Aldreth to the Lazy Otter (A10)

It was a sunny autumnal day, and a good opportunity for another short walk on the Ouse Valley Way; we had a most enjoyable time, though it wasn't without obstacles - cows, horses, electric fences, overgrown sections and mud! We also had swans and herons for company.

We parked one car in a lay-by near the Lazy Otter (TL502721), just off the A10 south of Stretham, then we drove back to Haddenham and down through the village of Aldreth towards the fen. We left the other car at the end of Aldreth (TL445732) and we were walking by about 1.45 pm.

We headed back along the ancient Aldreth Causeway to the river. We could see both people and cows walking along the bank, and when we reached the bank we succeeded in herding the cows for some distance before managing to persuade them to leave the bank in favour of bales of straw. Immediately afterwards we reached an electric fence; negotiating this necessitated crawling underneath!

After that the walking was relatively straightforward for a while with lovely views to Haddenham, with its distinctive water tower, on the hill to our left. The cows had obviously been in this section previously, churning up the path and leaving it rather muddy. However the next section, which hadn't been grazed, was actually more challenging - it was slightly overgrown, not to the extent that we couldn't get through, but it was difficult to walk without getting your feet tied up in the undergrowth. We somehow managed not to fall over.

We walked off one map (Explorer Sheet 225) and our 2006 edition of the next one (Sheet 226) doesn't have the Ouse Valley Way marked, but the footpath was marked and there wasn't any choice in any case - keep along by the river. The walking became easier, though the river (and so path) meandered all over the place. We passed a large solar farm, still with Haddenham water tower in the distance; we didn't seem to be making any progress at all. We were heading towards Twenty Pence Road and we could see the modern houses that have been built on the site of the old Twenty Pence Inn in the distance. They seemed far too far to the right...but we meandered our way toward them.

We encountered a group of horses on the path; very nice, very photogenic but excuse me..could we come past please? We managed to get past the main group but another horse was standing on the bank by a gate, so we walked around, rather we slithered down the muddy bank and then climbed back up again. We then passed a mother and attractive foal; thankfully they weren't on the path.

We passed Twenty Pence Cottage and crossed Twenty Pence Road. The map shows the path going straight through the Twenty Pence Marina, which it may have done before the marina was built, but you'd get wet if you tried to go that way now! Richard had checked the satellite view and so we knew that the path actually skirted round to the north of the marina. However there was another complication; there was a path signed from the road, but it looked extremely overgrown, so I sent Richard to investigate. Investigation over, we gave up on this short section of path, and simply walked down the road to the entrance to the marina.

The exit from Twenty Pence Marina was much more straightforward, as was the rest of the walk to the A10. Although there was still another 50 minutes or so until sunset, there were attractive views behind us, with the Sun low over the river. We passed Chear Fen Engine (another pumping station) and climbed up to the A10. Oddly, although there was a perfectly good gate from the path, the only way actually onto the road was to climb over the crash barrier.

We walked south along the A10 for a short distance then back onto the old road to return to the Lazy Otter. There was quite a lot of activity, with motorbike scrambling in the small area of land between the old road and the A10 and some people out dog-walking. The river does another meander here and we noticed a boat running parallel with us behind the trees; I managed to photograph it as it passed through the Marina at the Lazy Otter. Unfortunately I didn't manage to photograph the amazing red Sun which was clearly visible as we drove back through Haddenham and down through Aldreth, but which had disappeared from view by the time we reached Richard's car.

Following leg