It should be a shorter day today. This is just as well as the weather forecast is terrible with storm Antoni on its way. We leave the Premier Inn and put on our waterproofs in the entrance way. We haven't checked them and my waterproof trousers seem to have shredded around the bum. Fortunately, my jacket covers most of my embarrassment.
We do some emergency shopping in Boots (paracetamol, more plasters, Olbas oil for Rich's very persistent cold), then we head to the Quotidian bakery to buy lunch. Rich used to frequent here when he worked in Hitchin and he has been singing their praises for years.
We head out of Hitchin with the rain sluicing down. We go up the hill into the park and can see the path continuing through a field on the other side of A602 but there's a high fence in the way. The road has diverted the old footpath in a large loop. We walk sulkily alongside the fence when we pass some fly tipping. The perpetrators have damaged the fence and we slip through. We cross the road only to find another fence with the diverted path on its other side. This one is lower (though reinforced with barbed wire) and we climb it easily.
We are soon our in the countryside again going up and down over very broken landscape. The only birds we see are swallows, stocking up for their long flight home, and wood pigeons, who are such extraordinary fliers that they don't seem to notice the wind and rain. There is also the odd red kite but little else. All the wildlife is wisely staying tucked up in nests and burrows, waiting for the storm to pass. We hardly see any humans either.
It's about five miles before we reach the hamlet of Parsonage and then the village of King's Walden. There's nowhere to stop for a break until we get to Breachwood Green where we find a bus shelter in which to eat the almond croissants that Rich has been waxing lyrical about for years. He was not wrong.
All the time we hear rumblings which at first I thought were thunder but are in fact aircraft approaching and landing at Luton airport. As we leave Breachwood Green, we can even see the end of the runway, but despite the fact we can hear them, the cloud is so low that we can't see the planes. We are now on the Chiltern Way (a circular route of up to 177 miles with various options and extensions, including the Berkshire Loop).
Although the Chilterns are a clear escarpment, this portion of the Chiltern Way meanders up and down mixing paths and roads. After we struggle up one particularly claggy section, our boots are so thick with mud, it looks as if we are wearing flippers. There is compensation, however, in the shape of three fallow deer watching us from the field.
We finally reach a clear hilltop and look for a path on our right. The way is indistinct and we walk in a field alongside. We clamber through some undergrowth and across a ditch to reach the road, thinking we must have made a mistake. As we locate the path from the road, we realise that it's just incredibly poorly maintained.
We plod down the hill to a crossroads and identify another bus shelter where we stop for lunch. There is no bench, but at least the concrete floor is dry and the sandwiches from Quotidian are scrumptious.
While we were walking, Rich messaged our stop for the night, as we are not sure how to access the estate. He has received an unhelpful automatic reply, so we look at Google Earth and Streetview to see if we can work it out. I access the website and it gives coordinates for landing your helicopter but no clue how to get there on foot. Eventually, we phone them up and they tell us that there are only two points of access, both some way away. On the plus side, the rain has stopped, at least temporarily, and we won't have to negotiate the busy B653.
We follow a cycle route towards Luton which used to be a railway line solely for the Luton Hoo estate. We are now on the other side of the airport and pass under the A1081 to Luton Airport Parkway station. On the way, we finally catch sight of a plane as the cloud has lifted. We arrive at a locked gate to Luton Hoo estate.
We call the number listed to gain entrance and they sweetly offer to send a car, which we politely decline. As we walk up the long road towards the house, we do slightly regret this decision. As we arrive at our overnight stop, Luton Hoo mansion, the clouds have parted, showing the old house in all its glory.
There has been an estate at Luton Hoo, part in Hertfordshire, mostly in Bedfordshire, since at least the 15th century. The current house was designed by Robert Adam for ex-prime minister, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, though the house was not completed as originally planned. It was later remodelled closer to the original plans by Robert Smirke, who also designed the British Museum. The gardens were landscaped by Capability Brown who dammed the River Lea to form two lakes, one of which is 60 acres in size. It's just as well we didn't try to find an unauthorised way in.
The house was used by another ex-prime minister, Winston Churchill, to address a 110,000 strong crowd to thank people for the war effort. It was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, who spent some of their honeymoon here and regularly revisited on their wedding anniversary.
We check in and are escorted to our room. It is huge and resembles a bedroom from a National Trust property, complete with pink marble washstand and a roll top enamel bath in a separate bathroom. As the rain sets in for the night, we are very cosy.
Total distance: 129 miles