[For a summary of all my rides along the Grand Union Canal between London and Birmingham, see this blog.]
My pioneer excursion to the northern rim of the M25, as reported here, whetted my appetite for more. I settled upon cycling the towpath of the Grand Union Canal (GUC) from Northampton to Berkhamsted, the reasons being (a) I had sampled a bit of the towpath on my previous ride (b) it's flat (c) it's traffic free (d) the two ends of the ride and intermediate points are well served by the mainline railway (e) why not?
I set off extra early (7am) in order to beat the rush hour on the M25: even then, the traffic was building up but I got to the car park of Berkhamsted station by about 0820: plenty of time to catch the first direct off peak train to Northampton at 0923. I passed some time looking round the Norman motte and bailey castle next to the station. The London Midland website says that there is only space for two bikes per train, but in reality the train had 12 carriages, including three with disabled space, which seems to double as bike space. The journey only took 40 minutes.
A map of my track is here.
There was a short bit of roadwork from Northampton station to the off-road Nene Way, which took me to the GUC. From here all that was required was to follow the 50 miles or so of towpath back to Berkhamsted. And so it was. The surfaces spanned the full range: tarmac, compacted earth, stones, dirt, grass; wide and narrow, but all perfectly cyclable on a mountain bike. Old resources on the web indicate that it is necessary to obtain a cycling permit from British Waterways, but this is no longer the case, and for all practical purposes, so far as I could tell, the path is open to (considerate) cyclists for its full length. It was slightly disappointing that the towpath is lined for much of its length by a tall hedge which restricts views over the countryside.
My only deviations from the GUC were (a) the Blisworth tunnel: I followed the road above and (b) on the northern outskirts of Milton Keynes. Here, for a bit of variety, when I reached the impressive 'Iron Trunk' viaduct which carries the canal over the Ouse, I descended steps to the latter river and followed an excellent cyclepath to rejoin the GUC a few miles further on. For much of its passage through MK, a cycle path parallels the canal, lined French-style with poplars, although the aforementioned hedge separates you from sight of the canal itself, so you may prefer to stay on the towpath.
There are many good pubs and cafes along the way: I've marked the ones at which I stopped on the map. These stops delayed me, but being a fine midsummer day, there was no need to rush, and the sun was still well above the horizon when I arrived back at the car in Berkhamsted at around 8.30pm, having traversed four counties: Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire.
My pioneer excursion to the northern rim of the M25, as reported here, whetted my appetite for more. I settled upon cycling the towpath of the Grand Union Canal (GUC) from Northampton to Berkhamsted, the reasons being (a) I had sampled a bit of the towpath on my previous ride (b) it's flat (c) it's traffic free (d) the two ends of the ride and intermediate points are well served by the mainline railway (e) why not?
I set off extra early (7am) in order to beat the rush hour on the M25: even then, the traffic was building up but I got to the car park of Berkhamsted station by about 0820: plenty of time to catch the first direct off peak train to Northampton at 0923. I passed some time looking round the Norman motte and bailey castle next to the station. The London Midland website says that there is only space for two bikes per train, but in reality the train had 12 carriages, including three with disabled space, which seems to double as bike space. The journey only took 40 minutes.
A map of my track is here.
There was a short bit of roadwork from Northampton station to the off-road Nene Way, which took me to the GUC. From here all that was required was to follow the 50 miles or so of towpath back to Berkhamsted. And so it was. The surfaces spanned the full range: tarmac, compacted earth, stones, dirt, grass; wide and narrow, but all perfectly cyclable on a mountain bike. Old resources on the web indicate that it is necessary to obtain a cycling permit from British Waterways, but this is no longer the case, and for all practical purposes, so far as I could tell, the path is open to (considerate) cyclists for its full length. It was slightly disappointing that the towpath is lined for much of its length by a tall hedge which restricts views over the countryside.
My only deviations from the GUC were (a) the Blisworth tunnel: I followed the road above and (b) on the northern outskirts of Milton Keynes. Here, for a bit of variety, when I reached the impressive 'Iron Trunk' viaduct which carries the canal over the Ouse, I descended steps to the latter river and followed an excellent cyclepath to rejoin the GUC a few miles further on. For much of its passage through MK, a cycle path parallels the canal, lined French-style with poplars, although the aforementioned hedge separates you from sight of the canal itself, so you may prefer to stay on the towpath.
There are many good pubs and cafes along the way: I've marked the ones at which I stopped on the map. These stops delayed me, but being a fine midsummer day, there was no need to rush, and the sun was still well above the horizon when I arrived back at the car in Berkhamsted at around 8.30pm, having traversed four counties: Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire.
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| The Nene Way joins the GUC towpath |
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| Blisworth Tunnel |
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| Canal cans |
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| Stoke Bruerne (there is a nice Waterside cafe) |
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| Grassy towpath |
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| Iron Trunk aqueduct (nr Milton Keynes) |
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| Iron Trunk from below |
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| Poplar lined cycle path, Milton Keynes |
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| Say in Homer Simpson voice: Mmmm, Ice cream |
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| Approaching the Chilterns |
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| Evening sun |
More brilliant ideas from this fantastic blog! I already pinched your Woking canals circuit! If you like canal riding, can I suggest a couple of days on The Monmouth and Brecon canal? You can ride most of it from Newport right through to Brecon, avoiding the worst of the hill climbing but still getting mountain views, It is possible to pick up trains backfrom Abergavenny, otherwise you can follow the Celtic Trail back into Cardiff if you don't want to retrace your steps!
ReplyDeleteWhat % of the path is grass? Just wondering how uncomfortable the journey would be on my road bike fitted with 28x700 tires with some tread on :)
ReplyDeleteI can't remember exactly, but much of this stretch is pretty rough. Should be dry at present, but nevertheless quite a bumpy ride. Mountain bike preferred, though you could probably get by on your road bike.
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