Chipping Warden to Braunston

It had been 18 days since we did the first stage of the Jurassic Way, as the 21st of July was the next available date, we were both free. Two days prior to this, the UK had experienced the hottest day since records began! But you wouldn’t have thought it as we arrived at Chipping Warden midmorning.

The weather was overcast and a cool breeze made it perfect walking conditions. To our delight, the forecast stated it would remain like that for the remainder of the day. Just after 1030h we set off from where we stopped on the 3rd of July.

The route follows Culworth Road, Eastwards from the village before turning off on to a farm track. We hadn’t walked 5 minutes before hitting our first hurdle of the day. This portion of the route was closed while the HS2 is being built around Chipping Warden. (High Speed 2 – a railway connecting London to Birmingham and the North West).

A diversion had been put in place, however it would not bring us back to the Jurassic Way. Consulting my map, there was another footpath further down Culworth Road, that would rejoin the official Jurassic Way.

Once back on the path we tackled our first hill of the day, where from the top, looking behind, you could see the on going works in the distance. I can’t imagine the residents of Chipping Warden were pleased when planning permission was granted for this to be railway in their backyard.

The recent heatwave had left it’s mark on the scenery and farmland. The grasses were yellow and brown, the earth beneath the farmers fields were cracked and parched. A lot of the route passes through the middle of the crop fields and the ground had shallow fissures snaking through it; deep enough to snag our feet resulting in us straddle them and waddle like ducks!

We crossed over disused railway lines with their rusting iron bridges or crumbling brick built ones. It wasn’t long before we reached the village of Woodford Halse.

We passed though the village quickly and out through a new housing estate that had been built across the Jurassic Way; the path marked by red tarmac. The estate is so new it wasn’t on my map!

Soon we were again amongst the fields crossing through wheat, broad beans and barley. By 1pm we’re stopped to eat our lunches on the grounds to the isolated church, of the lost medieval settlement of Church Charwelton.

It was depopulated in the 15th century for sheep farming and the church is all that remains. We tried to look inside, however it was locked and could only view from a grated window in the door.

We ate our sandwiches on a bench in the graveyard, looking out over the fields, only to find were on top of an ants nest; my bright orange water bottle was attracting their attention. Not wanting to become the colony’s lunch, we sharply finished up and moved on to the village of Charwelton, calling at the ‘Fox and Hound’ for a cold drink.

Once refreshed it was through more crop fields (one particularly nasty broad bean field that scratched our shins to shreds) to the little hamlet of Hellidon, then down a gated road, passing Catesby Viaduct and onto Staverton. At this point the Sun had burnt of the cloud cover, bringing the temperature up to an uncomfortable level.

Coming into Staverton we encountered our nemesis, the stinging nettle! This time we had no protection from this devilish plant. With screams at each sting (mostly from me) we painfully made it through, with a our legs barely intact.

By this point our pace had slowed and Hannah’s knees were sore on the declines. We had surpassed the distance of the first stage and quoting Hannah “This is the longest distance I’ve ever walked!”

However before we knew it, we arrived at the Admiral Nelson. A fantastic little pub sitting on the fourth lock from the Braunston tunnel, on the Grand Union Canal. Signaling the end to the second stage of the Jurassic Way.

We celebrated the day’s 15 mile hike with a well deserved beer!