Back in the saddle - where did Spring go?

Most family would probably consider me a committed cyclist, I use my bike to get to business meetings (rain or shine or snow), I have cycled from Land's End to John O' Groats and cycled on holiday (India last year, Bangkok to Saigon before that). I am not a racer though and most of my cycling tends to be on my although occasionally my student son will accompany me when he is at home. I like cycling with other people - but the way I fit leisure cycling around my life makes it harder to fit into other people's patterns.

The challenge though, is when I have been of the bike for a while it becomes harder to get out again. I know I have only been off the bike for a week and during that time have been walking most days, but for some reason it becomes easier to be put off by minor things. Last week we had temperatures up to 15C, this week the temperature has dropped by 10C to 5C, it has become windier and we have had rain. Ordinarily, none of those things would stop me, in fact over the Winter period 5C seemed positively balmy. This week my excuse has been getting work things done, kind of weird to use work as an excuse for not cycling - but hay good news, I managed to drag myself out yesterday - despite the wind, rain and 5C and of course as always it was really pleasant to be out - despite my toes getting numb towards the end of the ride.

It has also been an interesting few days in the news, I have been seeing quite a few more deer when out cycling around the Fens. It turns out that they cost an estimated the British economy £3 billion a year to tackle according to Defra Actually I misread the quote - all non-native species cost that much to deal with - not just the Muntjac deer!. Although the Cambridge News reports some are not so keen on having a cull. The trouble is that nature needs a balance, until that balance is achieved then populations will grow and these are foreign invaders introduced by man and are known for their adverse impact on young trees.

I follow the construction of news cycling routes in two areas: Cambridgeshire and Bath. The former because I live there the latter - well I used to live in Bath and still have associations with the city. In Bath there is a development which will open up a disused railway line, with two significant tunnels being opened to provide a cycle-friendly route out of the city to the South. Those who know Bath will know how hilly it is - this route will be flatter! The project has been running for some time starting with fund-raising and persuasion of the powers that be (councils and land-owners) and then planning permission. Actual work is now under way and has involved un-burying the entrance to one tunnel There is now a blog following the progress - it is known as the Two Tunnels project.

Whilst on the subject of old railways I came across this blog on a group working to re-instate the Somerset and Dorset Railway. Personally I feel that as a society we have given the role of the car way too much power in society. Cars and roads have dominated thinking for far too long - so we have optimised our society around their existence, but as we start heading towards running out of oil we find ourselves concerned about obesity, death on the roads, pollution (noise and air and carbon dioxide) and force those without cars to live a second class existence - with railways optimised for commuters and buses that seem stuck in the last century. So it is refreshing to see people taking responsibility to attempt to change such an entrenched way of thinking. And yes I plead guilty to "needing" a car to live my life - although I do cycle more miles than I drive.

Mind you Cambridge is apparently the most "dangerous cycling city". I tried to track down the source data for the report but failed, however if you read the article the way the data has been analysed seems to give a false picture. In an excellent example explaining the issue from a Cambridge cycling spokesman Cambridge has more cycling accidents because there are more people cycling. You would not consider a Motorway as a safe place to cycle - although using the Survey's approach it would show a very low accident rate and so be seen as safe. However in reality the low accident rate is because there are no cyclists on Motorways.

Anyway back to a ride around the Fens - out on Sustrans 51 up through to Swaffham Bulbeck I then back-tracked round the back of Swaffham Bulbeck on White droveway and back along the cycle path towards Lode. It is not a bad route and better than cycling along what is a busy road - but it is not unusual to see the shared path blocked. As you can see there is an island to slow vehicles down, along with a 40MPH speed limit. Unfortunately you also get lazy motorists unable to park around the corner in order to get to the house, instead they park on the pavement - In this case completely blocking the pavement to all - there was a van behind this one as well.

To add to the "grumpy old man" state of mind once through Lode and heading along White Fen Droveway towards -well White Fen, I came across a pile of rubbish dumped in one of the passing spaces. It was a mix of garden rubbish and domestic rubbish - there were two kids bicycles peeping out. This is what our local taxes get spent on clearing up!

Although there has been rain recently and despite spots of rain falling occasionally I was lucky it did not actually rain during the ride. The clouds looked threatening though - seen here above Commissioners' drain.

This is the route taken by the construction vehicles building the bridge over Reach lode as part of the Lodes Way development You can see quite a few puddles and the mud has returned to the road again.

Split Drove was also fairly muddy - not all of it was construction traffic - it looks as they are getting ready to lift the leaks in the fields.

The fencing around one of the bridges over Commissioners' Drain looks as if it has been hit by a farm vehicle. I really can't imagine Vandals coming out into the Fens to damage a bit of bridge.

At the end of Split Drove the construction site for the new Reach Lode bridge - with a picture of what the bridge is intended to look like. Quite an amazing array of warning signs - presumably the sign inspector has been around to ensure they were all present and correct.

Looking back from the building site it looks as if the leak lifting will be done by a female crew!

Many of the fields around here have been used to grow daffodils, although it has been quite a few years since I have seen a field full of daffodils - mind you there are plenty growing around the edge of many of the fields.

This field in Upware does not seem to have been cultivated since it was last used to grow daffodils. With HDR pictures, because they are made up of a number of exposures, you get blurring from things blowing in the wind. Actually some of the blurring was caused by the wind blowing me around and I found it difficult to hold the camera still.

I expected to see that Spring has spring (or at least was springing) - last week the hedges were getting a green tinge (around the places we walked and around Cambridge), Spring does not seem quite so advanced in the Fens - I guess they are more windswept and there are fewer localised hot-spots.

Baker's Fen within the Wicken Fen National Trust reserve looks to be draining - there is not as much water there as a couple of weeks ago - despite the rain we have had.

This is a track I cycle along in finer weather - it goes around the outskirts of Reach - still quite a lot of water lying on the path. It looks as if the tractor just ran off the road and stopped halfway across the field.

There are some large agricultural buildings just outside of Reach, just off Hightown Drove - it has the rather "picturesque" name of Swan Lake - the buildings are not so picturesque though - they would not look out of place in some scruffy part of a city due some urban restoration.

At last - some evidence that Spring is indeed springing - blossom along the Upware Road.

Roll on Spring and lets have some warmth as well please - oh and no wind, or rain!!