The Aldreth Crossing

The Aldreth Causeway is one of not-that-many ways across the Ouse, between the busway and Ely.

About halfway between Oakington and Longstanton on the busway you can turn on to a byway, officially Reynold's Drove:

Nice and Easy

This is all very pleasant, not that bumpy and you can potter along to Rampton. I found it impossible to ignore the siren call of the shortly-encountered bridge on the left:

Hard to resist

This takes you over pleasant greeny tracks, in my case with an honour-guard of dragonflies, bumble bees and tortoiseshell butterflies. It's only a kilometre or so before you have to cross the Rampton-Willingham road, well, go along it towards Willingham for a few yards then scuttle around the back of some buildings:

The menace that is illegal horse-grazing

After some buggering about you get here

This is the start of the byway to Aldreth, though apparently not the "Causeway" proper. It's a broadly similar surface though, lots of deep shallow ruts which at a slow speed are quite fun but watch out for the odd narrow chasm. It'd be a nightmare if at all muddy.

There's the odd green bit too

As elsewhere, any sort of clearing seems to provide an opportunity for bonfires and lager detritus:

Unfortunately this was the shape of things to come

The causeway proper starts after reaching tarmac and doing a brief right-then-left:

It wasn't this dark

I'd been wondering why there were lots of warnings about CCTV etc, and it soon became apparent, there seems to be a fly-tipping problem hereabouts.

Milton Tip is around 8 miles from here

This can't help but mar the journey a bit. Apart from anything else, you have to keep an eye out for sharp puncture-making objects everywhere. This is a byway open to cars in the Summer, I suppose if not for that the lazy feckers would have to find somewhere else.

The section after Tibbit's Farm was OK though:

Post-Tibbit's

This bit is quite nice

It was around here that I started to hear gunshots from the left, just the farmer on his land I suppose, but a certain amount of panicky checking behind me did ensue. Happily the bridge over the Ouse was nice and peaceful.

Cows taking a well-earned rest. They didn't mind the gunfire

Ooze.

Onwards, through dappleage

Arrivee Aldreth

I was hoping for a marvellous unheard-of tea garden or suchlike at Aldreth, but it was resolutely unappealing. A grandma pushing a pram set the tone by responding to my friendly wave with a scowl. Not one of your idyllic one-road-in enclaves, more a one-road-out place. Haddenham is only a few miles up the road and has a very friendly indeed gallery/hippy centre:

Sculpture Garden. There's a tree wrapped in ribbons around here too. Special mention must be made of the salad dressing they serve with paninis.

In summay, then; were it not for the fly-tipping this might be a fun route, but it is for the fly-tipping. Possibly you can avoid that and still do the river-crossing by taking the road to Tibbit's farm from Willingham. Also, bear in mind that if you hate road you might have to retrace your steps to get back; the other route is via Wilburton then twenty-pence road through Cottenham.

Great Wilbraham to Wadlow Farm

The horsey roads south of Newmarket are great cycling country, but it's a nuisance finding a nice way over the A11. This is one obvious route for the traffic-averse.

From Great Wilbraham, take Mill Road, which will be signposted, unpromisingly, as "London A11". This is one of those weird tributaries of the A11 that not many vehicles actually use, so is typically fairly quiet, though what cars there are may nip past at reasonable speed. It goes up over a little hump, which is a bridge over the railway:

Hello Trains, maybe

...before going down again and encountering the sort of sign that makes you want to turn back. Be not afraid! Turn right, over the A11, then keep straight on to the Chalk Pit.

All roads lead to Death

Industry

Despite looking like a quarry this is apparently a Camgrain wheat drying-and-distribution centre. Camgrain seem to have an affinity with bike trails, there's another plant you have to cycle through near Linton. Anyway, shake off that feeling of trespassing on a super-villains lair, and turn left onto the not-very-well-signposted byway:

Dust and Scarplings

This is fairly bumpy and dusty with lots of flints. So there's quite a bit of puncture-fear, though I've never actually punctured here, and some slippage. It's probably only truly comfortable on pretty big tyres, which I didn't have, but it's perfectly doable. And very quiet; butterflies were keeping pace with me, I saw some little deers (I think - not sure what else they could've been), rabbits, etc.

Then there's the turbines; the track goes right past the Wadlow Wind Farm. You can sneak in to look at the beasts in action, and listen as they whirr:

Bent sails mean they're turning

Bumpier than this looks

Shortly the byway crosses into another field and meanders down the left of it. This is noticeably flintier and sandier, and ends in a persistent and treacherous downhill. It's not that steep but even so cowardice is inevitable.

You might want to walk this bit.

At the bottom you reach Wadlow Farm.

