Again, lots of people grab hold of their bikes and ride out to Reach to see the 800 year old fair. It's around 14.5 miles in length, but that's not the thing people take away from this ride. What is the big thing is cycling with so many others enjoying the chat as we go along.
I had so many conversations with people I knew and people I'd never met before and may not meet again. Some people I'd recognise from previous years, and they'd always be new people coming with joyful ideas and positive involvement with riding.
Here's the route, with the main route in red and my short cut home in blue. Note that the shortcut home isn't possible as the busy road through Stow-cum-Quy is not passable by our larger group with a wider range of abilities.
It really is worth opening this up larger in a separate window.
So this year's video is a combination of the view forward and the reverse "faces" view. I do like ot see where we are going and it brings people in seeing what's about to happen in the facecam, possibly making it easier to spot yourself!
Here's the video of the route. Look out, music! (Go HD see * below)
00:11 Starting from The Guildhall
00:30 And onto Sidney Street
01:30 Explaining the TdF bunting
01:45 The first jam
02:30 A patient and happy taxi driver!
02:45 Zooming along at 8mph on Jesus Green
03:45 Camera fail!
05:00 Further jams at Cutter Ferr Bridge
07:00 Getting up to the front in a record distance
07:40 New path approach to Fen Ditton Lane
08:00 Loosing the leader's flag
08:45 Stopping in Bottisham
09:35 Final big pedal in a group to Lode
11:10 Reaching Reach!
The route south from Cambridge along National Cycle Network 11 makes a good commuter route for several villages to the south. The combination of separate active (not specifically cycling) infrastructure, quiet roads, some "converted" footpaths (as in with a sign only) make for an interesting mix. It's mostly good but there are some awkward bits where it's not really been thought through.
From the Senate House the route goes directly south along Kings Parade and turns out west through the Coe Fen. In connects up with Trumpington Road and wiggles through a residential area before getting back to the Guided Busway.
This seems like a long way round, and is the longest route here at 2.7 miles to the tunnel under Long Road. However, apart from the city centre and the residential area, both with minimal traffic, it is on separate active infrastructure. Yes, avoiding walkers and cows are part of the hazards, and the path width isn't great to start with. Both times crossing a road, there is a signalled crossing, although noting it's Toucan, so it's clear to cross if there's no traffic even if red. Despite being marginally the longest route this route took marginally the least amount of time.
0:00 Setting off (note slow speed of drivers)
0:21 Turning towards The Mill and Coe Fen
0:50 Cows!
0:56 Crossing Fen Causeway
1:14 Wider path
1:34 Trumpington Road (care with side accesses)
2:15 Crossing Trumpington Road to Residential Area
2:56 Access to Guided Busway
And onto main route south at 0:35
The Alternative Route via the Railway Station (blue on map).
Coming from the Senate House means similar city centre walkers of which to take care then mixing with moderate traffic for 300 yards until turning off onto Regents Terrace on the side of Parker's Piece. Crossing Gonville Place into the residential area south of Parker's Piece then leads to why this route is often called the wiggly route as it does go back and forth in several short streets. There's minimal traffic until getting near the railway station. There is a little link to avoid the station itself, going right directly after leaving Tenison Road and left at the end.
It is marginally shorter than the main NCN11 route at 2.6 miles. There are short sections of moderate traffic and a longer section of very low traffic. However, the two traffic lights, where stopping until green is mandatory means it surprisinly took longer than the main NCN11 route through the Coe Fen.
The Alternative Route via the Railway Station (music warning!) (Go HD see * at bottom)
0:00 Setting off
0:18 Traffic building
0:40 Turning onto Regents Terrace
1:00 Mandatory wait at lights
1:19 Wiggly residential route
1:37 Tenison Road and traffic building again
1:47 Alternative link through to the right
1:57 Bus Station
And onto main route south at 0:00
The NCN11 Alternative using Hills Road (orange on map).
So starting from the Senate House as just above but sticking on Hills Road to straighten out the "wiggly route". At Brookgate, simply turn in left and right to get to the
Hills Road does have lots of traffic. There's a good cyclelane, although it's regularly abused by delivery vehicles (against the Freight Trade Association advice, PDF page 3), and it abandons people riding at junctions, just where it's needed most. As the shortest, straightest route at 2.3 miles it was the marginally the longest timewise. This isn't as suprising when noting the 4 traffic and 6 pedestrian lights on this route.
