Littleport to Brandon Creek

When we walked the Fen Rivers Way in 2009 we omitted this section on the basis of the fact that it is right by the A10. However, I think I'm getting to be more and more of a pedant, so if we were claiming to walk from Sherington to Denver along the Ouse Valley Way, then I felt we should walk all of the way. This meant repeating some sections that we'd already walked on the Fen Rivers Way, and also walking these "missing" three miles. We decided to tackle this section relatively early in the morning on a day between Christmas and the New Year, hoping that there wouldn't be too much traffic. I'm not sure how much that helped; the road wasn't exactly quiet and the path was also rather wet underfoot following rainfall yesterday.

Having said all of that, it was a lovely morning (mild and sunny) and this is an attractive section of river. The walking is almost all along the flood defence bank to the east of the river next to the A10, so although you're close to the road you are on a bank above it so not in danger. The option would be to follow the opposite bank through Ten Mile Bank, though there is then no way across the river so you'd need to stay close to the (minor) road all the way to Denver Sluice.

We left one car at the Brandon Creek picnic site (TL604913) on the A10, close to the Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border and drove the other one down to the convenient dead-end road (TL577877) close to the northern end of the Ely/Littleport by-pass, where we had parked when we walked from Ely to Littleport on Saturday. We stopped to talk to two men and their dogs (who all appeared to be rather more keen on socialising than walking!); they had noticed Richard's car parked here on Saturday and had wondered what we were up to. We were walking soon after 9am and there was an attractive (reddish) sky to the east.

We didn't have to return to the road in Littleport, instead cutting along the river bank to the A10 by its bridge over the River Great Ouse. I think this is probably the "official" route; we emerged onto the A10 at a footpath sign, though there was also something of a scramble up to the main road and we had to climb over a crash barrier). We crossed the bridge then turned onto the eastern bank of the river just before the roundabout where the A1101 leaves the A10.

That was it really, we just kept walking until we were back at the picnic place ,opposite Black Horse Drove. However the walk had plenty of interest, with swans and a heron on the river, quite a lot of fishermen and moored boats. Also, although we drive up and down this section of the A10 several times a week, it's amazing how little we'd noticed of the farms and businesses by the road (e.g. A10 Printing which neither of us realised was there at all).

At the Brandon Creek picnic site (actually a bit before Brandon Creek) I went down steps down to a little landing stage by the river, then we returned to the car. It had a been a pleasant short walk.

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