Hilary, Lynn, Ruth &  Joan.We recognised with delight some of the same ramblers from Thursday's walk and picked up previous conversations.  The walk originally should have been five miles but when doing the recce there was a large herd of cows with their calves on the Common land so a detour was necessary for safety reasons. The terrain was easy with lanes and good dry paths, blackberries were just starting to ripen and there was a glorious view of extensive golden wheat fields. After passing a very busy football fun day on the edge of Caddington  Beryl had found a perfect resting place for us to have our  banana / coffee break. so we stopped at a lovely seat in a copse. Some ramblers declined to sit down saying it was too low or too unstable!

 

After coffee we noticed a change as when we did the recce we crossed a field of very ripe dry rapeseed, a track was clearly there for us to do a slow ascent to the top of the field. However today there was no track at all as it had been ploughed which made it very hard, we took our time, Penny and Joan did very well. We were certainly ready for a water stop at the top. However the final part was along an easy wide woodland bridleway alongside a very noisy Clay Pigeon practice ground. We could have done without the noise, also there were plenty of planes taking off from Luton airport. We arrived back at Harpers dead on time at 1.00 pm. Ruth had to leave, but twelve of us enjoyed a very nice lunch sitting in the sunshine. We all made a toast to each other as we were all pleased to be together again. On our way to "New Normal ".

Track of walk, walked generally in an anti-clockwise direction.

 

 

Thursday 12th August Toddington Walk - 5.5 miles

 This walk was led by Tony Madeley and had 13 walkers

We started from Toddington Village Hall car park. It was lovely to see so many, and people who had not been walking since pre pandemic. Conversations started immediately and continued throughout. We walked towards Tebworth, paused briefly for water at the pond (from our bottles, not the pond!!) and walkd through fields to Chalgrave. So much news  to catch up on that when silence was requested to listen to a yellowhammer, the request was futile! Coffee stop was at Charlgrave church. The air pressure dropped, the wind got up, rain seemed imminent, but we returned to the village in the dry. Many ramblers stopped off at the cafe for lunch.

Track of walk, walked in clockwise direction.

Thursday 5th August - Woburn Sands Walk - 7.5 miles - 9 walkers

This walk, which was led by Brenda and Beryl  started from the Shoppers' car park in Woburn Sands.

Brenda and I selected the route from the OS Explorer Map 192. Unfortunately, before we did the recci we were told that the footpath behind HULA Animal Rescue was closed. We were also worried about the path across the old Wavendon Golf Course which is now earmarked for housing. However, these fears were unfounded because both paths were open when we did the recci.

Brenda, John, Beryl, Tony P, Christine, Torunn, Kate, Sue & Tony R

We did, however, come across other hazards – very long grass and tall stinging nettles – but on the actual day of the walk the grass and nettles had been mown down. This only left us the stiles to worry about. John Dixon came to our rescue and was our hero of the day when he supported a tall post beside a very wobbly stile!

So all in all the walk turned out a success and I believe all the participants had a good day.   Beryl

 

Map showing track of walk, walked in anti-clockwise direction