0:00 Setting off (from 0:40 on clip just above)
0:11 Close car pass (noting they still took the same time as me on Hills Road)
0:21 And back up to the front filtering on the right
0:23 Waiting at traffic lights
0:35 Into cyclelane
0:44 Overtaking slower rider (must look and move out of cyclelane)
1:16 ONLY wiggle through traffic like this if you know the junction timings well
1:19 Turning into Brookgate
And onto main route south at 0:00
Changed Route (purple/brown).
Finally, the map has the "official" NCN11 route (in purple) which goes along Long Road and through the hospital on Robinson Way before heading back out on Francis Crick Avenue. This is the pre-Guided Busway route. Now, this (in brown) is about the same distance and is completely separate active infrastructure, not sharing on hospital roads where speeding is endemic.
The route south from Cambridge along National Cycle Network 11 makes a good commuter route for several villages to the south. The combination of separate active (not specifically cycling) infrastructure, quiet roads, some "converted" footpaths (as in with a sign only) make for an interesting mix. It's mostly good but there are some awkward bits where it's not really been thought through. I've written previously about this route, comparing to local road routes.
This route starts at the railway station although this blogpost looks at other starting places and routes in the city. The NCN11 route really joins at the Long Road tunnel. It heads south the Whittlesford and beyond. This is a good route. However, there are lots of little niggles along the way.
From the railway station the route heads south along the Guided Busway, which is quite good active infrastructure. It's clearly not just for cycling but the width is fine for the current levels of traffic. Actually more people use this first section for walking to various places nearby, including Long Road Sixth Form College.
At the Long Road tunnel, the main NCN11 route really joins. From the city centre it uses to Coe Fen and Trumpington Road to get south, rather than the via the railway station. From there on the route turns up and over the railway on the Addenbrookes Guided Busway spur, at the end of which the infra runs out.
Francis Crick Avenue Oddity
It is rather bizarre and ironic that at Francis Crick Avenue, good infrastructure for people cycling suddenly disappears for a quarter of a mile. This is the section that was built for the local hospital trust, which is growing to being the biggest healthcare area in the country. A place that would benefit from promoting health simply didn't see fit to do this, despite the vast amount of space available to do so. I've written about this before.
As you can see from the video, I correctly cross over the road to join in with traffic, and cross back 1 minute later. Although it's a 20mph speed limit, it's very rare to see anyone driving obeying it, compounded by the road environment simply not encouraging it. Also you'll note that many people simply don't see the reason to cycle like this and stick on the path. This is so prevalent that the building site operators have set up manned entrances to the site to ensure lorries coming in are fully aware of people cycling on the pavement.
The building site is for AstraZeneca, whom I happen to know are very keen on helping cycling. One can only hope that they might bring it up for the hospital trust and point out the error of their ways and get the wide area just outside their building converted to shared space at the minimum.
Addenbrookes Genome Path
After this is the Addenbrookes Genome Path, so named because of the local discovery of the BRCA2 gene matching the 10,000th mile of the National Cycle Network. This path was great and still is good. However, it's rather a victim of it's success. There's now too much traffic for it's width, especially factoring in people walking along here. At the end there's a crossing of Granhams Road to negotiate, although it's either stopped with traffic (fine) or empty. A last little section of the path before a quiet residential area.
Mingle Lane
At the end of the residential area there's a wiggle through to Mingle Lane. This is usually okay to ride along, although I've encountered some pretty poor driver behaviour here. Notably at the straight section where speeding is very likely. However, it's luckily quite quiet. The twisting section of Church Street can make it very difficult for drivers to see round, so be prepared to have them behind you for a while. This is usually not too much of a problem.
"Converted" Path
At the main road, cross into the "converted" footpath. This is a conversion in name only, there's no specific activity to make it a proper shared-use path. It doesn't have very many walkers but it's quite narrow for passing riders. It is good to be off the road, though. Just leaving the built up area brings in two more poor parts of this "infra", two awkward side roads. One with little space, which could have more allocated, and the other with a odd priority for a side track that's hardly in use. Again, it's good to be off the road but I wish they could spend just a little money and thought making this good infra.
