Astwood to Wharley End, Cranfield

Winter had arrived at last. It had turned much colder and although there was no snow at home in Norfolk, there were patches of snow lying on the ground as we drove across Bedfordshire and when we climbed up the hill through Cranfield it became much more noticeable. We passed a number of snowmen!

We'd hoped to park one car on the Innovation Centre at Cranfield, but it was a sea of double yellow lines and gated car parks; we eventually found a good spot near Wharley End Garage (SP939426) opposite Cranfield University's Lanchester Hall of Residence. We drove up to Astwood and parked the other car in the former section of road at the junction of the A422 (SP950474). We had a late lunch and set off walking around 2.30pm.

After a brief walk through Astwood, we headed off across fields, and we were crossing snow-covered fields for most of the walk We passed some horse-riders and we were on the route of bridleways for most of the time. We couldn't always see the path because of the snow, which was slightly problematic because beneath the snow was mud, sometimes churned up by horse-riders. However the route was clear enough; the signposting was generally good and the path/bridleway was often covered with a more even layer of snow than the crops to either side of it, giving a clear white trail for us to follow.

Although the signposting was clear, there were not many of the oak leaf "Milton Keynes Boundary Walk" signs; we were following ordinary footpath and bridleway signs. This, and a schoolboy/schoolgirl error, led us to make a route-finding mistake. We reached a minor road at East End and saw a footpath straight ahead. Richard actually commented that he was expecting the route to be right and then left, but we didn't stop to think that perhaps the correct route was right and then left. We just ploughed on straight ahead, slowly realising that the signposted route we were following didn't bear much relation to what we were expecting on the map. We are pretty experienced map readers so this was an embarrassing mistake, but the route did take us through a magical little section, with an attractive little pond and a marshy area with bull-rushes.

We eventually emerged onto the road near Ring Cross Farm, about half a mile further east than we should have been. It was an easy walk back along the road, though there were more cars than you might expect to be driving along a minor road between Cranfield and North Crawley! We were getting close to Cranfield Airport, which also had more activity than I'd expected; perhaps that explains the double yellow lines and gated car parks.

We passed Ringmill Farm and, back on the right route, turned left onto a track. This turned into an extremely muddy bridleway, so it was something of a relief to reach the road again at Wharley End and to turn left towards Cranfield University and back to the car.

Following leg