{"id":726,"date":"2012-09-02T21:15:58","date_gmt":"2012-09-02T21:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/?p=726"},"modified":"2012-09-28T21:42:40","modified_gmt":"2012-09-28T21:42:40","slug":"royston-cambridge-walk-a-fine-day-in-south-cambridgeshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/2012\/09\/royston-cambridge-walk-a-fine-day-in-south-cambridgeshire\/","title":{"rendered":"Royston – Cambridge walk: A fine day in South Cambridgeshire"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u00a0hopped\u00a0on the train from Ely to Royston one Saturday morning in August with a sausage pastie in my rucksack and a song in my heart, how lovely to be back on the trail again! \u00a0The plan was to walk from Royston to Cambridge (just under 20 miles) while trying to catch a glimpse of the River Cam every now and again.<\/p>\n

I arrived at Royston at about 10am and strode off through a business park\/industrial zone, across the busy A505 and finally hit some countryside. \u00a0For a short while I joined the Icknield Way<\/a> path that runs from Thetford to Ivinghoe Beacon in the Chilterns. (Jo and I are planning to walk the Icknield Way later in the year).<\/p>\n

While following a path through a farmyard I was stopped by a farmer. ‘Uh oh’ I thought, ‘this could be trouble’. \u00a0But in fact it was quite the opposite. \u00a0The farmer was very chatty, we stood together in the yard talking about walking and walkers, the harvest and how hard it was for him to find anyone to help bring the harvest in this year.<\/p>\n

It was good to breakdown (for me anyway) the\u00a0stereotype\u00a0of an angry farmer chasing people off their land. \u00a0I wished him well for the harvest and went on my way.<\/p>\n

\"View
View from a copse south of Orwell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was heading for the village of Orwell, about half way between Royston and Cambridge where I planned to have \u00a0lunch and enjoy a pint at the village pub. \u00a0But before that I was to have my first\u00a0rendezvous\u00a0with the Cam. \u00a0My how narrow and shallow the river is at this point, hardly even a river, a stream perhaps? \u00a0But still, a very pretty stream.<\/p>\n

\"The
The River Cam, south of Orwell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Straight after the Cam I had to follow the public footpath across the New Malton Golf Club. \u00a0I was a little nervous about this, thinking that the golfers might not be too happy with a scruffy hiker striding out across the greens. \u00a0Still, it was a public right of way and one that had been there for probably hundreds of years before the golf club came along. \u00a0I took my compass out, took a\u00a0bearing\u00a0for due north and marched on. \u00a0No one seemed to care.<\/p>\n

\"Sign
Sign in a hut at the New Malton Golf Club near Orwell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After the golf course I spent some time floundering around muddy fields and bushwhacking my way across overgrown ditches and the like. \u00a0Eventually I came out on a B road half a mile south of Orwell and found this:<\/p>\n

\"Orwell
Orwell longitude marker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Do all villages on zero longitude have such a marker? \u00a0There must be a story behind it but frankly I was too hungry to do a search on my phone web browser thing. Instead I ate most of my apple and sausage pastie before taking a self-portrait:<\/p>\n

\"Self
Self portrait, Orwell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The damned pub in Orwell was closed for ‘refurbishment’ which was a little annoying. \u00a0I finished the rest of my food outside the pub and headed upwards and onwards.<\/p>\n

Yes, upwards! \u00a0Do you know there are<\/strong>\u00a0hills in Cambridgeshire? \u00a0Small hills but perfectly formed and much loved by sleepy hikers. \u00a0I took off my shoes and socks and dozed in the summer sun.<\/p>\n

\"View
View from Cracknow Hill (60m)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From Cracknow Hill I walked around the edge of a quarry and then down into the village of Haslingfield where I had a\u00a0delicious\u00a0pint of Greene King IPA in the Little Rose<\/a> pub. \u00a0After the pint I hunted around the village for a short while trying to find the River Cam without any luck. \u00a0The river is marked on the map but eluded me completely. \u00a0Oh well.<\/p>\n

By this time I was starting to tire and was pleased to start getting glimpses of Cambridge in the distance. \u00a0I eventually arrived in Grantchester on the outskirts of Cambridge where I found the Cam. \u00a0It was a lovely scene, people swimming in the river, punts a punting and lots of folk just sitting on the river bank with food, drink and dogs.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Cam at Grantchester<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I followed the Cam on into Cambridge where I sat in a park eating an ice cream and sipping a cup of tea. \u00a0An excellent end to a fine day in South Cambridgeshire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u00a0hopped\u00a0on the train from Ely to Royston one Saturday morning in August with a sausage pastie in my rucksack and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[36,32,33],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":740,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726\/revisions\/740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}