Road Works on the Horningsea to Fen Ditton path and on the Lodes Way route

I am still in California, San Jose to be exact. After a day's sight-seeing yesterday with a bit of exercise thrown in to day is a work day. This is not a Bank Holiday (as we call them in the UK) and so, as I have done for several years, this is a work day for me.  I am not complaining - I have a flexible work/life lifestyle and I do seem to have avoided some bad weather over the Holiday Weekend in the UK. Here in California the weather is glorious, almost too hot for walking yesterday. 


I am working through the backlog of draft Posts that I created before flying to the US though.  I am also have a minor IT battle with my laptop - some email problems, but I have a fallback and am downloading the email data from the Corporate Server.  Did I also mention that on Friday, the day before I flew to the US my Land Rover Discovery broke down - the suspension system failed and switched to "no suspension mode" with a maximum speed recommendation of 30mph, I found 10mph rather fast though.  This makes around the 4th or 5th time that I have had quality problems with the car. There was even a safety recall associated with the brakes, although it is quite hard to search for a definitive list of Land Rover Discovery Issues. Perhaps I need to look harder.


Back to the past - the actual cycle ride this post is about.  With all the fine weather I have been cycling where the mood takes me - quite often a short ride, but over byways and tracks in preference to noisy "dangerous" roads. There are some nice routes around Quy/Lode and Horningsea - that I have mentioned before.   On the Sustrans 51 route between Cambridge and Quy you can turn off onto High Ditch Road and then onto a byway called Low Fen Drove Way past Honey Hill.  This loops round onto the Horningsea Road.  Low Fen Drove Way passes over the A14 on a big bridge - from where you can see the Oilseed Rape in what seem like full flower. Here is a "normal" (non HDR picture) view - consisting of two actual photographs stitched together by Photoshop Elements 8.  

Once I reached the Horningsea Road it was great to see that the Fen Ditton/Horningsea share path/cycleway seems to be making great progress. For a cycle path it is not really that wide.  I think that the total width is 2.5m  and am not sure whether they will segregate the cycle and walking sides. (This is done by painting a white line down the middle, it gets ignored by all and sundry it seems to me.) However in the general scheme if things I would use it out of school rush hour and it is wider than some paths (Sustrans 51 between Bottisham and Swaffham Bulbeck springs to mind.) As you can see in this picture chunks of the path have been defined and this bit is just waiting for tarmac.

Not all the path is quite ready for the final surface to be laid yet - but good to see that this is being undertaken in dribs and drabs.

I stuck to the byways when cycling from Horningsea to Lode - but on the way through did pop up a track to look over Stow cum Quy Fen. Which I have taken a picture of below.  In the past I have seen bunches of dogs being walked as part of a dog-walking service - non today though. There were no cows in the field either.  

The last time I was here the gate was a wooden gate, it has been upgraded  in the meantime - the signpost is still the same though. The old gate was in reasonable condition - this one provides better access though.

The track up to the gate towards Quy cum Stow Fen - right down at the bottom is the Harcamlow Way which is the actual track from Horningsea through to Lode.  The photograph makes it look like it is fairly flat - in fact you have to keep your wits about you as there are some pretty big dips on the track.   It is even worse when it gets wet and muddy. The new leaves look fresh.

On the way through past White Fen at Lode I took this picture because of the dandelions and white dead nettles growing on the bank of Swaffham Bulbeck Lode - another sign of Spring - the profusion of different flowers (or weeds when they are in the garden).

I also cycled a little way down the banks of Swaffham Bulbeck Lode to take a picture of the first bridge to be built as part of the Lodes Way route - the bridge over the Lode. A picture taken from the old footbridge a little way down the Lode - looking at the new bridge now - it looks as if it has been there for years - a good thing.

As I was cycling on the road to Upware I also saw a tractor out lifting the "soil-warming" covering. I had thought that they left the covering and that it was biodegradable.  I wonder whether the warm weather has accelerated the plant growth so much that they have had to lift the  covering early?

Whilst out I was intending to visit the site of the latest bridge being built ( the second out of either three or four).  However it looks like Headlake Drove is being re-surfaced and in a big way.  There was no warning that the "road" was to be closed - but given there are only a limited number of people who would use it - it was not really a problem.

As you can see - there were quite a few people and machines and a pile of rubble devoted to sorting out Headlake Drove. I wonder whether they will also relay Spit Drove as well. 


The latest information is that volcanic ash has closed some airspace in Ireland and Scotland - so depending on whether I get home in the next few days or not I will be able to cycle over and check out what has been done.

From here the road looks as if they have filled in the potholes and put a new covering on but it still undulates, which if you think about it is probably the best result for cyclists and horse-riders since it will be ok to cycle on - but  still not encourage high speed driving.

