In Ely

August 19, 2024

First, an update on yesterday. After rereading it I browsed for any information about those statues. They’re here as part of a temporary art exhibit, Am I My Brother’s Keeper:

A profound exhibition by renowned British sculptor Sean Henry, bringing together twenty-eight polychrome figures of significantly varying scales. Each sculpture is sympathetically displayed in unusual and diverse spaces, such as vacant plinths inside the building, and around the Cathedral environs.

There are 60 painted bronzes in the exhibit, and all but the three I saw are placed inside the cathedral. Shoot - now I really wish I’d gotten inside before the door closed!

So we’re each doing our own thing again today, until it’s time to meet up for lunch of course. I’m tired of letting her go first so let’s look at my ride first for a change - a trip out to the Ouse Washes, another RSPB managed site:

The largest washland in the UK, Ouse Washes is mysterious and charming. In summer, enjoy a hazy walk by the river, while winter submerges the fields in floodwater, attracting thousands of birds.

The Ouse Washes forms the largest area of washland in the UK. Washland is grazing pasture that floods in the winter, which creates a rich habitat for a range of waterfowl and wading birds.In winter, as the water floods the fields, Ouse Washes attracts thousands of ducks and Whooper Swans as they return from Iceland. Huge flocks of Wigeon are a daily sight, while Black-tailed Godwits arrive in their grey and white winter plumage.Come the warmer spring months, the water returns to the river banks, and we see hundreds of Snipe, Lapwings and Redshanks flocking to The Ouse Washes to breed. Garganey arrive in the UK from Africa, and Tree Sparrows can be seen flitting about the reserve. On a calm day, you might spot the ultramarine flash of a Kingfisher, and sunny evenings spent by the river are peaceful and relaxing.

It looks like a place worth visiting alright, although I note that it says nothing about what you’ll see there in the summer. We’re obviously not going at the best of times, but here we are.

The first four miles drop down from Ely’s heights into the no longer swampy fens before climbing up again to the next fen island to the west and the village that crowns it, Coveney. I spend some time checking out the sights there and a few more minutes in the next village I pass through but mostly I just keep moving, anxious to see those hundreds of Snipe, Lapwings and Redshanks flocking to The Ouse Washes to breed.

In Coveney, a hill town - note the contour of the road. It’s not quite like the hill towns of Tuscany and Umbria though. We’re only at elevation +30 feet here.

This is Coveney’s most interesting feature: A combined facility to restrain 2 and 4 legged strays, built around 1850. The lock-up door is offset to accommodate a bench for the inmate; the tiled roof conceals a robust brick arch to prevent escapes.

I guess this is where the two legged strays were lodged. Not much elbow room there. It reminds me of the holding jail I talked myself into a free nights lodging at in Fort Madison almost fifty years ago. Worked great! With the door open I had a nice view of the Mississippi River.

He’s got a long day ahead of him. There are a few hundred more bales lying around waiting to be moved out.

The Ouse Washes occupy a long, thin rectangle penned in by channelized waterways. It confuses me when looking at the map trying to figure out just what these waterways are or might have been originally before the draining began. The one running along the southeast side is the New Bedford River, but the one on the other side is either the Old Bedford River or the River Delph, depending on how far in you’ve zoomed on the map. And if you pan out further it looks like they’re both just connecting channels emptying from and then reentering the River Great Ouse.

None of the passages through this rectangle is paved, so I don’t really know how much I’ll be riding until I get here and see the lay of the land. My hope though is to make about a seven mile loop through it, biking up the southeast side of the loop alongside the New Bedford River to a point where there’s a connecting path or road to the opposite side where I can bike back along the Old Bedford/Delph/Counter Drain/Whatever.

Things look promising when I start out, the surface a hard packed reddish dirt that’s easy enough to ride. It degrades a bit after a mile and then again after another, eventually transitioning to a rougher mix of grass and dirt. It’s not rocky or muddy or sandy though, which works well enough for me as long as I’m in no big hurry, which I’m not.

A little coarser, but still good enough. Its not rocky or muddy or sandy.

This is getting more questionable though. I’ll ride it a ways but keep an open mind on whether to make it out to the connecting road or not.

