Walking near Woburn and the Muntjac Deer

10th Dec - Moored
11th Dec - Cruising Milton Keynes/Leighton Buzzard, Grand Union Canal, 6 miles 4 locks

The last couple of days I have been doing a lot of walking.  One of my walks yesterday was part of the Greensand Ridge walk, absolutely superb through ancient woodland.  I was amazed how many trees were down, obviously due to the hurricane in the 80's and still not cleared after all these years.  Some wonderful views from the scarpland too.

The signpost for this long distance walk has an odd looking deer on it, and I was asked what type of deer it was.  Well google came up trumps with the answer to that.  The symbol for the walk is the silhouette of a Muntjac Deer which roam wild in the woods of the North Chiltern hills.

The smallest British deer, barely the size of an Alsatian dog. Although established and fairly common in many parts of C and S England, all these animals are descendants of escapees from Woburn Park in Bedfordshire. Favours areas of dense undergrowth through which it can move with surprising ease and silence. Coat is reddish brown. If only part of animal is seen, for example flanks, could be mistaken for fox. Male has small antlers and long canines projecting as tusks; tusks of female are shorter. Generally silent but utters sharp bark if alarmed. Fond of ornamental shrub, tea-leaved willow.

It's late tonight, I do have a lot to write about but I will leave it 'till tomorrow now, been watching too much tv this evening!