PC 151 - May2002 - The 150 mile cycle ride : from Harlow to Lincoln

I'd bought a bicycle in Harlow and I didn't want to abandon it so I decided to cycle all the way up to my parents house 170 miles away and leave it there

My cycle experience was a bit like the camino I cycled down the canal in Harlow then up to Bishop Stortford, walked around the town a bit then up to Saffron Walden, quite a cute town with it's preserved buildings etc. but as I say the youth hostel was closed. So I camped and then went up the Icklefield way a bit then across to Swaffham Priory etc, through some villages stopping at Devils Dyke to Burwell village, but then their museum was closed. The roadmap told me to go across towards Newmarket but I thought it must be much quicker to go straight north...of course this turned out to be a long cut ...cos the whole area was once marsh so the paths took the long way cos of all the dykes ...not to mention having to scramble the bike over styles. Then I got up to Ely and walked around ..must be one of the nicest places to live in England with all that history and the waterfront. Unfortunately I was unable to track down my friend Wendy (from the camino). I didn't go into the ancient cathedral cos I was too mean to pay the £3 admission fee. I camped at littleport. Then Wednesday I cycled up to Wisbech and walked around. I had intended to stay at the hostel in King's Lynn, but again the youth hostel was closed that day and I had been thinking about exploring the north Norfolk coast, but the weather forecast was for rain on Friday. Cycling was great in tthe sun with no wind, but I knew it would be different in rain so I decided to cut directly up to Boston so I would be in Lincoln on Thursday afternoon. In fact the national cycle path 1 pasess through Wisbech and upto Boston... so I didn't do any map reading and I didn't have to deal with too much traffic, but I soon learnt that the downside was this route sometimes took you away from straight busy roads and along the long way in order to keep you off the busy roads. So I stayed in a pub in Boston on Wednesday night. then on Thursday I cyled along the Witham canal up to Coningsby, past Tattershall castle (which was also closed) stopped off at the new town of Wooddhall Spa artificially created more than 100 years ago and further up the Witham valley until at 4 oclock I reached Lincoln centre, where my Mum met me.

So it had taken me a leisurely 4 days to cycle from Harlow to home and it was much easier than I had anticipated the whole journey was completely flat except for 10 minutes 5 minutes up the hill into Saffron Walden and 5 minutes up the hill in Ely. But it was as exciting as the camino ..I didn't meet anyone I guess cos I didn't stay at any hostels and because I am so familiar with England it's scenary and history that it wasn't exotic to me ..I've really got to get out the country in the next two weeks before the media feed us wall to wall World Cup and Royal Jubilee hype....

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