Walk to the south-east of MK, 10.9 miles

Sunday 21 March

Bit longer than planned, this one. But it was nice to get out with Hai again and explore an area I’ve not walked in before.

We walked from Hai’s place through Walnut Tree and past the big houses in Wavendon Gate to Wavendon village. Stopped to take this picture of the church, and then took the footpath opposite leading through the recreation ground and another field to come out on a lane. We stopped briefly here to look at some ponies and then eschewed a further field in favour of just walking down the lane to come out on the A5130 (or I should say the former A5130 - the Wikipedia entry says it was declassified a few years ago).

St Mary's, Wavendon

Ponies

Here we turned right towards Woburn Sands. As we approached Frosts garden centre, Hai suggested checking whether the café was open – it wasn’t, but I did take the opportunity to use their toilets. We carried on through Woburn Sands, over the level crossing (which was closed to traffic but we were allowed to walk over it with care) and along as far as the little road signposted to Aspley Heath (Church Road), which we took. The Royal Oak has gone all-out setting itself up for outdoor drinking, with heaters and cute little pods, so I really hope it makes some money once it’s allowed to open. We carried on up the road past the church.

Church Road is dead nice with a variety of housing, including some swish new-builds – I’ve just ‘been up’ the road again via Street View, but the capture date is 2016 so it doesn’t show the new builds. It does, however, show this Huf Haus under construction – it’s now complete, with a gate obscuring part of it but I recognized the distinctive roof (plus, there’s a sign outside with the company’s name on it).

Huf Haus under construction. Pic from Google Street View

We turned off onto a lane leading onto some heathland and walked along paths here for a while.

I wanted to head in the direction of Bow Brickhill in order to make it a circular walk, but neither of us could get our bearings, and there wasn’t much signage (should really learn how to use that compass). We ended up coming out onto a minor road a little east of Longslade Lane car park, and had to walk westwards along this for a while, eventually reaching Woburn golf course. Loads of people parked along the road here, with mountain bikes and suchlike. 

Where we came out onto the road (pic from Street View)

Woburn golf course

We took the little road leading straight ahead that eventually descends a steep hill. The village of Bow Brickhill seems entirely set out along this hill – some cute little houses but must be a devil of a road to drive up or down, especially as there were cars parked all along one side. I wasn’t envying the drivers.

Bow Brickhill

After this point the walk turned into a bit more of a slog, though we did stop at The Wheatsheaf on Station Road at Hai’s suggestion for a takeaway cup of tea, which we drank on one of the tables out the front. After this we crossed the V10 and walked through Caldecotte Lake Business Park and up the lake path for a bit before turning back up through Walnut Tree to Kents Hill.

Our route:

Walk to Stony Stratford and back, 6.4 miles

Some exercise on a pretty grey Saturday morning. I should really have driven to Stony and parked there, as if you walk from Wolverton a large chunk of the mileage is taken up with trekking along Stratford Road and back again. However, for whatever reason I didn't feel like driving this morning, so walked from my flat.

Walking west out of Wolverton along Stratford Road

I walked along Stratford Road as far as Watermill Lane and then turned down the lane towards Wolverton Mill. I think the mill building is residential now.

Wolverton Mill

A path - part of the Ouse Valley Way - crosses the road in front of the mill here. I turned left (by the yellow post in the picture) and continued along the path into Stony Stratford Nature Reserve. The path passes under the A5 and comes out on the road near the bridge over the Ouse.

Path about to go under the A5

I crossed the road and walked into Stony Stratford. Turned off the High Street down York Road and walked along Mill Lane and Silver Street, passing Market Square.

Streets around Market Square

Sat briefly by the war memorial on Horsefair Green. Walked a bit of the way down Calverton Road but then turned back towards Wolverton (not wanting to end up walking through Fullers Slade or Greenleys).

War memorial

Returned to Wolverton Park via the Old Wolverton Road industrial area. Not very scenic but at least different from the outward route.

Old Wolverton industry

Map of route:

Unboxing

Unboxing. It's a thing, apparently. Putting the term into YouTube reveals any number of videos of people taking new purchases out of boxes. There are child unboxers, and there’s been the inevitable debate about whether children should watch these videos.

Google claims that the questions on the right are the sorts of things people ask about unboxing. Slightly puzzled by the second one, as I would have thought the answer was "open the box and take out the contents", but perhaps there's a lot more to it than I realise.

Anyway. Here are a few photos of things I have unboxed during this delightful past year. I wasn’t going to film myself exclaiming over the contents.

Exhibit A: Kimchi from 'Kimchi With Everything'. I'd been finding it hard to get hold of the Chongga kimchi that's my favourite, so thought I should try another brand, and this one seemed to be well reviewed. It was OK. It came with a small advice card, apologising in advance for any leaks and advising that lids on fermented products can't be overly tightened as this "will eventually cause a small kimchi bomb from pressure build up". A messy thought.

Sticking with the Korean theme: Shin ramyun. And Clearwipe lens wipes. Both from Amazon.

And more of the same.

Online purchases from Boots: first time I'd ever shopped online with them. New hot water bottle and some facial products.

A Sonos speaker. Bit more of an extravagance, this one, but mainly paid for with Quidco cashback from signing up to a new BT broadband and TV deal last year.

And here I am warmly embracing it.

New Nike Pegasus trainers. My third pair of these, I think.

And finally. Not unboxing, more un-packeting. But who knew you could get click-and-collect M&S underwear?