Thursday, June 10, 2010

Cycling up the Cam to Coveney and back via Wicken Fen

The last few days in the Flatlands have been rather miserable, compared with some of the fine weather we have had. The temperature has not been too bad, but there have been showers on and off during the day. I felt like I needed a longer ride, not on muddy slippery tracks and preferably with some quiet car-free stretches. So togged up in Lycra shorts, sandals (Keen cycling commuter) a vest and rain-jacket I set off for Coveney. I often think of the routes I take by the farthest place on the route. Although I record my cycling in kilometres (my speedometers and GPS unit are calibrated for Km) I still tend to think in 10 mile increments - but in kilometres - so 32Km, 50Km, 64Km, 80Km - I know there has been a bit of rounding in the numbers as well.


This route was an 80Km/50mile sort of route. It starts with one leg of the Sustrans 11 route up alongside the River Cam. This part of Sustrans 11 stops though and there is another leg between Burwell and Ely. My route then jinks over to Cottenham, but then heads North on a country lane (Long Drove) before re-joining a busier road (Twenty Pence Road - B1049) to Wilburton carrying on past Grunty Fen - yes there really is a Fen called that) finally reaching Coveney. The route then heads over to Ely and returns to Cambridge via Sustrans 11 and Sustrans 51 (although detouring around White Fen). I have highlighted the route on this OSM cycle map. The picture is an embedded picture from my Picasaweb storage - it should be possible to click it and get a window into the picture which can then be downloaded at the resolution I made it.




The first bit of excitement occurred before I had even reached the River Cam. As I was cycling along Water Lane/Street a car pulled up at the Fallowfield junction and then pulled out in front of me and then steered towards me, cutting the corner. Yes I was nearly SMIDSY'd. The timing of his approach to the junction probably put me behind one of his windscreen pillars - the A-pillar when he "glanced" in my direction. His direction of turn probably also kept me shielded. I though something was up as I approached his car - he barely slowed at the junction and I failed to get eye contact with him - by then I started braking. When he steered towards me I then shouted and turned to the left.


In these sort of situations I do tend to feel that they are out to get me. On a bike you have quite a raised position and pretty good visibility, no pillars or helmet to obstruct the view! So you tend to feel that they also have the same visibility. However car drivers don't have the same visibility - the pillars have gotten bigger over the years as they have made cars more "crash-proof" and the drivers have gotten even more insulated from the other road users. Mind you, sometimes even when you make eye contact they can still pull out in front of you. I was once cycling along a road (in Fulbourn) at around 20MPH (32K/h) with a car waiting to join my road - she looked at me, then pulled out in front of me, realised her mistake and panicked and stopped in the middle of the road! Which left me no room for manoeuvre - fortunately I stopped inches form her door and stared at her!


Mind you over the years it is quite rare to have a close encounter with a car pulling out - These two are the only ones I remember in 70,000 miles of cycling. Now near misses by over-taking cars - that's a different matter. (I had more problems with cars pulling out when I had a motorcycle.)


It was good to get onto the Sustrans 11 path alongside the River Cam. Although this is really only a shared path/cycle track the quality of the surface is pretty reasonable. In fact one of the best non-tarmac Sustrans routes I have used. There were a few puddles - which can be quite tricky as the depth of a puddle can vary from almost nothing to a wheel-buckling drop. So even on this route that I know quite well - I played it safe, tending to avoid the puddles. The other thing about this route is that the path is not very wide and so when there are walkers it can be a bit slower to navigate. I tend to avoid cycling along the path on Saturdays and Sundays. The route can also get congested when there are rowing competitions on the River Cam. The other thing to watch out for is cyclists who seem to speed along looking to the side shouting at a crew rowing along the river. They are coaching the rowers and focus most of their attention on the rowing and not very much on the avoidance of other path users - it is just one of those Cambridge foibles.


Here is a photograph taken looking back down the river towards Cambridge. You can see the path is reasonable and there is a cow in the meadow (Ditton Meadow) to the left. The chimney in the distance is part of the Cambridge Museum of Technology.


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There are quite a few boats moored along the river - some of which are inhabited full-time. You also see boats that look as if they are being (or need) renovated. They add some colour to the scene though. I assume that some of the houses along the river have mooring rights as well. The management of this part of the river seems to be the responsibility of the Conservators of the River Cam.




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There seem to be more Herons around this year - or perhaps I just getting more observant! This one turned its back on me when I took out my camera to photograph it.




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A picture take looking North of Baits Bite Lock - the link points to a website with photographs of flooding in the Lock taken in October 2001.




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The Sustrans 11 route just ends at Waterbeach Railway Station. The path follows the road at Clayhithe (rather than the River). When my son was at school he was quite a keen canoeist - they would paddle down the river from Bottisham Lode to the pub at Clayhithe for lunch - The Bridge. If you search for the pub on the Chef and Brewer website - you have to search for pubs near Waterbeach not Clayhithe! Whenever I have been there it has been pretty busy. Despite the Sustrans route ending at Waterbeach (I guess you could catch the train) I cycle through the village and along the Cambridge Road where there is a path through to the A10. This is not a pleasant road to cross - but there is a traffic island in the middle. In the Streetview picture one of the Keep Left Bollards is lying on its side. I then cycle along to Landbeach and up and along towards Cottenham. According to the website, before the Fens were drained, the nearest dry land to the North-East is Ely 20miles/32Km away. Just before Cottenham my route takes a right turn along a small road called Long Drove. This is a single lane road past a number of farms and you can also see on the right the Waterbeach Landfill site.


