{"id":1727,"date":"2013-06-04T07:41:26","date_gmt":"2013-06-04T07:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/?p=1727"},"modified":"2014-11-22T15:21:10","modified_gmt":"2014-11-22T15:21:10","slug":"watton-at-stone-to-baldock-an-early-summer-hike-in-hertfordshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/2013\/06\/watton-at-stone-to-baldock-an-early-summer-hike-in-hertfordshire\/","title":{"rendered":"Watton-at-Stone to Baldock – An early summer hike in Hertfordshire"},"content":{"rendered":"

One early summer’s morning, on the very last day of May, I took a train from Ely to the village of Watton-at-Stone<\/a> with the intention of walking the 12 or so miles north to the market town of Baldock<\/a>. \u00a0All of this within the county of Hertfordshire, just north of London.<\/p>\n

I arrived at Watton just after 10am, it was still cloudy and overcast but the BBC weather page had promised sun later in the day. \u00a0I had bravely chosen to wear my shorts for the first time this year in the hope of catching some summer warmth.<\/p>\n

I left Watton via the pretty River Beane,<\/a>\u00a0that’s someone’s garden lawn on the right hand side of the photo, lucky sods!<\/p>\n

\"The
The River Beane at Watton-at-Stone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Very soon I was walking along the ridges of rolling Hertfordshire hills. By midday the clouds had cleared and the sun made a glorious appearance…<\/p>\n

\"Summer
Summer in Hertfordshire<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yes, I know 0ilseed rape is a mono-crop and can be seen everywhere in the south of England but the yellow flowers are so brilliantly bright…<\/p>\n

\"Summer
Summer in Hertfordshire<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

…and in the sun the fields and surrounding trees and hedgerows look stunning.<\/p>\n

\"Summer
Summer in Hertfordshire<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just outside the village of\u00a0Ardeley the path took me through a wood.<\/p>\n

\"Woodland
Woodland near Ardeley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After Ardeley the path turns into a green corridor running between fields. \u00a0It was time for lunch, I made a cuppa tea and ate a Cornish pasty.<\/p>\n

\"Lunch
Lunch on the trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The corridor runs for a good six miles or so and took me almost all the way to Baldock.<\/p>\n

\"Hertfordshire<\/a>
A section of the green corridor near Weston, Hertfordshire.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Along the way I saw hawks and hares and some good looking spots for wild camping. <\/p>\n

There aren’t many of these corridors left now and the good people of\u00a0Hertfordshire are lucky to have this one. <\/p>\n

Just before arriving at Baldock I realised I’d joined the Icknield Way<\/a>\u00a0(third marker on the post), a long-distance (well, 110 miles) walk I plan to do in the future.<\/p>\n

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

I arrived in Baldock just after three and jumped on the train back home. \u00a0My first hike of the summer!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One early summer’s morning, on the very last day of May, I took a train from Ely to the village…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[75,32,88,43,46],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727"}],"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=1727"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1764,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1727\/revisions\/1764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}