Poor Junction
As it gets fully clear of the village, the path stays the same width but feels better as it's open. You can see that the path is used quite a bit still, as kids go to the secondary school in Sawston. The junction in between the village has a rather awkward junction, where the cyclepath needs to cross one road, but decides to cross two roads, one in two jumps with awkward sight lines in between. I've written about this junction before. Since then it's been redeveloped, sadly with little improvement. It still means crossing roads twice, which means waiting is inevitable. A lot of people riding here abandon the infra and use the road.
Sawston
The path now veers off the main direction of Whittlesford to take in Sawston. This is great for those wanting to go to Sawston, like schoolkids, and I applaud that. However, it's twice as long as the road route using the Sawston bypass. Using the Sawston bypass has it's bad points. Drivers really don't expect riders there and have pretty poor behaviour around riders (see clips).
In the village, the cycleroute runs out at the school. Getting onto the road isn't too easy and once on, it's pretty busy at rush hour! Most traffic seems to be pretty good here, possibly because they are mostly dropping kids at school. Notice I ride centre lane when there are parked cars on the other side, thus giving very limited space. This is to dissuade people from thinking there's enough space to pass from either direction.
On the outskirts the speed limit goes up quickly. It's not far to the bypass and crossing to the level crossing for the final path to Whittlesford. This level crossing timings are based on a section of track, which can mean a long wait. 4 minutes for one train can extend to a 8-minute wait with two trains together. Although it's good to get people off the tracks, this seems excessive.
To Whittlesford
The path from Sawston to Whittlesford is a great example of converting to shared-use infrastructure! It's smooth, wide, gives warnings of bends and to slow down for people walking (without the ubiquitous poor blue "Cyclists Dismount" sign), and is a long way from a road! Under the trees it can get a bit wet and have some awkward debris, but that worry really disappears given the pleasant nature of this path. It may be a little narrow, if it gets more popular, but has expansion space if needed.
On entering Whittlesford there is an odd development. The path goes through the churchyard. It seems odd to be in this space that's designated for quiet reflection. The signs on the entrance are a little confusing, but generally fit into the blue "Cyclists Dismount" sign rules. So, slow and considerate riding is expected, get off if needed. Sadly, at the other end of the churchyard, this is pretty much required. The gate is locked with only a tight "kissing" gate space to get through. This blocks anyone coming this way that's not on a standard 2-wheel format bike. This is pretty bad as there's a great rise in parents using cargo bikes to transport kids to school, simply not feasible here.
After wiggling though a residential, quiet area, the route heads up onto the bigger road south towards Duxford. Again, there's lots of space to put in a separate cyclepath to, at least, the A505 maybe even onto the busy villages of Duxford and further south.
0:00 Setting off
0:07 Crossing into infra, watch out for speeding buses
0:35 Long Road Tunnel, NCN11 really joins here
0:51 Turning up Addenbrookes Guided Busway spur
1:09 Turning into Francis Crick Avenue past AstraZeneca
1:17 Turning onto Addenbrookes Genome Path
2:06 Crossing Granhams Road
2:22 Wiggle to Mingle Lane/Church Street
2:50 Onto "converted" path
3:05 Bad side access crossings
3:19 Bad junction and long way through Sawston
3:59 Passing the school and road
4:18 Faster roads outside the village
4:25 Railway crossing
4:37 A good converted path
5:06 Churchyard
5:31 And onto the main road
Sawston Bypass (orange on map)
So the route through Sawston is great for getting into the village, and that is fantastic for supporting schoolkids getting to the secondary school here. However, it's 1.6 miles to go through the village and 0.8 miles to use the Sawston bypass. Here's a couple of clips showing what happens on the bypass.
Sadly, a large enough proportion of people driving are simply not aware of their actions influence on the world around their sealed and quietened interiors. When threatened like this no one is going to cycle down here. There is plenty of space on this bypass, why not build infra alongside to improve the environment? There are plenty of businesses down this link from Cambridge, it's ripe for improving cycling. And likewise getting people into Cambridge from these villages.
