Walks on Thursday 13th February - There were 2 walks on this day

1) A Go Easy walk of 4 miles around Harlington led by Patricia - 6 walkers were on this walk

2) A longer walk of 7 miles around the lakes of Milton Keynes - 16 walkers were on this walk.
The walk, led by Tony R, started at the Hungry Horse pub at Furzton Lake, walked round part of the lake before crossing Watling Street. We then walked between the National Bowl & the A5. The path here was part of a horse trail, with puddles in places. Due to the traffic on the A5 it was quite noisy here. We then walk past all 4 of the Tear Drop Lakes. We stopped at their top end for our coffee break watching the ducks on the lake.

We then passed under Childs Way, where we saw a heron that kept very still watching for fish in the river. We passed within about 2 meters of this bird before it eventually flew to safety on the other side of the river. We then passed many snowdrops before turning away from the river to walk again near the noisy A5. We then walked through a housing estate. On leaving this we passed some workmen repairing the tarmac path before crossing another road & passing under Portway to reach Lodge Lake. We walked round this lake with a short stop at its top for a second short coffee break. We again passed under Portway to enter another housing estate. Here we planned to leave the road & cross the stream using some stepping stones, however due to the recent rains these stones were submerged. Therefore we walked across a bridge before leaving the road to walk along a path parallel to the stream. This led to Bradwell Road &after passing some thatched cottages we crossed the road and walked past more large houses past the site of Loughton Manor & Fishponds. We then again went under Childs Way before arriving back at the Tear Drop Lakes albeit on the opposite side than formally.

Here we stopped for a photo. After these Lakes we walked under Chalfron Way, past the car park of the National Bowl to reach the woods of South Loughton Park. We went under Watling Street to reach the starting point in the pub car park. 6 members left us here before 10 of us went to the pub for lunch. We had a couple of tables on the upstairs floor, where most of us used the 2 meals for £9.99 deal. A good walk was enjoyed by all as the forecast rain held off and the amount of mud was minimal.

Map showing the track of the walk.
Walk done anti-clockwise starting at green dot.