This was a circular walk of 8.6 miles, from Sandy railway station, SE through the RSPB’s Lodge nature reserve, around a quarry to the NE, then return on a parallel route to the start point.

The usual stats:

• Event led by Khris R.
• Attendance: 22 men.
• Distance: 8.63 miles (13.9 km).
• Altitude per GPS: low 226ft (68.9m), high 393ft (119.8m), climb 1259ft (383.7m), descent 1264ft (385.3m).
• Time: start 11:25, end 16:14 (sunset 19:52), lunch 29 minutes, other breaks 17 minutes.
• Speed: moving arithmetic average 2.14mph (3.4kph).
• Weather: sunny intervals, temperature up to 12°C, south-westerly wind ~12mph (19.3kph).
• Number of sewage works: 0.
• Number of churches: 0.
• Number of golf courses: 0.

Description of route:

• the centrepiece of the walk is the RSPB’s nature reserve The Lodge. Originally heathland, converted to farmland and forestland in the 1800s, the RSPB began the process of managed re-wilding from 2005.
  • The nature reserve also hosts the headquarters of the RSPB, located in a grade II listed building named The Lodge. The lodge was designed and built in 1869-70 by Henry Clutton for Arthur Wellesley Peel MP, the younger brother of Captain William Peel and son of Sir Robert Peel.
  • The Lodge is designed in the neo-Elizabethan style, set within formal gardens designed in the Italian style. The gardens occupy 2 hectares, within a woodland of 40 hectares (source).
  • The land sits on the Greensand Ridge (a notable escarpment through Bucks, Beds & Cambs), overlooking the valley of the River Ivel (wiki).
• Much of the land in this area is generally flat, with only minor rolls. Yet, the land is rich in sand – hence the town’s name, Sandy – much of which has been quarried of the years. Consequently, there are regular holes throughout the countryside. One of the major quarries on this route was the former quarry of Deepdale. It once had a variety of features of Woburn sands, but is now closed to the public as a result of erosion (source: Bedfordshire Geology Group). A route around the quarry also appears as a pin on Google Maps. Today, the quarry is a dramatically severe series of cuts within the landscape that have resulted in curves within holes and short notable gradients dug out of the original landscape.
• Nearby is Sandy Heath’s main transmitter tower, originally built in 1965 to transmit Anglia Television (wiki).

12 members attended the optional pub stop at the Sir William Peel, a CAMRA-acclaimed pub. Today, the pub supplied five real ales on tap, resulting in numerous half-pints travelling around the table in an impromptu beer-tasting. All very nice beers.