And Finally...

Great Barford - Tempsford - Blunham Loop.

Distance - 11.4Km
Time Taken - 2Hrs 10mins
Ascent - 22m

After 2 failed attempts (1 due to bad admin, 1 due to plumber!) I finally got this loop out of the way.  Overall the walk is very gentle (a whole 22m of ascent!) and a pleasent walk on the whole.  Lots of wildlife to see along the two rivers, I have seen Kingfishers there in previous years.

The walk is mainly along the Great Ouse and the River Ivel, the Ouse is a slow moving navigationable river (hence the locks and weirs), whilst the Ivel is much smaller but has some flow.  The Ouse on previous days was quite bland and grey, the sun helped bring out a bit of colour and it felt like a spring day.  The walk to Roxton locks is gentle, hardly taxing and like all this route easy to follow.  In a few places the Ouse appears to be a dirty river, with rubbish caught in the reed beds and on some tree branches but mostly it's just a gentle sweeping river.

The walk leads into a village called Tempsford which is next to the A1.  Apart from a pub there is not much here, the A1 has been moved from the 'high street' so like a number of villages on the A1 there is a hint of a land that time forgot.  The A1 hasn't been moved far, it's gone from the main road through the village to a dual carridgeway at the back of your garden.  For most of the walk it's hard to get away from the constant drone of the A1 and the A428, so not a walk to fully get away from it all.

River Great Ouse

The walk leads to Blunham, another small village but one that seems to have some life (apart from a boarded up pub) before crossing flat open fields to return to Great Barford.

Blunham from the Ivel