Ely to Pymoor via Welney
Posted by Stuart BellFrom: Ely city centre.
Distance: 19 miles.
Summary: Very pleasant, but beware the flies!
Click here to fly over this route in Google Earth
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I admit it — I’m most certainly a fair-weather cyclist, and the past few months have been grim. Today was warm & sunny however, and so I once more donned the ol’ shorts and set off on my bike to Pymoor, a fenland village to the northwest of Ely.
Being out of practice, I had originally only intended to cycle about 12 miles, but accidentally took a wrong turn, and so the ride became rather longer than planned. Ooops.
Here’s a summary of the route:
- Starting from central Ely (position A on the map), cycle up the Ely Road to Little Downham.
- Then along Westmore Common to the village of Pymoor.
- (For a short ride, it would then be possible to turn right at the village crossroads, taking you back on a loop to the Ely Road.)
- Otherwise, continue ahead down the aptly named Straight Furlong.
At this point, you’ll see a massive sign ahead of you saying, intriguingly, “Astronomy and Nature”. This is the site of the Hundred Foot Observatory, a private observatory that takes its name from the local term for the New Bedford River: the Hundred Foot Drain.
You have two choices at this point in the ride (position B on the map): either continue straight on past the observatory and under the disused Pymoor railway sidings, or take a sharp left towards the banks of the Hundred Foot Drain. My strong advice would be to do the former; I did the latter instead and consequently had to cycle through huge swarms of flies. It really isn’t nice getting those up your nose.
- Either way, you’ll eventually be cycling beside the New Bedford River for at least a couple of miles — it’s all very scenic and peaceful, and you’ll very likely not see a single other soul.
- Excitingly, you’ll then be jerked out of your relaxed state by signs saying, “Caution — busy road ahead”. This is somewhat over-optimistic, but you do reach a road that marks the Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border — position C on the map, and as shown below:
- Continuing straight on at this point would take you over the two artificial Fen rivers, and into the village of Welney. However I remained on the Cambridgeshire side of the border, taking a sharp right turn into Bate’s Drove.
- Bate’s Drove is a straight 4 mile stretch, passing a number of farmhouses and amusingly named roads on the left.
- At the bottom of Bate’s Drove, turn left onto Wisbech Road, and then follow the signs along the A10 back to Ely.
This was a pleasant ride, and one that I plan to do again sometime. It’d be possible to extend it by continuing over into Norfolk at Welney, and then recrossing the rivers at Downham Market.