The Drove takes a right turn and heads towards the main road out of Cottenham (Twenty Pence Road - B1049). I stopped to take a picture of this field of potatoes - doing well with the sun and rain we have been having.




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The edge of the potato field - the ditch is called Engine Drain. The clouds were pretty dark and every now and then it did rain - fortunately not all the time. It gets harder to take pictures in continuous rain.




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The road to Coveney basically heads North - with some "zig-zagging". I had a vehicular moment on the B1049 - probably the least pleasant road of the route. It is quite fast but not generally one that I worry about. Mind you on this ride a van overtook me with the classic late drift to the other side of the road. What seems to happen is that the cyclist gets spotted at the last minute and the vehicle passes quite closely, but carries on moving to the other side of the road (as if that is of any benefit to the cyclist - it happens quite a lot.) In this case there was a car coming the other way and the car and van passed each other with inches to spare. Strangely rather than cede ground the car driver maintained his position and flashed the van with his headlights a few times. Personally I would have moved towards the edge of the road - driving is not about territory it is about safety (or should be).


The route does pass along Station Road to the North of Wilburton and past the Old Station House - there is no sign of the railway track though. Grunty Fen is also around here. The road, after crossing the A142 (a very busy road) climbs up to Coveney - all of 15m high from 0m "above" sea level. Of course round here 13m - the height above sea-level of the village is high. According to Wikipedia Ely is 3.5miles (6Km) as the crow flies but nearly twice that by road. Judging from the map there are a few by-ways round the area that might be worth exploring, although when I was cycling around nearby Witcham I found the paths to be rather tricky on a bicycle. Ely cathedral lies off in the background of this picture.




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A signpost in the village of Coveney, hum perhaps Wikipedia was wrong on the distance - or this is is not the route referred to. I took the picture because of the "Byway" sign. Here is the Press Release referring to the Cambridgeshire signs. Apparently they "cannot publish the regional map until the rest of the work is completed". Odd - Sustrans seem to be able to publish maps showing partial routes and routes under development. What I do know is that it heads towards Clare in Suffolk (according to the Press Release.)




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Dropping back down from Coveney there were clouds and rain over Little Downham - the next "island in the distance - 20m above sea-level according to Google Earth. Strangely the town appeared to be both in the sun and being rained upon at the same time.




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After climbing up to Ely, just under 30m,although this time from -2m above sea-level (or should that be 2m below sea-level) I joined up with the Sustrans 11 route. On my way through Ely there is a bit of the route (sustrans 11) that is footpath and as I was walking my bike a lady walking her dog stopped to ask me some questions about the bike - such as "what sort of frame?, who makes it?". I would not hesitate to recommend it - a good bike for cycling around town and along tracks and by-ways. I've taken pictures of Ely before and was not planning to take any but did end up taking a few pictures along the Fen Rivers Way. (which is what the route is called alongside the River Great Ouse). Some more potatoes growing - the sky was clearing a bit by this time as well.




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I cannot remember how long the Sustrans route has been in existence, although I did cycle it before the tarmac was laid. It is holding up quite well - but not very wide. You often meet Workers from Gs the main growers in the area. Gs maintain a hostel for their workers in Barway. They are very polite and always make room in plenty of time. I guess because they are young and still have keen hearing unlike some older walkers who glare hard when you ting you bell to indicate your presence. The path passes under the Ely to Bury St Edmunds railway line (the bridge was the scene of a derailment a few years ago and the bridge over the river was re-built with an underpass for the Fen Rivers Way.




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In the background is the railway line. This picture is looking back towards Ely. This time around there were cows grazing in field. They begrudgingly made room for me :-).




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The route carried along the Sustrans 11 route towards Wicken Fen and Burwell. It is a quiet farm road between Ely and Wicken Fen. There was a lot of Dog Rose (Rosa canina) in flower along the hedgerows.




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Another fairly common sight - although it can't be that common as I had not taken any pictures of thistles recently - I think this is a Cotton Thistle - Onopordum acathium. (I have found another helpful website for identifying plants - plantpress - it has a search facility that can be narrowed to a region of the UK.)




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Cycling through Wicken Fen I heard my first cuckoo of the year - I was not listening to my MP3 player at this point. At least I think it was the first. This press release from the NT suggests that the first one was heard in April (in 2009) and i cannot imagine they would be much later in 2010. I was not planning on taking any more pictures - but after passing through Wicken Fen the windmill peeping above the trees with the dark sky behind could not be ignored.




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As you can see in the pictures the weather was quite showery and the last leg of the journey through White Fen back to Cambridge was pretty drizzly all the way - so I just kept going. Although I was not really cold I was pretty wet by the time I got home.

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