"So this Fridays walk is along the
Guided Busway in Cambridge to St Ives. St Ives is a beautiful market town so I
want us to arrive with a little vim and vigour to have a look around after a
cuppa. The River Ouse and the meadows are gorgeous. The actual walk is ALL on
tarmac. It's a bridleway that runs along the full length of the guided busway
for 13 miles. The buses whizz along so it's not suitable for dogs (see
attached screenshot). It is not the most exciting walk in the world. It is fen
like and there isn't much on the horizon (no churches or windmills). However,
in many ways it is lovely and very different. I wouldn't offer the walk if I
didn't like it." , said the invite from Joyce. I think she rather undersold it. How many photos would I take along the way? Nick thought one would be enough, but I took over 100!
This was our route (and we took the bus back along our route to get back to our cars).
Wow. What a lovely sunny spring-like day... and we still have nearly a week of February left!
Here are some of the sights from along the way.
We started near the bridge over the A14 from Milton.
It wasn't long till we got to the busway. "That will be the only photo you need today", quipped Joyce. But no...
This was a "legal graffiti wall" and the artists were at work. Did anyone else feel slightly woozy from the fumes?
We reached Histon .. and lots of memories for me. The Railway Vue used to be the local for my office and I had my leaving do after about 20 years working for CSC Computer Sciences here in 2006. I got lots of nice comments on my Farewell post. And if you want a laugh, you may find the heralded Whizzo Toys story worth a read.
Meanwhile, we came across this..
It would be much quicker than driving up the A14... as we observed on our return journey, but only buses are allowed!
O Look. Here is where I worked many years ago. Sovereign House.
I remember standing in that car park with all of my colleagues watching a solar eclipse .That was spooky.
Meanwhile, we continued on past the Hartleys Jam factory.
We passed Histon and Girton Wood. I decide to take a detour through it.
We got to a point where we needed to cross a road. Here we found a Pegasus Crossing. As you can see, there are 2 buttons; one at a lower level for pedestrians, and one higher up for horse riders so they didn't have to dismount. Well we were walking along a public bridleway, so that makes sense.
By now we were out in the open countryside. All around us we could here the twittering of skylarks, and sometimes we got to see them. They flit about so fast, it is difficult to track them, but I did manage this shot...
The air was so still, the smoke we saw was going almost straight up..
We passed the new, and growing, village of Northstowe. A whole new village built from scratch. Wow.
Shortly afterwards we came to the Longstanton Park & Ride stop. The building here is very interesting and has lots of green aspects. Read all about it here.
It was a welcome respite for a toilet break and a drink from the vending machines,
We strode on. I loved these feathery leaves.
The route, straight as a die, seemed to go on forever. "The never-ending walk", it was dubbed.
So what are these mounds? Prehistoric barrows? I can't find anything online that explains. Can you?
We liked this windmill. But Joyce said there would be no windmills. I want my money back! lol.
And then we got to Swavesey. There was an interesting information board by the path describing the history. The place has rather more of that than Northstowe! And Joyce said there would be no churches either. She is a tease!
I loved this ditch and its reminder we are in fenland.
We saw another mill in the distance.
We got to the Fen Drayton lakes...
Along the busway embankment there were lots of these lovely little wild violet flowers.
The lakes were very expansive
Some of us had our lunch here.
Getting closer to St. Ives, we crossed the river Ouse.
The bus station wasn't quite our journey's end ( or should that be endpoint?)...
... as we carried on into the town I liked these crocuses near the town sign.
There was a market on and this stall was selling out-of-date seeds at 10p a packet... "Best before December 2015". No thanks.
We visited the bridge and had a cup of tea each...
Here are some of the sights from along the way.
We started near the bridge over the A14 from Milton.
It wasn't long till we got to the busway. "That will be the only photo you need today", quipped Joyce. But no...
This was a "legal graffiti wall" and the artists were at work. Did anyone else feel slightly woozy from the fumes?
We reached Histon .. and lots of memories for me. The Railway Vue used to be the local for my office and I had my leaving do after about 20 years working for CSC Computer Sciences here in 2006. I got lots of nice comments on my Farewell post. And if you want a laugh, you may find the heralded Whizzo Toys story worth a read.
Meanwhile, we came across this..
It would be much quicker than driving up the A14... as we observed on our return journey, but only buses are allowed!
O Look. Here is where I worked many years ago. Sovereign House.
I remember standing in that car park with all of my colleagues watching a solar eclipse .That was spooky.
Meanwhile, we continued on past the Hartleys Jam factory.
We passed Histon and Girton Wood. I decide to take a detour through it.
We got to a point where we needed to cross a road. Here we found a Pegasus Crossing. As you can see, there are 2 buttons; one at a lower level for pedestrians, and one higher up for horse riders so they didn't have to dismount. Well we were walking along a public bridleway, so that makes sense.
By now we were out in the open countryside. All around us we could here the twittering of skylarks, and sometimes we got to see them. They flit about so fast, it is difficult to track them, but I did manage this shot...
The air was so still, the smoke we saw was going almost straight up..
We passed the new, and growing, village of Northstowe. A whole new village built from scratch. Wow.
Shortly afterwards we came to the Longstanton Park & Ride stop. The building here is very interesting and has lots of green aspects. Read all about it here.
It was a welcome respite for a toilet break and a drink from the vending machines,
We strode on. I loved these feathery leaves.
The route, straight as a die, seemed to go on forever. "The never-ending walk", it was dubbed.
So what are these mounds? Prehistoric barrows? I can't find anything online that explains. Can you?
We liked this windmill. But Joyce said there would be no windmills. I want my money back! lol.
And then we got to Swavesey. There was an interesting information board by the path describing the history. The place has rather more of that than Northstowe! And Joyce said there would be no churches either. She is a tease!
I loved this ditch and its reminder we are in fenland.
We saw another mill in the distance.
We got to the Fen Drayton lakes...
Along the busway embankment there were lots of these lovely little wild violet flowers.
The lakes were very expansive
Some of us had our lunch here.
Getting closer to St. Ives, we crossed the river Ouse.
The bus station wasn't quite our journey's end ( or should that be endpoint?)...
... as we carried on into the town I liked these crocuses near the town sign.
There was a market on and this stall was selling out-of-date seeds at 10p a packet... "Best before December 2015". No thanks.
We visited the bridge and had a cup of tea each...
And then it was back to Cambridge on the bus.
What took us hours of walking went by in a flash and we were soon back at our cars. Boring walk? Not a bit of it! Thanks Joyce for the inspiration and to my fellow walkers for the companionship.
Here is a slideshow of more of my photos (Flash required)...
And you can see my photos here on Flickr, and details of our route (not that it isn't obvious!), here in my MapMyWalk log.
Addendum: We only glimpsed them briefly as they were flying so low, so I didn't get time to catch them in a photograph, we we saw the 4 F15E Strike Eagle jets heading to this flypast, which featured on the news and morning TV too.
Addendum: We only glimpsed them briefly as they were flying so low, so I didn't get time to catch them in a photograph, we we saw the 4 F15E Strike Eagle jets heading to this flypast, which featured on the news and morning TV too.
Well describrd john. I loved the walk martin
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