To the A5 near the Flying Fox from Ridgmont

This was a most enjoyable walk which probably wouldn't have happened had I not needed to be in Milton Keynes on a Sunday morning in order to do a stint on the Fusion (Open University Physics and Astronomy Society) stand at the OUSA (OU Students Association) Conference - I'd probably have decided that I had too much work to do and so stayed at home. My head knows that I should take more time off from work, but that's not the same as having the confidence to do so whilst my 'to do' list grows longer and longer. My presence on the Fusion stand was something of a waste of time, but I'm not complaining because it got me out walking! Also, uncertainty over parking at the eastern end of today's walk led us to meet at the western end then take just one car to Ridgmont. This meant that we did the walk in the reverse direction from our general direction of progress on the Greensand Ridge. Again, I am pleased about this because it broke my obsession with 'doing everything right'. By chance, it also meant that we found the correct route of the Greensand Ridge Walk which is NOT what's shown shown on our Ordnance Survey map (Explorer Sheet 192, copyright 2011).

Richard and I met up about about 12.30pm in a layby on the eastern side of the A5, to the north of the Flying Fox pub (SP933304). We drove by way of Woburn to Ridgmont and parked the other car on the verge to the north of the village (SP978363). It's a pretty little place. We walked back towards the Church, slighty past the footpath we were planning to take - on the route of the John Bunyan Trail, to join the Greensand Ridge Walk about a kilometre to the southeast. We promptly discovered that the Greensand Ridge Walk now comes via Ridgmont!

We took the planned footpath, which gave us good views back to Ridgmont Church and soon brought us to the ruined All Saints Church in Segenhoe. We passed the place where the John Bunyan Trail used to part company with the Greensand Ridge Way; the route has apparently been altered to avoid a dangerous crossing point on the A507. We turned right and followed a track by way of Cobbler's Lane, Birchall's Wood and Wakes End Farm to Water End. We crossed another road and continued on to what is marked on the map as Brook End. This is actually part of Evershot, another pretty village - there was thatch, cricket on the green, and an attractive Church. We walked through the village and turned right onto a footpath across the Woburn Estate.

The path across the Estate was initially through long grass, but eventually we came to the car park and the formal gardens we visited back in December, when my daughter, son-in-law and I had taken Richard out for afternoon tea at the Duchess' Tearooms to celebrate his birthday. When we were here in December, there were lots of deer about (see photo) but there were rather fewer today.

We passed Woburn Abbey, home of the Earls and Dukes of Bedford since the 1620s, then walked on past the lake and on across the Estate. There was one group of deer in sight, over by the 'Shoulder of Mutton Pond', and a swan preening itself by the lake in front of the Abbey. There were good views down to the Church in Woburn Village and an attractive vista back to the Abbey, with perfect alignment of the horse statue with the centre of the house.

We reached the A4012 and turned right. The road seemed rather busy, but we didn't give the matter much thought. As we approached Woburn, we took a path which cut through back onto 'Wayn Close'. We turned right onto the grassy 'drive' and climbed, with a continuation of the vista back to Woburn Abbey. We reached the minor road leading down to the Flying Fox (again rather busy) and turned left. Just after the turning to Little Brickhill we took a track to the right and climbed, past Job's Farm, a delightful 'chocolate box' cottage and into woodland.

Eventually our path joined the Milton Keynes Boundary Walk and we continued on a route we had last followed in March. It was very muddy then and it was pretty muddy today, which meant that our progress was rather slow. We reached the same minor road that we'd been on previously, now close to the Flying Fox, We turned right for a short distance then, still on the same route that we'd followed in March, we cut across a field of oilseed rape to the A5. Here there was nose-to-tail traffic, so much so that we couldn't have crossed the road to the pavement on the other side and back to the car where we had parked it, were it not for kind drivers letting us across. We predicted that there must be a problem on the M1, causing drivers to take alternative routes, and on our route to the Bedford South Premier Inn we discovered that the M1 was closed between Junction 13 and 12; thankfully Google Maps took us a route which avoided the bottleneck at Junction 13. We were also able to take a short diversion to avoid a car fire on the slip road from the A421 to Kempston. Definitely a better day for walking than driving.

Following leg