As I half expected though, I’m probably here at just about the worst time of year for birding. Its too early for the fall migration but late enough in the summer that those nesting lapwings and redshanks and snipes have done their nesting thing and moved on by now. The day’s a dud, birding wise. I’ll get my twenty birds in but just barely by seeing a great egret, a couple of little egrets and herons, a few moorhens, and then the usual commoners. What there is today in abundance though is swans - literally hundreds of them - isolated out in the grass in ones and twos or foraging in groups of ten or twenty along the banks of the New Bedford. I doubt I’ve ever seen so many swans in one place.

And then there are these three, which I think are snow geese. They apparently are found in England, but mostly as escapees. Its not really within their natural range.

Which is fine. There’s more than birds to take interest in, even at this time of year.

And a few horses. I spent several minutes hoping these mares and youngsters would look up above the grass but this was the best I could do.

I’m just coming to where the map shows my connecting path to be but can’t see it ahead. I’m thinking maybe I should just turn back when an off-road vehicle approaches from behind kicking up a cloud of dust, then passes me and about fifty yards on makes a left turn onto the road I was hoping to find.

It startled me seeing this guy approaching, and then a second one. It crossed my mind that maybe this isn’t really public land and I’m in for a scolding.

Looks just fine. All I have to do is make it across to that nest dike, maybe half a mile off.

The cross-road is just fine, but just for about a quarter mile though. After that it transitions to a course rocky surface that isn’t remotely rideable so I walk the remainder of it. It gives me an excuse to stop and check out the flowers.

Well outside my comfort zone. If I’d done this loop in reverse and saw it was like this I’d have turned back.

Flowering rush: a lovely plant that’s native here but an unwanted invasive species back home.

Purple loosestrife again. I saw this earlier in the tour but long enough ago that I forgot what it is already.

So I make it across, and at first it looks promising. This looks like the only developed part of the site. There’s a partially paved path along the top of the berm leading out to a pair of bird blinds.

There’s no point hanging around at the bird blinds because there are so few birds around but the swans and there’s no need for a blind to get a good look at them, but it’s nice to be up above looking down like this.

We’re getting great diversity in our riding surfaces today.

No need for a blind to get a view of the swans.

It turns out that I’ve made a strategic error though, when the path ends after about a quarter mile. I’m here on top of the berm, which is now just grass. There’s a gravelly road I could bike on but it’s fifteen or twenty feet below down a steep grassy slope that I’m not about to attempt. So I bike on, slowly so I don’t hit a hidden hole in the grass and swerve off the berm, and hope that there will be a way off the top.

A way of the top finally does come three miles later when the berm is bisected by the highway. It’s narrow, very busy, and has a fortunately low railing I need to lift the bike and myself over. It’s no place at all for bikes, but fortunately there’s a narrow sidewalk on the opposite side. I watch for a gap in the speeding traffic, dash across, and then walk for the next quarter mile as it crosses both rivers. I’m walking because it’s pretty narrow, somewhat rough-surfaced, huge trucks are whizzing past my shoulder, and there’s a 20 mph crosswind waiting to blow me in front of one if I’m foolish enough to try biking.

It’s safe enough though, at least until I make it across the bridges and second river and the sidewalk just ends. There’s a walking path that continues on, but it’s just continuing along the river. There’s no choice but to dash back across in a gap again and then bike like hell for the next quarter mile until I make it to the turnoff to Wardy Hill. After that I enjoy a safe ride the rest of the way home, although the sky turns alarmingly grey and it feels like an unexpected rainstorm could break out.

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So, not the best of rides all in all. How did Rachael do on her hike?

Meh, I think she’d say. If we had to do it over we’d have just stayed one night here and treated ourselves to another night back in wonderful Grassington. There’s nothing particularly wrong about her walk, other than it ends up being a bit on the long side when she detours to avoid a scratchy stretch. Overall it’s a pretty, peaceful, but maybe just a bit boring walk along the water. We’ve gotten spoiled by the dramatic landscapes of Dartmoor, Wales and the north country for the last few months.

There is one genuinely exciting moment to her day that she doesn’t want to forget though: she saw another Muntjac deer! And this time she’s certain of what it is because someone else saw it too and confirmed what it is. It was too fleeting for her to point the phone at it, but if you’ve got a second (that’s all you’ll need) here’s the previous sighting again to remind you of what she’s looking at here.

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Today's ride: 27 miles (43 km)
Total: 3,386 miles (5,449 km)

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