All the fun of the ride to Reach Fair. Shout out where you are on this video! #ReachRide
The Reach Ride on Bank Holiday Monday May 2nd 2016. Shooting along the 14.3 mile route to get to the 800 year old Reach fair. Shout out if you spot yourself!
The Reach Ride goes from Cambridge town hall to Reach, a village around 10 miles north east from the city. The goal is the Reach Fair which has been running for over 800 years since King John granted it a charter.
The Reach Ride has become a very popular ride amongst Cambridgeshire residents. People travel to Cambridge to do the ride from all over the county. The seat count reached over 800 again this year.
It's a good natured ride and is frequented by road racer types as well as families. The pace is aimed at the latter, so it makes it very welcoming across the widest spectrum of riders. It's great to see even quite young riders happy to take on the 27 miles round trip. When it's split into two, and with the promise of ice-cream and rides in the middle, it's a very attractive proposition!
And it's not only riders. That good humour extends across people outdoors. I don't think I've had so many smiles and friendly greetings when out riding normally. Yes, it happens, but rarely, for example, from single women out jogging or walking the dog. Perhaps it's one of those few chances we have to remind ourselves that normally people are good and we don't have to behave as if everyone is out to get us all the time.
There was a little confusion this year as the Mayor's cycle couldn't use the official route. This should really be seen as a little nudge that cycle-paths should be planned with all types of cyclist in mind. Not everyone is on two wheels. When I arrived on time for the proper start, everyone was already gone. And in trying to catch along the published route I managed to overtake main party quite early on!
As a result of trying to catch up with a group that was quickly behind me, I managed to have lots of time at the Reach end. I settled on exploring up through Wicken Fen and back round via Upware before the fair, then a brief rumble out to Burwell and back after lunch. I can't help feeling that some people, like myself, who may not have a great fascination for the actual Fair, might like to take a wander further up to Wicken Fen as a more official trip. I pushed it a little too far this time, managing a total of 47 miles. And "bonking" around 2 miles from home.
I managed to get several clips, and did manage to do several passes of the (smaller) group on the way back. Faces are always good on these rides, please tag yourself!
0:11 A few people still at the start mopping up.
0:45 The normal jam under Victoria Avenue completely missing!
1:25 Relief at the first signs of a group.
1:40 Not a very big group though, huh?
2:25 Newmarket Road Park & Ride, some more groups, but not moving, huh?
2:30 Small discussion about ride. I continue.
3:25 A few stragglers at Quy, where is everyone?
3:40 Last rider? Unbeknown to me, I'd already passed the main group!
4:20 Bottisham centre.
5:05 Swaffham Bulbeck centre. Empty roads!
5:33 Road cyclists pass.
5:50 Swaffham Prior centre.
6:07 Closed Roads! Although this proved a little unreliable.
6:50 Reach Fair!
People on the Way Back (Go HD see * below)
Apologies for the sound track, it just seemed so appropriate!
0:11 Final look at the Fair
0:30 An awful lot of parked cars for a closed road?
0:43 A car, even more strange for a closed road!
1:11 Road Closed sign. Ignored by a lot of drivers. Illegally.
1:30 Nice to pass lots of riders after the mornings mix-up!
1:50 A good look at the front riders, face on!
2:30 And back to passing the group again
3:20 Another look back at the riders coming past.
4:15 A couple heading to Waterbeach, needing to walk some of the way.
4:40 And into Lode.
5:10 And the main Quy Road, nearly back up to the front.
Wicken Fen and Upware Circuit (Go HD see * below)
0:11 Leaving Reach heading north then east to Wicken Fen.
0:50 Some riders! Hmm, and a car on a closed road
0:54 Camera fail, restart at first junction.
1:35 Bridge over Reach Lode. Very nice!
1:49 Rejoined proper track
2:20 Very awkward bridge, I had trouble with just a little day bag. This is a barrier to quite a few riders, I expect.
2:55 Main part of Wicken Fen, lots of riders! Ely people coming to Reach Fair?
3:00 With space available and people walking and riding, a bit more path width?
3:45 Another camera stop to look up route round horrible A1123 road.
4:45 Pretty rough track, probably not good in winter.
