Pete's Walks - The Chiltern Way
If you are considering walking this route yourself, please see my disclaimer. You may also like to see these notes about the maps and GPX files.
Day 8 16/6/05 Whitewaybottom Lane to the M1 (7.8 miles each way)
Parked on main road through Peter’s Green, by Baptist chapel.
Started the walk by doing the 1.8 miles from Peter’s Green to where I’d last finished at Whiteway Bottom Lane, then turning round and walking back to Peter‘s Green. The weather forecast had been for overcast but dry in the morning, possible showers or rain in the afternoon. In fact, there was a heavy shower as I left Peter’s Green and a lighter one as I was getting back to it, so this short but very pleasant section entailed a lot of putting on and removing waterproofs. Typically I had just taken my waterproof trousers off when I had to cross a field of wet grass - this caused my trousers to get very wet, and I suspect this was how my socks got wet causing my only blister of the journey so far.
Peter's Green 26/10/05
From Peter’s Green, a pleasant series of field paths led to East Hyde, and then a section of lane walking led to Harpenden. The section through Harpenden wasn’t as bad as I’d imagined, most of it being on a footpath between garden fences. There followed a short section on an old railway line (the Nicky Line, that went to Hemel Hempstead) and then paths across a golf course. I assumed this was Harpenden Golf Club - it was only on the way back that I realised it was Redbourne Golf Club, where I’d actually played a few games many years ago!. The footpaths beyond the golf course to the M1 were somewhat overgrown and little used, and the path through the garden of Verlam End had a ‘Beware the dog’ sign - fortunately, I neither heard nor saw the dog, if it does exist. The M1 junction with the old A5 was noisy and unpleasant, and I was glad to turn round and get way from it again. Fortunately, after the heavy showers of the morning, the rest of the day remained dry, although grey and overcast.
Total distance: 58.2 miles each way