{"id":1217,"date":"2013-01-25T19:59:03","date_gmt":"2013-01-25T19:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/?p=1217"},"modified":"2014-11-22T15:22:16","modified_gmt":"2014-11-22T15:22:16","slug":"a-snowy-hike-from-royston-to-baldock-in-the-north-hertfordshire-wilderness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/2013\/01\/a-snowy-hike-from-royston-to-baldock-in-the-north-hertfordshire-wilderness\/","title":{"rendered":"A snowy hike from Royston to Baldock in the North Hertfordshire wilderness"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s nothing quite like going for a hike when it’s snowing.\u00a0 I love how the countryside is completely transformed, turning everyday agricultural scenery into desolate wilderness (kinda) fit only for the adventurous and foolhardy.<\/p>\n

I hopped on southbound\u00a0train past Cambridge to the ancient market town of Royston<\/a>, just inside the North Hertfordshire border and really only a stone’s throw (well just over 40 miles) from London.\u00a0 My destination was Baldock<\/a>, eleven or so so miles to the south west.<\/p>\n

\"Map
Map showing route from Royston to Baldock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I arrived at Royston just before midday, it was snowing.<\/p>\n

\"Royston
Royston town centre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I passed various historic buildings and signs.\u00a0 The Romans were busy here and King James enjoyed a spot of bowling.<\/p>\n

\"King
King James was here<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The good people of Royston were out on nearby\u00a0Therfield Heath<\/a>,\u00a0sledging\u00a0and having fun in the snow.<\/p>\n

\"Sledging
Sledging on Therfield Heath<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I headed up the hill, which is also on the site of a golf course.<\/p>\n

\"No
No buggies!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the top of the hill is the entrance to a wood. \u00a0As I walked through the trees I saw a hawk swoop on by, a small bird clutched tightly in its talons.<\/p>\n

I left the woods and joined the Hertfordshire Way<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Herfordshire
Herfordshire Way signpost<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I quickly lost track of the Herfordshire Way signposts but luckily I had my compass with me so set a bearing westwards in the\u00a0direction\u00a0of Baldock and continued on my happy way.<\/p>\n

For some reason I was\u00a0surprised\u00a0to see sheep out and about, not something we have much of in the Fens.<\/p>\n

\"Sheep...\"
Sheep…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After some wandering I found myself on the Icknield Way<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Icknield
Icknield Way signpost<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This section was\u00a0absolutely\u00a0beautiful. I would have liked to have stayed on the trail but I really want to do the whole of the Icknield Way from start to finish, rather than half way along its\u00a0length. \u00a0I’ll leave that for another time.<\/p>\n

\"On
On the Icknield Way<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So I left the path, took another bearing westwards and continued on my way.<\/p>\n

\"...ock\"
On the road to …ock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After a couple of miles of rather dreary road walking I found a footpath to take me the last four or so miles to Baldock.<\/p>\n

But first a cuppa tea and\u00a0chocolate bar\u00a0under a railway bridge.<\/p>\n

\"Ashell
Ashell & Morden railway bridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The last leg of the walk took me over white fields that seemed to disappear into the white horizon.<\/p>\n

\"On
On the march to Park Wood, Bygrave<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hertfordshire is a county of many signposts.<\/p>\n

\"Signposts\"<\/p>\n

At times it felt hard to\u00a0believe\u00a0I was just outside London, this really felt like walking on a desolate moor, rather than the home counties.<\/p>\n

\"A
A wilderness of sorts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The trail took me through Park Wood, home of a number of Roman and Bronze Age barrows (not that I saw them in the snow).<\/p>\n

\"Into
Into Park Wood<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I passed Sonny the horse.<\/p>\n

\"Sonny\"
Sonny<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The last mile or so was along a snowy road. \u00a0I took my harmonica out and played some blues riffs, It felt like the right thing to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The
The snowy road to Baldock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I had a short wait at Baldock before catching the train back to Ely. All in all a fine day’s hike in the snowy wilderness of North Hertfordshire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s nothing quite like going for a hike when it’s snowing.\u00a0 I love how the countryside is completely transformed, turning…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[75,32,76,50,46],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1217"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1237,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions\/1237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}