5:00 The Upware road! 3 of 7 car passes were not good. This is the alternative to the problematic Wicken Fen bridge?
6:00 Upware! Always seemed so fantastically distant
6:45 This is mapped as an unclassified road, not a track!
7:30 Back on the NCN11 cycle-route.
7:45 Road Closed being ignored by drivers, again.
8:10 Pulled in to let a car pass.
8:30 Lots of non-local parked cars
8:40 To the cycle parking!
Burwell Short Circuit (Go HD see * below)
0:11 Bit confused by cyclists coming towards me on this side of the road!
0:13 And car on the other side?
0:18 Ah, all becomes clear, walking/riding one side, cars managed on other, very good!
0:24 Driver doesn't really understand road controls, can't go up to it!
0:35 Dip out into car space as none coming.
0:43 End of control section, take back road to Burwell.
0:50 Quite a few people walking and riding from Burwell.
1:03 And a driver!
1:12 Onto a back track up the Burwell Lode.
1:28 Burwell centre.
1:41 Turn back towards the Burwell Lode.
1:50 And back onto the back road back towards Reach.
2:05 Lots more people walking down the path, some the same as before!
2:11 Dad pushing young daughter learning to ride, Excellent!
2:21 Back to the road control.
Return from Lode (Go HD see * below)
0:11 Last big cluster of people, going forward
0:49 Bottisham centre.
1:10 And back towards Quy, be good when the Lode-Quy cyclepath is done!
1:15 Got caught by another faster rider, good chat along the way!
1:28 One of the fast little groups.
2:02 Road crossing in Stow-cum-Quy.
3:10 Newmarket Road Park and Ride.
3:45 Road Crossing in Fen Ditton.
4:40 Back to Riverside.
5:00 My final bit on the main route, I bonked after this!
#CamRideHome is a leisurely ride around some of the more pleasant cycle infrastructure and cut-throughs in Cambridge, ending in a short pub stop to chat about the joys of the past month. It starts at The Mill in Cambridge every last Friday of the month at 6pm. Rob at Ben Haywards has been instrumental in getting this going and is the route source on their CamRideHome page.
The March ride was the first which occurs mainly in daylight. This year we explored some of the new developments to the south of the city in Great Kneighton. New paths are being added to link in with the Southern section of the Guided Busway.
I managed to get video footage until it was quite dark, co-incidentally as my battery failed (how to go HD*).
March 2015 Ride
All together a very pleasant little ride, aimed at the pace of the slowest and with a couple of beers and good chat afterwards. Who's up for April, when we'll be in balmy evening sun all the way?
National Cycle Network Route 11 goes south from Cambridge along the fantastic Addenbrookes cyclepath. Through the leafy villages of Great Shelford and Stapleford it joins quiet roads before crossing the main A1301 in the village and joining a shared path. This is one of the better ones, although it could do with a bit more space. It takes the rider south crossing the river Granta (a side stream that turns into the Bourn) in a nice green space called Clerk's Piece and then on towards Sawston on the side of the A1301.
The junction to the north of Sawston is a bit of a disaster area. It's clearly been designed with the idea of making sure people cycling stop before crossing either road in some kind of hyper-safe manner, whilst clearly saying that people driving shouldn't bother their little heads with vunerable people crossing, and continue to speed along the road.
Here's a satellite picture showing routes around this, although I'd recommend looking at the map in Google Maps (and below) as it's much more interactive.
Notice the way that the planned cycle route follows a series of tight turns. On the bike there is no need for them at all, so why are they there? The only reason that I can see for using a good perceanage more tarmac than is needed, and in such a twisted way, is to make people cycling slow down.
However, this is only done in space that is available, so it's not really a serious priority. Notice the funny loop on the east side of the A1301 is not repeated on the west side because there's limited space. So, it's fine unless digging and/or land purchase is needed. What does that say about the real importance of the loop?
What is the pratical result of this peculiar cyclepath arrangement. Well, it's quite clear that most people cycling don't use it. So, for all the posible (although arguable) safety enhancements the result is that they are completely ignored. There are 3 paths that most people cycling adopt, completely legally, to avoid the unnecessary meanderings. First, even using both crossings, there's now a well worn path (in purple) cutting the corner and straightening the route. Then, for either direction a lot of people cycling simply completely ignore the cyclepath across the island and use the road instead (green and turquoise).
