March to Whittlesey

From the town of March to the end of the Hereward Way (in the direction we are walking), we hope to be able to use the train in getting between our starting and ending point on each leg i.e. to avoid taking two cars. Our preference is either to use public transport entirely, or to leave one car at the end of a leg and then use public transport to get to the start. That way the car is there for us at the end, so we don't have to worry about timing whilst we are walking. However today, a Sunday, the first train from Whittlesey wasn't until nearly midday (mutter, mutter). We didn't want to waste a whole morning, so resorted to leaving the car at the start of the leg, in the City Road car park in March, which even gives directions to the Hereward Way, as shown (its a pity that the directions are wrong - you actually need to go to the right to get to the bridge across River Nene (old course)). Today's added complication was that, as well as being Easter Sunday, the clocks went forward last night, so there was some sacrifice involved in being in March ready to set off on our walk at 8.45am!

After crossing the river, we turned left onto West End, a narrow lane with interesting houses. The houses were mostly to our right, with gardens to our left leading down to the river. We reached the March by-pass (the A141) and took an underpass under the road. We emerged by a marina - the path is shown on the map as going through the middle of this, but the route wasn't clear, so we joined National Cycle Route 63 to the north of marina. We eventually meandered our way back to the river. The batteries in my camera failed, then the spare set, so I'm grateful to Richard for the rest of today's photos.

We were again diverted away from the river, down a narrow alleyway past a caravan site with what appeared to be the Queen's standard flying (?!). We passed a factory then returned to the river. It was sunny and very pleasant and there were several pairs of swans on the river. Apart from a short diversion around a bungalow, we stayed close to the river all the way to Top Hake's Farm.

We turned right onto Hake's Drove, a couple of miles of thoroughly boring walking across the fens. Unfortunately the sun went in at about the same time, so it was cold. Hake's Drove became Quaker's Drove, then we turned right through the fenland village of Turves. We crossed the railway and stopped for a chocolate in the bus shelter outside the Three Horsehoes pub.

We reached Twenty Foot River at Dunscombe's corner, and the sun came out again! The names of these fen drainage rivers ('Sixteen Foot Drain', 'Twenty Foot River' etc.) were originally an indication of how wide each river was, but I'm not convinced that rivers with smaller numbers are still narrower. We passed Beggars Bridge and Poplartree Bridge, then meandered our way from Twenty Foot River to Whittlesey Dike at Angle Bridge. From the map I'd expected an aquaduct at the junction of Whittlesey Dike and Twenty Foot River. In fact this is just a junction, close to a trig point at minus one metre. I find the relationship between the various fen rivers absolutely fascinating.

We stopped for lunch then continued along Whittlesey Dike to Turningtree Bridge and then down the road to Whittlesey. We passed the station (called 'Whittlesea', the town's old name) the continued to the Market Place, with its 17th Century 'Butter Cross'. We returned to the station and caught the 13.54 train back to March.

Following leg