Leeks and Lodes - cycling around the Fens on a Sunny Sunday

I've long thought that you end up with one too many gadgets and certainly one too many software programs. Yesterday after writing a Post, using Zoundry Raven as my off-line editor, I kept getting an error and on checking the Blog no Post appeared. Of course the first ting I tried was publishing it again - no luck. The I closed and re-opened Zoundry - still no luck. In the end it turned out to be a a problem with my tagwords. The editor has a space to enter tagwords - with each one being separated by a "," only in this case I had started with a "," - it saved as soon as I deleted the extra ",".

The observant of you might also by wondering why I seem to be deleting random comments. I too thought they were random comments until I worked out how to get automatic e-mail notification of comments, to ensure I reply more promptly to any questions that get left. Anyway when I got the email notification it showed that there were a whole bunch of rather odd looking links in each of the ".", pointing at rather iffy bunch of web addresses. So I now delete them when I get the chance.

My Garmin GPS has also been "complaining" of a full memory, despite the memory being reported as having 291MB free of 465MB. So I have deleted all but one months history and it now shows 362MB free - so I will see how long it lasts. (The last time I had this problem was the 10th Jan 2010.)

At least the weather is staying fine - except that Sunday morning it was raining - hard. Fortunately by afternoon the weather had become fine once again with a few puffy clouds in a blue sky. Just the weather for a bit of meandering around the Fens. The rain did not seem to have muddied up the paths - it did freshen up the air though.

A view of Swaffham Bulbeck Lode - you can see how the water level is much higher than the surrounding land. I got stung climbing up the bank - the stinging nettles have sprung up as well (or stingles as my son used to call them when he was younger). The tingle did not last for too long though.

The view of the farm tracks from the top of the Lode banking - the track has been improved as well as the drainage ditches cleared.

There had been a bit of fly-tipping along Headlake Drove - part of the Lodes Way path being opened up through the Fens by the National Trust/Sustrans.

I also saw a couple of cyclists coming the other way and if you look closely there is also a horse rider in the background along Split Drove.

I was popping up Split Drove to take a look at the drainage culvert being built as part of the new Reach Lode bridge. They must be expecting a fair bit of flooding with a culvert this size. It could be a reaction to the flooding on the Cambridge Guided Busway (CGB) - once bitten twice shy.

The Leek Locust (from outer space) has now moved onto another field - a bit further up the track.

The field was also being irrigated - I think that it is to soften the ground so that the leeks don't get damaged when they are lifted.

The weather is a bit changeable though - by the middle of my ride the clouds were back in the sky with only a bit of sunlight peeping through.

I also saw four deer in a different part of the Fens - but they could well have been the deer I saw yesterday. I also had a couple of Sunday afternoon drivers get pretty close to me on the narrow country lanes.

Cycling Along Swaffham Bulbeck Lode and Ambulances at Wicken Fen

Two things seem to be continuing here in the Flatlands - sunny skies and no aeroplanes. It has got colder, some mornings there is a ground frost. Mind you by the time you read this (and I have actually posted it) the planes will be flying again. When I return from a ride I generally download the route from my GPS, add the distances/times/speeds to a spreadsheet where I keep a note of all my cycle rides. (So far this year I have cycled 3,608.03Km and cycled 2 out of every three days and am on target for 12,000Km for the year.

I also jot down some words to remind me what happened on the cycle ride and also transfer the pictures I took onto my computer. I then start converting any multi-exposure pictures into an "HDR" picture using Photomatix. This stage normally takes a bit of time and I don't often get them all converted before I get a 30min warning to take a shower or bath before we eat our evening meal. I then end up converting the rest of the pictures in drabs and drabs, which can mean early-ish the next morning. (I tend to get up first in the house - although not always!) Having converted them I then review and tweak all of the pictures taken in Picasa (contrast/tuning, crop, straighten and sharpen are the main tools). I then select a mix of pictures (both ordinary exposure and multi-exposure as not all pictures/subjects/results work in HDR) and export them using Picasa to a new directory. I then create a new Post page using Zoundry Raven and dump the exported pictures into it - then convert them all to 600 pixels in width, add a black border and centre them up. I then save the post in "draft" form which uploads the pictures to my Picasaweb account and takes 10 minutes or so depending upon the number of pictures. I try to keep below 15/post as Zoundry has problems showing pictures sometimes with too many in a post. At this point the post is ready for writing - and so I add text around the pictures - also highlighting any snippets of cycling related stuff in the press.

So there are four cycle-related pieces of news that caught my eye. "Van driver fined for angry attack on cyclist", "Pedestrian seriously injured by cyclist in hit-and-run", "£3m railway station plan unveiled by campaigners" and finally "Britain's barmiest bike lane that is wider then the CAR lane". The first three are from the Cambridge News and the last one from the Daily Mail. The first two pieces highlight the tensions of getting around. Both are wrong, in both cases the perpetrators should be punished. Unfortunately in the latter case the "cyclist" ran off and it looks as if he dumped his bike. In both cases they highlight interactions between two very different forms of transport - motor vehicle and bike, and bike and pedestrian. Part of the challenge is that there are laws of the road, but not for the pavement/shared footpath - in the sense that when we walk along a footpath we feel it is ok to wander around, or 4 abreast or with a dog wandering to and fro. I think we need to make both roads and paths safer - by better design and segregation. It is about time we started devoting more resource to bicycles as a separate form of transport.

