Off-road cycling around Hadstock - or Broken Bicycle at Bowsers part 3

In my haste to get out of Bartlow I mis-remembered the turns - it should have been left then right, not just right. Once on the wrong road I cycled past a couple of footpaths that looked promising - they were heading in the right direction (assuming I was on the right road) but they were footpaths and I was pretty sure the route I had planned was a byway and it certainly showed it as a byway on my printout. After a while I though I ought to put my brain into gear and a quick check on my GPS map showed I was heading South not East. I generally use my GPS to record where and how fast I have been rather than use it to navigate and tend to leave it displaying data - such as distance, speed, elapsed time and the like. However it will show a map and a reasonable level of detail with paths and rivers and roads mapped - although it does not always show byways/bridleways separately from tracks without a right of way.

On realising I was heading South it made sense of the Essex County Boundary sign I had passed - I was on the wrong road. So I turned round and then headed the right way - and then heading East out of Bartlow and I found the byway - a left turn. The track was a grassy farm track past Howard's Plantation and then bearing East along this track alongside a hedgerow.

The skies looked dramatic so I took a few pictures along this bit of track. I think that the woods in this picture are called Gravelpit Plantation, slightly up the hill but am not too sure.

The route did rise slightly although the field alongside was steeper - I took this picture because of the simplicity of the track just heading of up towards the sky in the green field. The route then reached a narrow track with hedgerow each side before reaching Cardinal's Green (the link is a Google Streetview showing the track emerging on the fork). It seems that Cardinal's Green is such a small village that no-one has made a Wikipedia entry of the place.

After Cardinal's Green my route crossed the A1307 and then took a small footpath onto a small road into Horseheath - a hamlet with its own Website - but last updated in March 2010. So there is not a lot of information available on it.

An interesting water pump I am surprised how many villages in the area that still have there water pumps visible, a reminder that the domestic water supply we take for granted was not the case in my mother's lifetime for many villages in the area.

The village sign was donated by Sir Arthur Marshall in memory of his wife. (He started Marshall Aerospace after buying the land that is now Cambridge Airport with his father.)

I did not hang around in Horseheath taking pictures as my various mechanical problems had delayed my journey - however I did take this picture of a thatched cottage peeping out.

I also took a picture of the church - All Saints - "An ancient edifice of flint and pebble"

After Horseheath I headed of North out of the village and headed back towards Cambridge along the Roman Road - at this point it was a bridleway rather than a byway. You can see the entrance in the photograph below - it is certainly used by horses as you can see the hoof-prints but, if anything it is easier to cycle along than some byways that have deep ruts in them.

Rather than take the easy option and carry along the Roman Road I turned off towards Balsham along the Icknield Way. At this stage I was feeling quite confident in the bike - the top 9 gears were ok for this sort of hill and with regular tightening I had no further problems. It also seemed as if the path had been flattened, the ruts were less deep - as if a path had been rolled flat. There were still some ruts but it was much easier to cycle along than it has been.

After Balsham I could have carried along the Icknield Way (the Oldest Road in Britain), but I thought my bike deserved a rest - I did not want to push my luck too far - alright I needed a rest. So I cycled along the road through West Wratting and then turned off near Weston Colville along roads that I cannot find names for on the OS or OSM maps. I then turned off towards Westley Bottom on the Westley Bottom Road - now there's a surprise. There was time to stop and take a picture of this interesting plant. I thought it would be easy to identify - but I am struggling to find it. Having thought about it and done a bit more trawling I think that this is Common Broomrape (Orobanche minor). A better picture of what it will become can be found here. It is a parasitic plant which attaches to the root of its host. They do not have chlorophyll and apparently the stalk is only produced for the purpose of flowering and setting seed. So I will have to keep an eye out to see how it develops.

The second link suggests that the yellow variant, O. minor, is rare and is missing a purple pigment.

The Westley Bottom Road undulates between 80m and 90m (above sea level) before dropping down to 50m where it crosses the Cambridge to Ipswich railway line. At the top I took a few pictures of the lichen growing on this abandoned gate post

This picture is taken from the same spot that I took the stone gate post. Only this time I have not converted it using multiple exposures to lift the "visibility" By this time is was getting dark, I have been out for longer that I had planned and was wondering whether I should have brought lights along. (I did have rear lights - which do help others to see me.) However a chunk of the remaining route back was on more byways - having stayed off them to get a bit of distance covered and having experienced no further degradation in the number of gears available I decided to take a short-cut through to Wilbraham, (Mind you going from 27 down to 9 gears was a bit of a handicap.)

As it a very minor road, at the Railway Crossing you have to check the lights and then walk through a gate and then across the line. To me it always feels slightly odd to be walking across an uncontrolled railway crossing. In this case there are only two passenger trains an hour and possibly the odd freight train and I have not seen a train go past this crossing whenever I have crossed it.

After crossing the A1304 I was back on a byway - this track is bumpier than it looks and you have to watch out for "trenches" across the path - I am not sure whether they were dug for drainage or are collapsed rabbit holes. There were quite a few dead rabbits across the path - I assume they were shot although I am not quite sure what the legalities of shooting rabbits on a byway are. There are studs in either direction and rabbits dig holes which can be a big problem for horses so I guess there is a pressure to keep the numbers down. The picture is an HDR picture which is why it look lighter.

Not long after the byway crosses the A11 there is a left turn towards Great Wilbraham. When I arrived at Wilbraham 4 "lads" had reversed into the small lane that the byway turns into and were sitting in their car, then a police car went by as they sat there. It made me wonder if they had been followed by the police car and turned off to shake it off their tale - which of course attracted the police attention . Or maybe I have been watching too many programs such as Road Wars on TV.

When I got home I also found out that my wife had rung me a couple of times - I was quite a bit later than planned, but I generally set my phone to silent when out cycling - who wants phone calls when cycling in the countryside? Apart from being stung a couple of times by stingles, some scrapes and oil on my legs, a bruise on my knee and a bike with a bit of a gear problem, not forgetting the rain showers and the coldish wind - it had been a great afternoon out on my bike.