Guyhirn to Whittlesey
Walked by Sally and Richard, Tuesday 26th May 2020
9.8 miles, 9.6 miles progress on Nene Way
Our photographs of this walk are here
We last walked a leg of the Nene Way in April 2019, before moving on to the hillier Chiltern Way in preparation for our walk along the Cumbria Way later in the year - then back to the Chiltern Way because we were hooked. We had expected to return to the Nene Way in winter 2019/20 but flooding made this an unattractive (sometimes impossible) option. We hadn't really thought of this as a summer walk. However, as the Coronavirus lockdown began to ease in May 2020, meaning that we were no longer limited to walks from our home in Norfolk but we weren't able to stay overnight in hotels etc. - and no way would we have used public transport - it occurred to us to return to the Nene Way. Today was an extra closure day for all Open University employees, given to us as a "thank you" for all we had done to enable to University to stay largely operational through the worst of the pandemic (though the Milton Keynes campus and our other sites were all still closed) and Richard has taken the day off too. The weather had been good for most of the two months we'd been working at home and today was no exception. It was slightly overcast first thing but by the time we got home it was sunny and quite warm.
We travelled from home in Norfolk in two cars, leaving one in the (free) Eastgate car park in Whittlesey (TL272971) and then driving back to the dead end road (TF397029) near the roundabout at the junction of the A141 with the A47 at Guyhirn Bridge. We cut through to the A141 by the roundabout and crossed the road, and the path was straight in front of us, initially passing behind the houses of Ring's End, passing over the route of a disused railway and then bending round to the right onto a bank heading off into the distance in a straight line. Essentially we followed this bank for more than eight miles, to the outskirts of Whittlesey, but it was more interesting than this might imply.
The River Nene was half a mile to the north (and in places up to a mile away), separated by the Whittlesey Washes from Moreton's Leam, which was closer to the bank on which we were walking - and after about a kilometre it came closer still. Moreton's Leam was constructed by a former bishop of Ely, John Morton, between 1478 and 1490. It was improved by Cornelius Vermuyden around 1631. There were yellow water lilies just coming into flower on Moreton's Leam and yellow flag irises along the edge of it. There were occasional swans, both on the water and on the washes, but no immediately obvious cygnets. We also saw cattle grazing on the washes, with wind turbines behind. The grass on the bank we were walking along was initially mown but it later became heavier going. There were occasional patches of nettles and thistles that we didn't want to walk through, but thankfully the slope of the bank was both gentle and less overgrown, so most of the time we could just step away from the top of the bank when necessary. There were attractive purple flowers on thistle bushes from time to time as well as wild poppies just coming into flower.
We had just commented that this walk was good for social distancing as there was no-one else about, when we noticed another couple of walkers coming towards us. We stopped for a (socially distanced) chat; they were from Whittlesey but knew Denver - and they also knew much more about birdwatching than we do! We were approaching Poplar Farm, where there is a parking area which is where I would guess the other walkers had parked - and predictably there were now another couple of birdwatchers on the bank ahead of us. One moved slightly out the way to let us pass, but the other had his tripod firmly on the top of the bank, right by a patch of nettles - and no-one seems to have told him the social distancing conventions; he wasn't going to move! We dashed past thinking, thankfully, how rare such rudeness has been in the past couple of months.
By Poplar Farm we watched ponies grazing on the washes, but of landmarks there were remarkably few. We decided that we would stop for lunch at midday when we reckoned that we would be close to the point at which we went from Ordnance Survey Explorer Sheet 235 to Sheet 227. However, before re reached this point, we had two unexpected excitements. First, we passed a trig point (at the dizzy height of 6 metres - on top of the bank!). Second, we encountered a largish flock of sheep, with lambs, just being turned out to graze onto the bank ahead of us. They had probably just been moved from the adjacent field, but they clearly enjoyed the lush new grass.
We stopped for lunch, sitting on the bank somewhere near St Peter's Farm. Then we continued part the farm buildings and lake at Eldernell. The friendly walkers near Poplar Farm had told us that the birdwatching is good round here, and we noticed parking down by Moreton's Leam; predictably we now passed occasional other people, though they seemed friendly and to prefer walking at the base of the bank, either to our left or to our right (by Moreton's Leam). We passed another flock of grazing sheep and some ducks on Moreton's Leam which we later discovered to be Greater Scaup, which are apparently quite rare. The spire of Whittlesey Church had been visible in the distance since Poplar Farm and we were clearly getting closer to both this and the Whittlesey brickworks. Eventually we could make out the Dog and Doublet Inn, and traffic heading towards it from Whittlesey.We veered slightly left whilst Moreton's Leam continued straight ahead and our path took us around the edge of Bassenhally Farm. We eventually reached Drybread Road and followed this through the housing estates on the outskirts of Whittlesey to the centre of the town. We walked past the car park so as to photograph the Market Place and Buttercross. When we got back to the car I realised that my arms and face were quite sunburnt. It had been a very pleasant walk.
Following leg (shared with Hereward Way, walked in 2013)
