To Harpenden from Hemel Hempstead

We had hoped to walk this leg a couple of weeks ago, but the weather was dire. However the weather forecast for today was good, much to our surprise given that it had rained for most of yesterday, and we woke to sunny autumnal morning. It was one of those "good to be alive" sorts of days, though unsurprisingly the walk was somewhat muddy in places. The clocks had changed overnight which meant it would be dark by 5pm, so we'd taken the precaution of driving over to Milton Keynes yesterday evening, so as to be able to start walking earlier. We drove down the M1 to Harpenden and parked one car back where we had parked last time, on Thrales End Lane near its junction with the A1081 (TL123157). We then drove together to Hemel Hempstead Station (TL044059) by way of the twisting narrow Watery Lane to junction 9 of the Motorway, down to Junction 8, then through Hemel Hempstead. This included navigating the "Magic Roundabout", a roundabout of six separate roundabouts that the maps app on my phone, which we were using to show us the route, didn't understand. Parking for the day cost something just less than £5. This is too expensive of course, but much less than it would be on a weekday. We'd decided to walk this leg in reverse because of greater certainty over parking at the Harpenden end, but we needn't have worried - the car park is pay and display so it would have been fine to meet here and only pay for the car we were leaving.

We followed the road around from the car park to the front of Hemel Hempstead Station, then crossed the A425 and a small common to reach the Grand Union Canal. We turned left onto the tow path, on a leg which is quite likely to be the next one we walk of the Grand Union Canal Walk, since we were just a few miles south of Tring, our current southern limit. The canal was attractive and buzzing with activity; we'd joined by a lock which was in use and in our short walk along the canal we passed a range of houseboats and lots of people out fishing. At the next bridge, the Old Fishery Lane Bridge, we crossed the canal and headed uphill into Hemel Hempstead's residential areas. Hemel Hempstead has a historic centre, but was extensively developed as a London overspill new town after the Second World War and we emerged onto a road passing through housing that I'd estimate to be about 50 years old. We headed across a grassy area to a children's play area, then uphill again to a path through a wood. It isn't entirely clear from the map, but we actually stayed on a wooded corridor through the housing estates for the next mile or so, though there were occasional open views and we eventually emerged briefly into lovely rolling countryside.

Boxted Farm has an impressive drive, but they have clearly diversified and I was amused by a sign which proclaimed: "Stone Age, established 1988" (Stone Age is actually a "specialist supplier of stone products for architectural and interior use"). From Potten End Hill, superb views opened up and the walk which had been pleasant but nothing special, became exceptional. After passing through Heizdin's Wood, we got our first view to Gaddesden Place, though it was quite a while before we got there. There was a bench here on which we could have stopped for lunch, but it was rather early.

We crossed Nettleden Road and continued down towards the watercress beds on the River Gade. We reached and followed on a path heading to Great Gaddesden across the flood plain. The signposting was not terribly helpful and we had some difficulty finding the way off the path, but the route itself was lovely. We crossed the river on a footbridge then took a passageway by a house, leading to the B440. I was walking ahead of Richard and suddenly there was a loud "bump" as he fell over; he'd not noticed a step and had fallen over it. Thankfully no serious damage was done, though Richard's knee was rather bruised and stiff for a while.

We crossed the road and climbed steadily towards Gaddesden Place, with lovely views opening up behind us and to the village of Great Gaddesden. We were being followed by a female walker who was going at about the same speed as us (always a bit tricky). We let her go ahead but were quite pleased when she headed back down towards Great Gaddesden while we looped around to the north of Gaddesden Place, to Oaken Grove.

It had just turned midday, but because of the hour change it felt more like 1pm so we were feeling hungry. Fortunately, as we walked through Marsh Wood close to Home Farm, Richard spotted a log on which to sit for lunch. A passing runner commented that we'd found a perfect spot; he wasn't wrong.

We continued on through undulating countryside, with alternating woodland and open countryside, and eventually the church in Flamstead came into view. We passed alpacas and donkeys, and some grand houses, while overhead we'd been close to a flight path from Luton Airport since Gaddesden Place, and as we got closer to the airport, all taking off flights were passing overhead before some looped round to head in different directions.

On the approach to Flamstead we descended into a valley, close to the delightfully and appropriately named Trowley Bottom. The descent was a bit muddy and suddenly, after we'd had the walk to ourselves for most of the day, there were other walkers about. As we climbed up again to Flamstead, we met a man who very politely kept his elderly labrador by his side until we had passed by - unfortunately the man with dog would then have had to pass a horserider who was following the path along the bottom of the valley. We didn't particularly need a break, but we passed a bench as we reached Flamstead, so we stopped briefly. This marked the end of the exceptional section of the walk; maybe partly because I was getting tired, the rest felt a bit tedious.

It was the weekend before Halloween, and between Flamstead and our route across the M1 at Junction 9, we passed through a "pop-up" pick your own pumpkin farm. Our route actually took us mostly past dead sunflowers rather than pumpkins, and at one point we had to pass underneath ropes which were delineating a path at right angles to ours. However, just before the motorway junction, a man was directing a steady stream of cars towards the pumpkin area, and a steady stream of cars were also leaving.

It was not much fun getting around the motorway junction on foot and underneath the motorway itself, and the point at which we were meant to leave the A5183 on the other side was not entirely clear. We eventually found a signpost, but the stile was overgrown and the route across the scrubby land on the other side was not clear. We managed to find an acceptable route, running parallel to a stream, and we followed this to a post (actually one of those posts marking an underground gas main) near Veriam End. Here we turned left onto the track to cross the stream. The route across to the next field boundary was similarly unclear on the ground, but by maintaining our distance from the stream we reached the next stile in about the place we'd expected it. However this stile was very rickerty and there was no onward route visible in the direction indicated by the map and the Chiltern Way sign on the stile. Fortunately there was another footpath further to the left, which would bring us to Harpenden by a different route, so we started to follow that. A few yards further on (off the route of the Chiltern Way shown on the map) we encountered another Chiltern Way sign sending us along a track in the same general direction as we'd expecting the Chiltern Way to follow. Phew....but why are the contradictory signs still in place and why doesn't the OS know about the re-routing?

Anyway, the route from here to Harpenden was straightforward. We followed the track for nearly a kilometre (ignoring an overgrown Chiltern Way sign which would have taken us off it again) to Kinsbourne Green Lane, and after crossing the lane we took a muddy track across a golf course and then a (now well signposted) path which meandered around the edge of the golf course and onto a disused railway, "Nickey Lane" This is the former route of a branch line from Harpenden to Hemel Hemstead, which is less than 6 miles away by way of Nickey Lane (but I'm pleased we took the longer route with its glorious middle section). Nickey Lane was busy with walkers and cyclists. We left it by way of another path which led to a passageway which led, across various residential streets, to the A1081 and so to our parked car.

After following the same route as this morning back to the other car at Hemel Hempstead, with the added complication of a motorway which was getting very busy, we found a direct route home to Simpson from Hemel Hempstead, which took us just one junction around the "Magic roundabout" then straight up the B440/A4146 following signs for Leighton Buzzard. It was a delightful drive, especially to us, who are not fans of the M1.

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