It has been a few weeks since I completed the first half of the Buckinghamshire Way first walk; in between times I have had a walking holiday and the shock of going back to work, which quite put out of mind actually writing about walks. I can write about those family walks another time. I have been meaning too to write more on the art of the picnic, as long promised, having lived on well-chosen picnics through all that time. But not today.
I am conscious that this time the day’s route is 22 miles and that I would be carrying more weight than before – I have not gone back to hauling electronic equipment with me, but it was a good holiday, the consequences of which I must struggle to work off.
I began this morning in Waddesdon, north-west of Aylesbury, which is where I finished Day 2. It is just as well that I was diverted that day, as the actual North Bucks Way path which I was following appears blocked off on the route north to the village, possibly by a new close of houses being built. The plan for today was to head due north from Waddesdon and continue to follow the North Bucks Way all the way to Wolverton, once a modest industrial town but now an integral part of Milton Keynes. The route here continues through the low ground that is the Vale of Aylesbury. The route chosen also plays footsie for several miles with the Outer Aylesbury Ring, which is a 53 mile route in itself though some fine parts of the county.
I was cagey about the sections by Milton Keynes, but in fact the route runs along the side of the town, and only cuts through the town’s suburbs n its last few miles. More of that later though. For now, I will leave it hear and write separately about the walk as it went.
Project page
Maps
- Ordnance Survey Explorer 160 (Windsor, Weybridge & Bracknell)
- Ordnance Survey Explorer 172 (Chiltern Hills East)
- Ordnance Survey Explorer 181 (Chiltern Hills North)
- Ordnance Survey Explorer 192 (Buckingham and Milton Keynes)
- Ordnance Survey Explorer 207 (Newport Pagnell & Northampton South)