Stallode Wash to Ely

This section of the Hereward Way involves a lot of road walking and I hadn't looked forward to it. In addition, the views we'd expected of the 'Ship of the Fens' (Ely Cathedral) didn't materialise, since the mist we woke to in Norfolk became fog as we drove south, and this lingered all day. Having said that, it was an atmospheric walk, with some unexpected gems, especially the River Lark at Prickwillow. I enjoyed it.

We parked one car in Ely (note that parking at the Barton Road carpark is free all day on a Sunday, and at any time after 8.30am on other days of the week) then drove via Queen Adelaide and Prickwillow to the track at 694837 near Stallode Wash, where we parked on New Year's Day. The difference was that the expansive views across the fens had been replaced by lots of atmosphere!

We walked along Newmans Drove and past Russell Farm, stopping to ring our daughter Helen (for the 'back of beyond', which this undoubtedly is, the mobile signal is very good). The route across the fen to Sedge Fen was neither signposted nor clear, so we decided to stay on the road to Sedge Fen. All signs appear to lead to Sedge Fen Baptist Chapel, which turns out to be a (possibly converted) house, with a more modern building next to it. Sunday School was in progress as we walked past. We walked though the metropolis of Sedge Fen then past a pig farm and along a muddy section of track to the railway. We passed another agricultural building with more pigs and even more mud, then followed a (blissfully mud-free) track alongside the railway for a couple of miles to Shippea Hill Station. The track was easy walking, but there were no signposts and the exit to the road at Shippea Hill was a bit scary - over a 'bridge' over a drainage ditch, but the bridge had rather large holes in it!

In theory, you should be able to break the journey from (say) Brandon to Ely by catching a train to and/or from Shippea Hill station. That is apart from the fact that just one train per day stops at Shippea Hill - the 7.28 heading towards Norwich. Saturday has the excitement of one train in the opposite direction too (at 19.29) and there are none at all on Sundays! We passed the station and there followed a rather monotonous section of road walking, along the A1101 for a couple of miles, then left onto the B1382 towards Prickwillow and Ely, for another 1.5 miles. Fortunately the roads were not too busy.

We had to wait for a train at the level crossing just before Prickwillow - plenty of trains run on this line, they just don't stop at Shippea Hill! We had expected to continue along the road into Prickwillow, but decided to climb to the top of the bank to our left, and found a good path running along it, close to the River Lark. The river turns sharp right in Prickwillow and although the Drainage Engine Museum was closed, there was a conveniently placed bench where we stopped for lunch. There was also the first 'Hereward Way' sign that we had seen on the path so far!

We walked through Prickwillow village and then followed another Hereward Way sign (wow!) along 'Old Bank' towards Ely. Something over two miles later, we reached even more exciting signs, bearing the original Hereward Way logo, and we joined the Fen Rivers Way on a bridge across the Great Ouse River (we were last here on 28th February 2009). We crossed 'Cuckoo Bridge' and skirted 'Roswell Pits', now a nature reserve and used for fishing and sailing. They were sailing today, though you need some imagination to see the boats on the photograph I took. We walked along the attractive 'Springhead Lane' to a road on the outskirts of Ely. Another Hereward Way sign and the map both indicated that we should cross the road before turning left, but the signs then dried up and it took us a little while to find the route (through a housing estate near the new Sainsburys). Once we found it, 'The Vineyards' took us all the way to Ely Market Place.

The weather conditions were such that you could only just make out the Cathedral even from Ely Market Place. We stopped for a welcome cup of tea at Julia's tea rooms, took some more photographs of Ely Cathedral in the fog (the picture on the right shows the Octagon) and returned to the car.

Following leg