The third news piece caught my eye - there is talk of a second railway station in Cambridge - the city equivalent of a "two car family"? There are some good reasons why it makes sense - and certainly if we are to get a further shift from using the car as a means of transport then we do need to radically improve alternatives (rail, bus, bike and walking). The interesting thing about this piece is that it has been proposed by an independent group Cast.Iron. I think they were originally set up to promote the re-use of the Cambridge to St Ives disused railway line as a railway versus the Cambridge Guided Busway.

Finally the last piece about a rather odd cycle lane. To me it highlights some of the issues - this seems to be a case of "designing" (or rather painting) a road for the effect rather than properly thinking out the issues. The more I cycle (and perhaps the older I get) the more I believe that we need to devote real resource to cyclists - segregated and dedicated cycle routes. Our tax money is being wasted with some of the crazy fiddling around the edges that is occurring at the moment. Mind you after thinking about the issues the country faces as we prepare for a General Election I believe that we as a country need to move away from a "make do" approach and get better at long-term strategic planning.

Oops too much ranting - back to a sunnier topic - cycling on a sunny Sunday afternoon. My usual stand-by route an amble through the Fens - White Fen and Wicken Fen. The leaf painter has been painting a bit more of this tree on the banks of Swaffham Bulbeck Lode - perhaps he will get around to the trees on either side next!

The National Trust have put in a couple of picnic tables in the corner of White Fen near to the bridge over the Lode. Actually I was sitting on one bench when I took the previous picture. This picture is of the field adjacent to the picnic tables. The oilseed rape is rapidly coming into flower.

Once I crossed the Lode I carried on up the farm track alongside the Lode - it was a sunny afternoon - sightseeing not speed. The track has dried out and is 3m/10ft below the lode bank so you can't actually see the water. I did see this cowslip (Primula veris)growing in the bank though.

The view from the top of the bank - the farm track is to the right of the picture (and quite a bit lower) - Swaffham Bulbeck Fen also lies to the right - it is now fields. This picture looks North.

The Lode joins with the River Cam at Swaffham Lock. Here is a pumping station - part of the extensive network of Lodes/Drains and pumps that keep us dry here in the Fens. You can visit "The Museum of Fenland Drainage" at a place called Prickwillow near Ely for a more hands on look at how the drainage was/is achieved. The systems are electric now, but used to be wind powered and then converted to steam before being converted to electric pumps.

This is part of Swaffham Lock looking to the River Cam side. The bridge is part of a footpath alongside the River Cam. I took several pictures here - this one got chosen because I liked the greeny tinge of the reflections in the water.

The view looking back down the Lode from Swaffham Lock towards Swaffham Bulbeck. The grass seems to have re-grown after the repairs over the Winter period.

On the way back down the track I stopped at Commissioner's Drain - this runs at right angles to Swaffham Bulbeck Lode and is 3-4m/10-13ft lower than the Lode.

So there is Swaffham Tunnel which allows Commissioner's Drain to pass under Swaffham Bulbeck Lode. When I saw it marked on the map I think I was expecting something a little larger - tunnel - pipe - although Swaffham Pipe does not sound so interesting.

I then cycled along Headlake Drove, with a brief stop to show how the leaf painter has been busy here as well.

There was not much to photograph at the site of the new bridge over Reach Lode being built as part of Lodes Way. I did see the alien locust that has been stripping the leek fields though. Whilst crawling along the field it seems to get power from the sky as well!

As I was cycling through Wicken Fen (on Sustrans 51) there were a couple of ambulances with lights flashing, one by the entrance and one deeper in the Fen. I hope there has not been a problem. As a Sunday it was busy and they seem to have put sign boards out on one of the walks.

One of the ambulances, the path in front of the ambulance is part of Sustrans 51.

On my way back I noticed that the aliens must also have been sucking power out of the National Grid near Reach.

On my way back towards Cambridge I was flashed. There were several groups of people walking back towards Burwell from Reach and it looked as if they might have been enjoying the hospitality of the pub in Reach - Dyke's End. Because as I went by they shouted cyclist and lifted their t-shirts and flashed their chests at me. Unfortunately (from my perspective) they were men.

To add to the slightly surreal nature of the afternoon as I approached white Fen a couple of young men in a car stopped me (single track country lane - I was busy being surprised they slowed down at all). Did I know any local farms where they could go shooting? At this point I wondered what guns did they have in the car - they did not look like farmers with shotguns. The spring weather is definitely having an effect on people.