Leighton Buzzard to A5 at Flying Fox roundabout

We left home after lunch and met up at the Flying Fox (SP934304); the car park was very busy, presumably with people enjoying a leisurely Sunday lunch. We left one car here and drove through Heath and Reach to Leighton Buzzard and left the other car in the Tesco car park (SP915250). This is right by the bridge over the Grand Union Canal where the Greensand Ridge Walk starts. We turned right onto the towpath and headed north. There was lots of activity, with boats on the river and people walking along the towpath. There is even a place to moor your boat whilst shopping at Tesco. We passed the Wyvern Shipping Co Ltd (narrow boat hire) and Leighton Lock, and the countryside became more open.

We passed the Globe Inn, right by the canal, and looked for a path leading to the right from the canal across the meadows. I'm sure that the path is there somewhere, but we didn't manage to find it, so we continued alongside the canal to Old Linslade. We had crossed the humped back bridge across the canal here on our drive between the Flying Fox and Leighton Buzzard, and we now walked a short distance back along the road, crossing the River Ouzel and then taking a path through the hedge and onto an attractive meadow, with the route of the path we should have followed from the canal pretty obvious at this end (note from October 2017: we found the correct route on a delightful short walk in the opposite direction, as described here).

We crossed the meadow and entered woodland, following a delightful path through the wood a short distance from the road. From Google maps satellite view it is clear that there are houses in the woods, not very far away at all, but you wouldn't know that from the path we were on. The path brought us down to the road, close to a cross roads, and we turned left onto Bragenham Lane for a short distance before taking a path to the right into Rushmere Country Park.

The path through the country park was surprisingly poorly signposted, but it followed the obvious route along the end of the woods. It was pleasant walking, with a fair number of short climbs and descents, bluebells in the dips, and good views to the west. Some distance along the path, I recognised a man and small child walking towards us - it was a colleague Nigel from work and his daughter, out for a walk from nearby Heath and Reach.

We passed a pond and shortly afterwards took a right hand turning and continued on a broad track through the woods. We emerged by the buildings that are shown by the word "vane" on the OS Explorer Map (SP915296) and passed some rather grand gate posts. After a short section along a minor road we took a track to the left, with the attractive Cherry Orchard farm to our left and Rammamere Heath to our right. We walked through another little woodland and suddenly there we were - back at the point above Rammamere Farm where we had had route finding difficulties when on the Milton Keynes Boundary Walk back in March. We had no difficulty with the route today (though the signposting in the opposite direction is really not very clear) and we again passed horses and horsey activity.