Go left then right to get to Brinkley via Grange Road

Quy to Lode along the dismantled railway

Artistic excellence

Is there a nice way into the Fens from Stow-cum-Quy? Not along the main rode to Lode, which is busier than you might like. There are definitely footpaths and byways, but are any of them bikeable?

Well, you might stare at the map for a bit and notice an appealing-looking dotted line with 'dismantled railway' written next to it. 

From the crossroads at the end of Quy, heading towards Lode, turn left down Station Road, so called because it takes you to the defunct Quy Station and dismantled railway.

City limits

After a while the road crosses Quy water:

Bridge over the River Quy

Now we are in big-sky fen country.

Various footpath offerings will appear to the right. The byway is probably the one to take.

Public byway. Take this if you're not a train-spotter

If you do carry on, you reach a line of buildings which used to be the train station (station-master's house, station building etc) and have now been converted and mainly just look like houses:

Turn right here

Renovated Old Station

This is a funny building. It looks nice, I thought it might be a holiday cottage, but apparently it's divided into office space and rented out.

At the end of the path you can see where the railway went, to the left of some hay, or possibly straw:

Agricultural trespass imminent

Here's the problem with the dismantled railway, it isn't a public right of way. I don't know who owns this bit of it but they probably farm the adjacent fields. There aren't any "Private, keep off" signs, but it is private, and I don't know the degree to which the landowner really wants you to keep off, although people do seem to walk dogs, go jogging down it, etc.

If you try out the surface for a few yards, it's flat, solid, unmuddy, not too many scarplings.

Let's say you go back to the byway instead. It's a grassy, slightly bumpy job:

Muddy tendencies

This will criss-cross the railway before long, offering you a relatively short scuttle to the National Trust section of the railway. Or you could continue to Quy Fen instead, to wander through the meadows, though apparently some go wandering with something more than wildflowers on their mind, oh dear. The National Trust bit is "permissive":

Nice to know. No mention of bikes, but let's risk it

Marvellous dappleage. Blossom

Lode Mill. Probably. There's a stately home hiding somewhere behind those trees

After exiting the National Trust path all roads lead to Lode, just different bits of it. The most straight-on footpath has orange mud, though possibly only if you're unwise enough to have gone out after two days of solid rain.

Anglesey Farm Shop. Confusing for those brought up in North Wales

There's fun bits to this route but overall it's not quite worth the faff, I will probably stick to the road. If the railway got converted into a bikepath - I don't mean tarmacced, just bought by Sustrans or something - that'd be brilliant, but I suppose it's unlikely.

Dry Drayton to Boxworth

This is part of an ongoing Cambridge - Coton - Boxworth exploration, for the purposes of getting to the Golden Ball Inn without car-jousting. Previously I've tried the road to Knapwell but cars can go a bit fast there. Cycling from Coton to Madingley then Dry Drayton is usually more pleasant.

From Dry Drayton the bridleway to Bar Hill is well signposted:

Tarmac, for now

A good downhill surface treacherously gives way to fairly severe nobbles, so don't get carried away!

Light mud, and bumps

It's only a short distance.

Hallelujah!

Bar Hill is strange, a weird little pocket-estate with a periphery road. I couldn't quite shake off the feeling it was out to get me. A bridleway shadows the road, if you're absolutely determined to avoid tarmac, but it's quiet enough.

It's easy to miss the footpath sign on the right as you plunge downhill, and end up somewhere commercial.

Insert your own snake joke

As if Bar Hill isn't weird enough, it's not a village, but a 'residential area'. For fiends in human form.

Thank God for that

This is a footpath that's ok to cycle on, not just because it's a good surface, but also because the landowner has given permission.

Lolworth church in the distance

Lolworth is beautifully quiet. It's fun coming through somewhere like this because there's only one road in and out, so despite being a village it feels more like a secret glade.

Best Kept Village (though not recently)

This all looks nice and easy, follow the sign to Boxworth. And it is, sort of, but on the way out there's a prominent "Yarmouth Farm, Private Road" sign right next to the "Public Bridleway" sign. Which might put you in mind of bitter disputes and shotguns, but I suppose the path to the farm is both a private road and a public right of way, and the farmer doesn't particularly feel like encouraging you to use it, even though you can. Anyway I waved to someone while passing the farm buildings and they waved back and seemed friendly.

The bridleway itself is springy grass, easy going on a summer's evening, though you might get foliage in your chain.

Arrivee Boxworth

Boxworth pond

The only bad bit about arriving in Boxworth is that you're on the wrong side of the village for the Golden Ball. When you get there everyone will be eating and you'll almost certainly want a pie.

The bike enjoys a well-earned rest

All in all a fun ride, but I'm going to investigate a route via Childerley too, since it would be nice to avoid that Yarmouth weirdness.