OMG sunshine, and lots of it! Probably the best, most clear and warmest day of the year so far, we made the most of it with this wonderful walk quite near to home. After stopping in Stony Stratford and braving the busy Saturday morning bakery, we set off to a car park in nearby Old Wolverton on the very north-western tip of Milton Keynes near the canal.
We started off north-east towards the railway line that runs out of central MK. As we approached a crossing over a feed into the Great Ouse a few trains were kind enough to cross and I caught one in shot as I was appreciating the build of the bridge and serenity of the flowing water. The Great Ouse here is already considerably more voluminous than where I live, being twice as far from the source as Buckingham is and fed by the Tove and water flowing out of the lakes at Cosgrove Leisure Park.
We followed the river along past the lakes - what a beautiful area this is, even the caravans and holiday homes not spoiling the views or the feel of countryside wonder that comes with riverside walking. We stopped for a break along this stretch before joining the canal over the Iron Trunk Aquaduct. I remember coming over this on a boat as a kid and being freaked out by the lack of railings on the edge of the bridge - every high crossing I'd been over until that point had a wall or railings to stop you falling over the edge but this, nothing. My mother admitted her hatred of heights during the walk and made me wonder if that's where I got it from; not that I suffer from vertigo now having trained myself out of it as a teenager by climbing trees, but I don't know, I wonder if kids pick these things up.
The walk along the Grand Union Canal is pretty to say the least. Boats and their varying smells of diesel, wood-fire and paint, white and purple violets, walkers of all ages, runners, dogs and cats. We passed through Cosgrove and I related memories of the village and bringing the boat through it as a youngster, something my parents said they had forgotten all about. We carried on along and as I looked at the up-coming section of the map I spotted somewhere I've been before: The Navigation Inn at Cosgrove. I was there for a sunshine-and-sunset drink with my friend towards the end of last summer and used to have lunch with an old boss there occasionally. It's a great spot and it'll be the focus of a future walk with friends.
We carried on along the canal for another mile until turning right into open country. I must admit it was a nice refreshing change to have a view of open countryside on both sides; my plans to walk the length of the Grand Union Canal through Milton Keynes will have to bear in mind that at least one side of the view will likely be restricted for the whole journey. Following a waterway can be nice for a while but I'm not sure it offers enough variety for a longer-distance walk. We'll see anyway, as I'm planning that walk after I finish this post and hope to walk it over the next week or so.
We walked down past Castlethorpe without entering the village and headed down along the river to have lunch in a lovely little riverside spot, almost perfect in that it dipped below the level of the field towards the river and cut out the breeze that had cooled us for much of the day. During lunch a Peacock butterfly landed and sunbathed on a nearby fallen tree, so I crept up and took a few photos while it obligingly posed and strutted for the camera. Go on, yeah! You're a butterfly! *snap snap*
After eating, we passed through Cosgrove again, over the canal and cross-country for an extra mile, half of which followed the Great Ouse back toward the Iron Trunk. Through the soggy pedestrian tunnel under the bridge and along the canal back to the Galleon Pub and the car park on Old Wolverton Road.
This walk was utterly lovely, gorgeous sunshine, plenty of water and wildlife, rail, boats, humans and variety. It certainly didn't feel like 8.7 miles but considering the best part of it was flat and my two most recent walks were 11.5 and 15 miles I'm hardly surprised. I'll definitely be repeating a proportion of this walk with others, with either the Galleon or Navigation pubs as start/end points.
