Hall End Wootton to Bromham

Richard's Dad's health was deteriorating and Richard had been driving up and down to Sussex like a yo-yo, my work was beyond busy, and the garden was knee-high with weeds, so this short walk was a very much needed escape from the trials and tribulations. It was much appreciated, and it was a nice walk too, on a pleasant summer evening on a path which mostly meandered its way across undulating agricultural land and past occasional houses. We left Norfolk about 3pm, checked in quickly at the Bedford South Premier Inn then drove the short distance to Bromham, where we parked in the same lay-by as last time we were here (close to the garage at TL007506). We then took the other car to the outskirts of Wootton, and parked in a space next to a gate (TL001454) - there isn't a great deal of space here, so it was a good job we'd brought our smaller car. The gate leads into a paddock, with horses grazing, and two paths head off from here, one through the paddock and one through the field next door, and the latter is the route of the John Bunyan Trail to the south.

We were heading north and this meant that we started with a half-mile walk along back along the road we had just driven down, through Hall End. We then cut across to Wood End, where there was an event of some sort at the pub with music blaring out, lots of people and lots of cars. Two horse riders coming the other way had just negotiated all of this. We continued past the pub and the relatively newly planted wood at Bussens Ramsey, to join the route we had followed on our circular walk from the Premier Inn. We took the same path as last time alongside the wood then across the field where there had been cows last time; we initially thought that the cows had gone, but in fact they were in another part of the field - it's a big field and not so many cows!

We continued on the path behind Kempston House and out onto a road.. Last time we took a path through a gap in the hedge opposite; this time we turned left and followed the road through Green End before taking a track between houses and alongside a cemetery, then across a field. Another short walk along a road was followed by another path across scrubland and paddocks. Part-way across we stopped for a long phone chat with our son Michael. The next short road walk took us past the attractive Top Farm, then we were onto the best walking of the day, climbing through shimmering crop fields with lovely views opening up behind us. The views took in the tower blocks of Bedford to the east and what appeared a more rural landscape to the south, though I suspect that this was once the home of brickworks etc.