Effectively, any safety enhancements planned are so over the top that they are completely ignored, thus actually making the junction more dangerous not less.
So what should be done here. A simple answer would be the red route. Taking the cycle route further down the A1301 and crossing after the junction. This reduces the number of road crossings from 2 down to 1, reducing danger considerably. It's also of similar length and reduces the need to "slow down" people cycling, something that it close to our hearts!
This could be included in a revamped National Cycle Network Route 11 that goes alongside the A1301 (yellow route) to it's eventual destination at the mill junction (next one down). For school reasons, the current National Cycle Network Route 11does a big dogleg through the village. This is still needed for the school kids, but for anyone going further it's frustrating to have to go 40-50% further than necessary!
The knock-on from the red route change is that the road junction would become more limited. By putting the crossing in that place, the turn for road traffic from the northbound A1301 (so from the bottom of the picture) onto the "Cambridge Road" back to Sawston would have to be taken away. The lane for the turn appears in the middle of the road which would be required for a crossing island. Okay, now pan back on Google Maps to see how many may be affected by losing this turn. I can see maybe 2 locations, essentially nobody really. So no-one needs to do this turn.
Then looking at what removing that turn does. It means the only required road access form the A1301 onto the "Cambridge Road" is from the north (top), which is served by the slip-lane at the north-east (top right corner). So why not make the junction one-way only? The reduces the amount of space needed for the road and could be used to improve the cycle junction.
I confess I don't know when this cycling provision was put in. I suspect the past decade. It may be a small thing, but it shows the attitude. The entire scheme smacks of a complete failure to understand any of the practical results or spot any of the obvious gains by a bit more thought. What clearly has been thought: YOU CANNOT TAKE ANYTHING FROM THE MOTORISTS! NOT ANYTHING! And with that attitude goes a whole generation of potential transport improvements for all people, including motorists.
There are 2 routes to Whittlesford from near Cambridge railway station. The traditional one down the main, but not too busy, Shelford Road and the new one following National Cycle Network Route 11.
This second route has really only just opened up thanks to recent changes between Whittlesford and Sawston. It is 7.5 miles instead of the straight 7 miles of the Shelford Road route. However, having 75% of it off-road compared to less than half on the old route, more than makes up for it. And the remaining 25% is on quiet residential village roads. It's quiet enough to feel quite safe whilst riding. Something that not always felt on the Shelford road.
From the railway station, the new guided busway route and spur gets as far as the Addenbrookes cyclepath. At the other end of that there's a short section through Shelford into Stapleford before coming out to the next offroad section alongside the A-road to Sawston. The Sawston dog-leg is a bit irritating, but it was built to support local schoolkids getting to the schools in the large village. Crossing the railway and then the river Cam or Granta (note not "river Granta"!) and the new Whittlesford cyclepath appears. This is a converted footpath, but so many kids had been using it, it seemed silly to keep it as such. There are some highly amusing "Slow Pedestrians Ahead" signs, but that's better than the old (and misunderstood) "Cyclists Dismount" signs.
The route maps in Google Maps are red for Shelford Road route, blue for the NCN11 route. And it is thin for off-road sections and thick for on-road sections.
The last time I came back along the traditional Shelford Road route on a Sunday night I saw my first car at Addenbrookes hospital and wasn't passed by one until Hills Road railway bridge. The route can have cars on it but isn't a busy road.
For a video view, some photos, and some explanation of the local river naming around the NCN11 route (in reverse) look at my Wimpole Folly and the Three Cams post.
Going north-east up National Cycle Network Route 11 from Cambridge, there's a break in the route. It follows the river Cam up to Waterbeach then disappears to re-appear about 2 miles south-east heading up to Wicken Fen in a parallel fashion. Between these two ends, there are a few paths and two river crossings at Clayhithe and Bottisham Lock.
This little trip and video clip was partly an investigation into that gap which has 2 obvious solutions.
