Stansted Park long walk on 16th February 2024

Lindsay and Jay proposed a dry 9 mile walk from The Slip car park across the Broadway from Stansted Park. The five of us skipped nimbly around the ponds in the car park, entering Stansted Park main drive up past the house on Monarch’s Way encountering horse riders, dog walkers and a particularly unpleasant smelling slurry tanker. A mislaid camera recovery slowed the pace and we decided we liked that pace as we wandered down Woodlands Lane on the road before turning north at the base of Watergate Hanger. When we were opposite the drive to Watergate House we scampered up the hanger staying in the woods, stopping for coffee and long tales before walking on to Oldhouse Lane where we enjoyed a down hill section of road. At the base of the Hanger we turned north again into woods heading towards West Marden. At this point we had been ambling gently too much which necessitated a change in plan, especially after stopping to watch the Highland cows so we adjourned to the Victoria Inn where they did us proud for lunch. After lunch, the pace slowed further to aid digestion as we headed up the road into Westmarden Copse across fields, over Oldhouse Lane to the edge of the woods at Wythy Piece. At this juncture a voting process worthy of the Russian Duma elected to take a shortcut that had not been prewalked and rewarded us with a very muddy footpath all the way back to the drive at Stansted Park. Stomping of boots failed to dislodge the mud clinging to boots and clothes as we retraced the start of the walk back to the car park. The walk was reduced to just over 7 miles thanks to Lindsay and Jay’s excellent map reading skills.