A ride along the Lodes Way in late Summer

Saturday Thursday, 22^nd September 2012: As I sit here it is almost the end of another month and what’s worse I seem to be falling even further behind in my Posts. I could blame it on the end of Summer – 30% of the leaves had dropped off the trees around the garden and and now all over the lawn. The weather is grey and every now and then it seems to rain. I could blame post-holiday “triste” – but the real problem is catching up and dealing with the gazillions of pictures I took whilst away. It is taking me ages to “process” them.  So I have been playing with Photomatix’ batch processing. It works well, but has got me thinking about what effect I want from my pictures. I like the HDR painty look, but some of my Scottish Highlands pictures look too painty and so I have been experimenting with different settings. Hopefully something will turn up soon.

So I am going to try deal with the backlog quickly. I have already dumped the various bits and pieces of the Internet that I was going to talk about. Also in the run up to my hols I wanted to get some cycling in, as it would be a no cycling holiday!

So this is one of my regular leg-stretching trips around Wicken Fen. A quick check on my GPS log of cycle rides and it seems that I cycled out along Lodes Way to Wicken Fen along the Maltings path to Wicken and then back in through the Wicken Fen main entrance with a detour to Burwell and back along Newham Drove. An ideal ride when I am looking for a traffic-light bit of cycling.

What a difference a month makes – look at the blue skies,

White Fen, Lodes Way

After White Fen there is an unnamed road – nice lines in the field, it will get ploughed and harrowed again though. I liked the way the lines led to the Farmhouse (Highbridge Farm).

Freshly ploughed field, Lodes Way (Highbridge Farm)

Along Headlake Drove at the turning to Lord’s Ground Drove there was a bit of advertising. I would imagine that the recent weather has probably been pretty good for turf-growing.  My lawn has certainly been greener this year than for many a year.

Turf – Headlake Drove, Lodes Way

This freshly-drilled field lies adjacent to Little Fen Drove and Headlake Drove. 

Newly Drilled field – Lodes Way (Little Fen Drove)

One of my pet hates when cycling is wind – to be fair once you are out it is less bother than one imagines, well on a circular route anyway.  As you can see Burwell Lode is fairly smooth – there wasn’t a lot of wind about.

Fishing on Burwell Lode (near the Lodes Way footbridge)

Whilst on the footbridge there was time for a couple more pictures. I wasn’t the only one out on my bicycle.

Lodes Way seen from the Burwell Lode footbridge

As you can see  it was still shorts-wearing weather.

Cyclists approaching Burwell Lode – Lodes Way

For a change I went the counter-clockwise way around Wicken Fen which brings you out on Cross Green I then cycle down Butt’s Lane and Drury Lane and Chapel Lane and to the Wicken Fen entrance. This is the view from the Maltings Path. The windmill had been nicely lined up for my picture.

Wicken Windmill from the Maltings path

Although I detoured on my way back I returned to the Lodes Way route via Newnham Drove. Now there is a late-summer sight – bales waiting collection in the fields with the drains looking like they need a trim.

Commissioners’ Drain, Lodes Way

It wasn’t a long ride – but it was invigorating. I might had said it before – but by working from home I do get to swap commuting time with this sort of cycle ride.