2010-10-12 52 0

The River Cam near Upware

Location

In a field in the Fens, about 3 km west of Soham, Cambridgeshire.

Participants

Benjw

Plans

This one was fairly close to Cambridge -- only 16.5 km in a straight line from my house -- and was just inside the corner of a field, so looked like it would be very much accessible. The problem, as it turned out, was getting to it.

I looked at the coordinates in the morning and tried to work out how to get there. It seemed near enough to cycle, but Google at first tried to suggest a 33 km route -- double the straight-line distance. That seemed a tad excessive. Playing around with Google gave me a few options -- a 26 km road route up the busy A10, a 30 km road route along quieter village roads, or I could go up the River Cam, which would be only about 23 km, but probably unsuitable for cycling. I didn't like any of these options much, and since it was already late morning, I elected to drive to the hashpoint. I made lunch.

While eating my toasted sandwich, I found my Ordnance Survey map of the area (they show everything and are ideal for planning cycle routes). Some careful tweaking of the route in Google with a close study of the bridleways and footpaths on the OS map brought the cycling distance down to about 21 km. This seemed achievable without taking too much time out of my day. I am, after all, supposed to be on study leave for exams this week. Ok then, cycling is back on.