A simple route from the Clayhithe road bridge would be to convert a private road, Hatridge's Lane to Northfields Farm, and cut the short distance through to Vicarage Farm on Lug Fen Droveway (which is already a public footpath). Then the route would go south-east along Lug Fen Droveway, a public road, until it met up at White Fen Drove.
The proposed NCN11 route would be fromWaterbeach railway station car park, where the route currently ends, alongside ht railway north-east, then along Burgess Drove and turning down to Bottisham Lock. Crossing the river, turning along the bank paths until Bottisham Lode then coming along the west side Bottisham Lode until Lug Fen Droveway again.
It looks like both routes are experiencing some opposition, maybe from the landowners, maybe not.
Hatridge's Lane is private, although there are public footpaths that do a similar route, a few dozen yards away. "Private" signs are clear, which can simply be the landowner not wanting people to accidentally come this way, of course.
This route has probably the least impact and least building costs involved. However, it's not the proposed option.
Starting opposite Waterbeach railway station car park looks better to begin with. This is already a public footpath, has space, and in semi-public ownership.
However, looking at the below video clip, Burgess Drove quickly deteriorates and would need some work, especially as it's quite well used by other vehicles.
Then Bottisham Lock is a very narrow crossing currently with steps. That would not work with larger or loaded bikes.
Then, when approaching Bottisham Lode there's clear signs of antipathy towards cycling. Or possibly simply trying to stop the tide. I'm sure many cyclists don't know what to do when getting to the end of NCN11 and just try pushing through. Anyway, here's the signs on both routes on.
So which route should the NCN11 try to take to join up? My preference would be neither. Although I'd start along the Bottisham Lock route, I'd much prefer to continue up the river to Upware, then cut back at a better angle to Wicken Fen. However, much has already been done to bring the route through to Lug Fen Causeway that would make that a very unlikely option!
Later on my route, I found myself wondering why the residents of Lode had so many cars. Suddenly, it clicked. This was overflow from the Anglesey Abbey country house run by the National Trust.
I did clip about this separately as I thought it quite awful. As I say on the clip:
The sheer volume of parking inadequately, some illegally, most disruptive to the local village, and pretty much all causing a blot on the landscape, Anglesey Abbey should hang it's head in shame.
This is within a mile of a good off-road cycleroute from Cambridge. So, rather than spending money building more parking space and concreting over the country yet further, why not invest the same in a decent off road route as a public donation? There's plenty of space and I bet many people visiting would rather have the family outing in more pleasant environment of being on a bike.
Green Lanes
The second part of this trip and video clip, was to look at the green lanes that straddle the space between the fens lodes and the hills to the south east. This has some history as it was the route that tribes to the north-east, like the Iceni, would travel down to the south west, and to the Icknield Way. Fleam Dyke was one the the defenses put up in harder times.
Out from Bottisham on the High Street, there's a short stretch of the A1303 to negotiate. It's unpleasant but is a large road with very clear sight lines. Cars still shoot past far too quickly, mostly as they have no idea of what the impact of their car is at such high speed whilst cocooned in a padded saftey cell. But it's only a short distance. Plenty of space for an off-road cyclepath though!
The turn off the A1303 is a little unwelcoming but battle on through the scrapyard, the overrun tarmac bridge over the A14, and there's a pleasant track quite soon.
The clip shows this bit best. The first bit is a quiet lane leading towards the Westley and Dullingham in the villages along the hill tops. Again, this offers a great way of getting between these places without having to go anywhere near main roads. The route is shown as the now defunct "road used as a path". It's clearly been blocked from motorised vehicles, so drops to being a bridleway.
The second section is perpendicular to the first and provides a way of getting from Newmarket to the Wilbrahams and the on into Cambridge.
Full Video Clip
This shows the full trip at 8 times speed. Key points are as follows.
00:00 Through Town from the Station
00:54 Along Riverside
01:27 NCN11 on river path
03:33 Clayhithe Bridge
03:49 End of NCN11 at Waterbeach railway station
04:20 Burgess Drove
04:50 Bottisham Lock
05:10 Warning signs
07:03 Food stop
08:05 New part of NCN11
09:25 Anglesey Abbey Parking
10:15 Turn onto A1303
10:45 Green lane to Westley
11:34 Green lane to Wilbraham
14:30 Bad pass in other clip
