Alternative Hildersham Route

I often go to Hildersham on a Sunday afternoon as there's a series of great off-road sections complemented by sections of mostly quite road. I usually go along and up Worsted Street, but the first bit past Addenbrookes and up the Magogs can be a bit offputting. The hill combined with faster road traffic is less pleasant. Sometimes, if I've planned it, this is extended to Saffron Walden.

So, I decided to use a slightly different route. I make use of more of the Cambridge cycleways and skirt round the main hill. Not that it's big, but this way does avoid a lot more traffic!


View Alternative Hildersham Route in a larger map



The video clip of it is here.



I do refer to a few incidents along the way. Fortunately, none really spoilt the afternoon, just the few minutes after each event until the (scientifically known and proven natural) drug of cycling kicked in to bring the inner smile back.

Here's that speeding MGIF from early on.And the two times (I suspect) that a car speed far too close between Abington and Babraham.

UPDATE 25/08/13: I did the route again, with less incident. The video clip of it is here.


The big thing about this time was I counted the number of motor-vehicles and people riding bikes on my route. There were 44 motors and 61 riding bikes! Yes, over 22.5 miles of country and town riding, there were more people riding bikes.

I've no doubt that the main reason for this is the number of separated (mostly just shared-use) routes that I can take ot the south of Cambridge. It just shows that this is the thing that gets people on bikes. Although I have shared a clip about the issues for some bike styles that cause considerable disruption for some local villages.

UPDATE 31/08/13: I did the route again, this time using a GoPro and taking 2 HIGH DEFINITION pictures a second to get a much clearer clip. It's all here.