Wharley End to Woburn Sands

A pleasant if not terribly exciting walk. The low point was feeling completely lost in the middle of a golf course (never the friendliest of places) and discovering at the same point that I had lost a glove. The best feature of today's walk was that it linked places I know for different reasons - some are close to places I have stayed, some are on a 'rat run' I used to use on the way to work; and we crossed over the A421 on its approach to Milton Keynes, a route I take far too often! The Milton Keynes Boundary Walk is definitely improving my understanding of the geography of the area, and I'm also beginning to get a feel for what the area must have been like before Milton Keynes was developed. It was a cool but sunny winter day; we left home in Norfolk around 10.30, parked Richard's new car (which, until we can replace my car, I am driving) on Cranfield Road (SP92363) near Woburn Sands Station, then drove my car (driven by Richard...) back to the Wharley End Garage (SP939426) near Cranfield University. We ate our lunch in the car then set off, past Lanchester Hall and back to the route of the Milton Keynes Boundary Walk at Wharley End.

The road took a 90 degree turn to the left at the point that we'd emerged on last time we were here and we walked along the road for a few hundred yards before taking a path across the fields towards Moulsoe Old Wood and then back to the road by Lower Wood. There were distant views to a transmitter on a hill; I'm assuming this is the transmitter up above Bow Brickhill.

We passed an attractive field of sheep then turned right along a track. Our route followed the field boundary to Broughton Grounds, then left, left again, right and right again, edging around fields and eventually following a track between two hedges to Salford.

We emerged in Salford on one of the routes that I used to use regularly on my way to Milton Keynes (before the A421 was improved) and walked through the village, with some thatched cottages I didn't know on a pretty little backstreet, then daffodils by the Old Red Lion Inn, where I stayed a couple of times years ago.

We left Salford on the road to Woburn Sands and crossed the M1 and then the A421 (my route into MK), right on the Milton Keynes/Bedfordshire boundary. We turned right for Wavendon and walked along, parallel to the A421, with good views to the industrial units that had been in sight for most of the walk.

We turned left onto Wavendon House Drive which, surprise surprise, leads to Wavendon House. It was all quite grand, but the house and outbuildings have all been converted to apartments. We crossed a stile onto the golf course, actually Wavendon Golf Academy [now closed]. Initially our route was clear, marked out by posts, but then the posts indicated that we should take a sharp right-hand turning and, behind some trees, we found a route across to a lane (...and I realised that I'd lost a glove). The route of the Milton Keynes Boundary Walk was not clear at this point; eventually we followed the track to the left, back across the golf course very close to where we had been ten minutes earlier. It felt as if we were going round in circles, but just past a pond we left the gold course behind us and followed a track to the road and turned right to Woburn Sands and the car.

It was Valentine's Day; our romantic evening was spent at the Bedford South Premier Inn.

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