To Redmere Fen from Little Ouse and return

It was the last day of the Christmas holiday period and the weather was dry and sunny (a little cooler than the exceptionally mild weather we'd had over Christmas, but not what you'd call cold) so it seemed an ideal opportunity for a walk.

We left home soon after 9am and drove down the A10 then briefly along the A1101 towards Mildenhall before turning down White House Road (a typical straight and bumpy fen drove) to Little Ouse. There were a couple of fishermen's cars parked at the place by the bridge that we had spotted when we were last here, but we managed to park too - it was a bit muddy but OK.

We walked east along the south (Cambridgeshire) bank of the Little Ouse River, on a bank between the river and a very minor road. We passed Church Farm and then occasional buildings and houseboats, mostly on the opposite bank. We were walking into the sun but it was otherwise delightful. The river is pretty, a much softer landscape than the miles of fenland we were crossing, with evocative names like 'Burnt Fen' and with Ely Cathedral, the 'Ship of the Fens' visible in the distance. We also saw a heron and several deer.

At the point where the road ends we passed a ramshackle barn that's not on the map, with a houseboat moored and swans, geese and ducks on the river plus horses and sheep on the bank - we said hello to a couple of men who were working outside.

We'd intended to turn around at the bridge at the end of Redmere Drove, but we walked a little further to the pumping station on the opposite bank. We returned to Redmere Drove, crossed the river into Norfolk and walked back to Little Ouse along the north bank of the river.

This is delightful countryside and very close to home, but it's distinctly inaccessible by road, so we drove home the scenic route, looking for parking places to enable us to walk between Redmere Fen and Lakenheath Station. We had some success, but only after discovering that the northern end of Redmere Drove is fiercely private, so parking by Redmere Cottages, or walking a circuit from Shippea Hill Station are both out of the question. Grrrr.

Following leg