Thursday 17th April Harlington 7 mile walk led by Tony P

Eleven ramblers set off from the village hall on a nice bright sunny day.

Walking down Sundon Rd we joined the recently opened footpath through the new housing estate, to enable us to walk behind Wood Farm.

From there past Harlington Spinney up towards Leyhill Lince, where we we had fantastic views of the surrounding countryside. We made our way on to the Sundon Hills country park, where we stopped for the first of our well earned coffee breaks.

 

Once suitably refreshed we were one our way once again, through the country park on towards Holt Wood & Fernhill Wood, where there was a large wooded area full of Bluebells.

Stopping at the Clappers for our picnic break, we were once again fully refreshed and rearing to go, we made our way very carefully down the steep gravely path, before some road walking brought us into Sharpenhoe Village.

Walking through the village we followed the track leading us to Wateroff where we crossed the small stream then on towards Lower East End Farm, we then followed the Bottoms for our walk back into Harlington.

Back across the playing fields and we were now at the village hall car park for the end of what was a lovely circular walk, that was enjoyed by all walkers.

Woburn Walk Thursday 10th April led by John and Janet

 

Thirteen of us set off from the public car park in Woburn. It was cloudy and quite chilly but a promise of sunshine later. A new lady Marianne joined us on her first walk.

We walked through the town and turned right down a lane passing the cottage with the miniature railway in the garden so a lot of us peered through the gate. We were soon out in open countryside enjoying the views and red kites overhead.

We stopped for a quick coffee/ water break, crossed the main road and into the car entrance for Woburn Safari Park where we peeled off into the woods. 

Climbing a little and exiting the wood some of us managed to spot an elephant but at quite a distance ! 

 

We stopped for a picnic lunch with 3 convenient long logs rather like being in a theatre or school!

 

 

Before long we entered the deer park and made sure we kept to the designated paths. On the way back into Woburn we passed a mare with her foal and by this time the sun was shining.

 

A 6.5 mile walk with plenty of wildlife to see and which everyone said they enjoyed.

 

Thursday 3rd April Wolverton/Calverton walk along the Ouse led by Tony R

11 walkers met at the Wolverton House car park & were join by another 4 who parked in the public car park as they were not staying for lunch. It was a bright & sunny day as we crossed Stratford Road & walked up the footpath parallel to the A5 past a new building site. We passed balancing ponds on the left  before reaching the top of the incline where we turned right & crossed over the A5 by means of a bridge. We continued through the housing estate of Galley Hill passing a school & shops, on reaching  a road we turned right to arrive at a roundabout which we crossed. We continued on with a large hedge on our left. when we came to a gap in the hedge we went through it to meet a footpath. We followed this path to a fork where we took the right hand fork. Shortly afterwards we came to a gate leading to fields. In the fields were sheep & bullocks which we gave a wide berth before leaving the fields by Calverton church. We stopped in the churchyard for a coffee break 7 noticed that a service was going on inside the church. on leaving the churchyard we passed some lovely thatched cottages where we stopped for a photo.

After the photo we carried on along the road before crossing it to join a footpath alongside the River Great Ouse. We followed the river for several miles. When we came to the water mill on mill Lane Penny left us to walk back to Wolverton House. The rest of us continued onwards until we passed through the horse tunnel under the Grand Union Canal by the Iron Trunk aqueduct. Here we left the river & followed the canal until steps allowed us to reach the main road. We turned right past the Dolphin pub but almost immediately left the road through a gate onto a footpath which led past Old Wolverton Church. After the church we crossed a large field & the walked through a wood to arrive at the entrance to Wolverton House. We entered to find Penny sitting at a large table laid with the 12 places that I had previously reserved. We all had a enjoyable lunch to finish the 6.5 mile ramble.