Cambridgeshire……..my word

Towns and cities much of a muchness. Its the surrounding countryside that sell a place to me.

Briefly I staffed stalls at university careers fairs

Liverpool stands out in my memory

Firstly some one had fire bombed a cubicle in the toilets. Secondly watching people wandering up to the stalls of top city firms to enquire about careers, pint in one hand role up in the other

I live in Cambridgeshire, just north of Cambridge. It’s fine. There are much worse places.

Sure, it’s not the Lake District, or the Highlands, but what were you expecting?

If you come by car, and expect to drive everywhere, you will discover a motorway, a couple of dual carriageways, a John Lewis in the city centre that will take you three hours of queuing to reach, and another three hours of queuing to leave, and a giant Tesco’s at Bar Hill.

But if you get on a bike, there is loads to discover, and some really glorious bike rides. I went out today towards Gamlingay – mile after mile of quiet, empty roads, with just a few sensible car drivers, and a slightly muddy bridle way.

Of course, there are plenty of things to dislike, but even the Fens can be amazing – cycling to Denver Sluice and eating lemon drizzle cake in the cafe there is well worth it, then keep going to Sunny Hunny.

Just to add, the route from Littleport to the Denver Sluice System via Black Horse Drove alongside the river on Ten Mile Bank is a most wonderful ride early on a sunny spring/summer morning.

That’s some cracking mud there @oldnpastit

the treachery of the roads, can anyone local elucidate?

As a couple of people have pointed out, due to the way the underlying peat dries and settles, when there’s side-roads joining, the road has a decidedly unsettling manner of rolling up and down, and that was particularly noticeable when I was driving my Ford Puma towards Benwick, to stay with friends many years ago. It was easiest to straddle the centre white line, because you could see anyone coming at least half a mile away. And keep the speed down, the stiff-ish suspension made things… <i>interesting </i>at anything over 40! My friends who live in Benwick have a narrowboat they keep in a marina a little distance away, they can bring her around on a spur to the end of the road, moor up and walk backwards and forwards to load up before going for a cruise, which is dead handy. They spent a month or so earlier this year cruising around the local network, and had a great time. I was hoping to get up there again last year, but it wasn’t to be, so hopefully sometime this year. It’s a 150 mile drive for me, and not the best roads across country from North Wiltshire.

My formative driving years were spent on those roads and looking back I was probably quite lucky in never ending up in a field or dyke – used to blat everywhere pretty rapidly, and the undulations were grin inducing in a ‘proper’ mini close to its limits!

And keep the speed down, the stiff-ish suspension made things… <i>interesting </i>at anything over 40!

In the dark it’s very easy to drive into an over-filled drain. The local young drivers sometimes end up rather dead by drowning as a result of pressing on in the wrong place.