Sunday morning and a bright and early start. 

Dragging myself out of bed at some ungodly hour.  

Shotley Training begins again. 

This time a much shorter walk, an ease ourselves back in gently walk after a few weeks of limited exercise.

Tired of walking the fens and lodes we looked for a new walk in the area to give us a decent circuit of miles and some different scenery.

After a bit of a disheartening search for walks in the area I discovered the Cawdle Fen Way. A nice little 6 mile loop around Ely, with an estimated time of 3-4 hours.

Ok then, let’s do it twice. In the same time.

Sadly nobody offered a GPX file for the walk so it was up to me. After a quick fiddle about and a change of profile on my GPSr it was time to attempt plotting my own route. Despite telling my Garmin numerous times I was walking, it has me down as a bit of a one trick pony. It kept helpfully returning to caches. 

It knows me too well! 

Eventually however a route was plotted.

The route begins along the riverbank of the Ouse, circling Cawdle fen (surprised?) to Little Thetford, back across the other side of the Fen, entering Ely by the Golf Club, passing the Kings School and back to the station. 

To start again. 😉

Thankfully the weather was kind. Mild but overcast and the change of scenery kept us motivated. We quickly covered ground whilst I gabbled on endlessly about geocaching. 

Nothing new there then. 

My Geocaching sensors were tingling, this was a fairly big route and for the majority – didn’t have a single cache. Hmm….

That one trick pony thing…. you can see why my Garmin was so confused.

Anyway, our first loop was coming to an end, we were heading back into Ely. Now when I’d plotted the route I’d noticed that the footpath seemed to skirt around the edges of the golf club. No as it Happens the footpath runs straight through the middle of it. 

Bet the golfers love that.

We stumbled through a gap in a hedge to view our path cutting straight through the course, and with it being Sunday morning, rammed with golfers.

Turns out there are two types of golfers who play on a Sunday morning. The type who don’t get out so often and the sight of two females crossing their domain gets them a bit sprightly. 

‘Heeellloo ladies!’ 

A sheepish ‘Hi’ in return as we both wish for the ground to swallow us whole.

Clearly we were rocking those track suits! 😉

The other type of golfer, looking on in horror that two females dare wander onto their game and could only grumble at us. I assume they were demanding us back to our kitchen sinks. 

See you in a bit chaps. We’ve got another lap to do! 😉

We were soon back at the station and starting the loop again. It was still early so our route was quiet. The tranquility of the banks of the river Ouse as a barn owl hunted and we began to notch up the miles.

This time we worked ourselves up to cross the golf club. Shoulders back, chest out  , head up. Confidence is key!

First however we were to encounter another hurdle. 

A rather shifty looking bunch who we assume were on some type of correctional duty. Engaged in chopping trees, burning dead wood and happily glaring at us if they wouldn’t hesitate to stab us, hell they wouldn’t even move for us. 

Spotting a clear patch of path I dashed through only to encounter a rather large branch in the way. Only one thing for it, tough it out and negotiate my way nimbly over the branch. 

Damn those little legs of mine!

This time it was with some relief to make it back to the golf club. 

This time we instigated the cheery greetings. 

We are exercising our right to roam, be damned with your tiny balls!

Just keep striding through, we know the route this time.

 Oh crap, which way is it again? 

Confidence mostly went to plan! 

As the city began to stir we ended our walk. 12 miles covered, feet intact, the rest of the day free to do as we pleased. I’d even proved to the Garmin I was more than just Geocaches!

Ok, you got me – I went back and found one later! 😉