Ridgmont Circular, April 2nd

Another walk into the unknown with SH.  It began with the first of two train debacles. With insufficient time to effect the change of trains at Bletchley the group reached the platform in time to press the doors to open – in vain. We were thus condemned to a bus replacement half an hour later.  The beneficiary of this error was Howard who enjoyed a coffee and personal guided tour of the excellent railway heritage centre at Ridgmont station until the bus arrived. Next time….

We saw quite a lot of Wild Life on the walk – camels, rare breed sheep, kites, buzzards, fallow and red deer and a muntjac bounding away over the fields on the return to the station.

We set a sprightly pace in order to reach the pub on time and were rewarded by the spectacle of a fully costumed coach and four outside on departure.

The morning was glorious and the views over Bucks arable and pasture land were uplifting.  However the cold and sleet set in for a while during the afternoon – just at the point when Sue failed to divert in time to prevent some of the group paddling through a stream that runs along the course of the Greensand Ridge Way.

No one drowned and we reached Ridgmont station in plenty of time to discover that our train was cancelled – with an hour to wait for the next one and no promise of assistance. A replacement bus travelling in the opposite direction was about to pull away when we decided to board and take pot luck at Bedford. As we were the only people for the entire journey we justified the existence of the friendly driver. Of course our tickets were not valid for the Bedford route due to our ridiculous train system but we managed to persuade the ticket barrier police to let us through at St Pancras.

It was lovely to make the acquaintance of Alison C – a former Morley member of some years ago who had seen the walk on the website – we hope she will decide to become a regular despite the unplanned diversions of the day.

Thanks to Howard for photo of St Nicholas Church – a picturesque palimpsest of a ruin!