• Today’s walk: From Champneys Henlow Grange to the fishing lakes

    A calm lake surrounded by trees, seen from the bank

    Our second walk from Champneys Henlow Grange, this time leaving the resort in a different direction. As we approached the public footpath we saw lots of people running past and quickly deduced, having checked our watches, that we’d found a ParkRun. We chose to head around the lake in the opposite direction. After speaking to a steward we learned they were doing two and a half laps of the lake, so as we walked around we started to see some familiar people, and lots of lovely dogs. This was a lovely walk, and it was nice to almost loop around the water.

    Grasses trailing in the current of a shaded stream

    Gorgeous to stand and watch the water for a while.

    A small weir with water cascading over it, framed by trees

    Having a weir almost in the resort makes for a gorgeous background sound.


  • Today’s walk: From Champneys Henlow Grange

    Champneys Henlow Grange, a red brick Georgian house with a gravel drive and fountain garden

    My friend and I have visited a few Champneys over the past few years, and Champneys Henlow Grange was this year’s choice. It’s an impressive building. There are two walks available from the Gym Reception, so we decided to try them both over our stay. The first headed off towards the river and we extended it into the nature reserve.

    A quiet stream winding through overgrown reeds and greenery

    Reeds in front of a willow-lined river

    After a summer that’s turned most green spaces sandy brown, it was a real treat for the eyes to see proper green again.

    A weathered wooden owl carving perched on a carved tree stump

    Fun owl carving, sitting right where we crossed a footbridge.


  • Today’s walk: Waterhall

    Earlier in the year, I went to a Café Scientifique talk: “Wilding Waterhall: Working with nature to maximise biodiversity” given by Mike Luscombe, one of the rangers. One thing I learned that evening was that they’d created some named walks across the reserve. It’s been on my to-do list ever since, but the opportunity hadn’t arisen, or when it did, we had a problem with temperature or access.

    Dry summer grassland sloping down into a wooded valley at Waterhall

    Today, we managed to get there. We mostly followed the Buzzard Hike and were impressed with the size of the place. There is still plenty more for us to explore.

    View over the Waterhall reserve with a patchwork of fields and wooded hillside under a wide sky

    It is so easy for us to get to that I suspect we will return in autumn.