From: Ely city centre.

Distance: 12 miles.

Summary: Busy, windy roads but some good views.

Click here to fly over this route in Google Earth

* * * *

One stop north on the trainline from Ely is the large village of Littleport. The cycle ride up to there and back along beside the River Great Ouse is one of my staples — though it can get quite windy as you’re cycling across quite exposed land.

In detail:

  • Cycle north out of Ely along the Lynn Road. Although there are a number of roundabouts and changes of road name, this busy 5-6 mile road leads all the way to Littleport.
  • Two miles after you have left Ely behind, you will pass a small reservoir on the left-hand side of the road (point A on the map). Looking across to the right, you can just about make out the raised banks of the River Great Ouse about half a mile away. This cycle ride takes you back along the other side of the Ouse, but there are no roads crossing this area of land anywhere between Ely and Littleport.
  • On your left, just after the reservoir, is an amazingly narrow, rickety bridge leading to the Wood Fen Pumping Station:
Rickety bridge
  • Continue down the road into Littleport. As you reach the village boundary, it becomes very apparent that most local settlements are built on natural hills — a remnant of the time only a couple of centuries ago when crossing the Fens necessitated use of a boat.
  • Once you reach the T-junction at the centre of the village, take a right down the imaginatively-named Main Street. Continue straight on, down the pretty winding roads, and you’ll travel over a level crossing and past the Black Horse pub on the left (point B).
  • The road now crosses the River Great Ouse, and it’s a good place to stop and admire the view. There are also normally a number of boats moored outside the pub.
  • Once you’ve crossed the river, turn right back towards Ely along Branch Bank. This a typical fenland road, with the high river bank towering over you on the right-hand side. A consequence of draining the land in this area of the country is that the farmland has sunk downwards, and the rivers have increased in height — as a result the rivers tend to be unnervingly higher than the land:
High banks of the Great Ouse
  • This road is much quieter than the one along the outward route and is almost entirely straight. At one point though the road bends sharply towards the left to begin a climb over the River Lark (point C). Look along the banks of this river — there are often cattle grazing by the waterside:
Cattle alongside the River Lark
  • After about three miles of cycling alongside the riverbank, the road forms a T-junction with the Prickwillow/Ely Road. Turn right here, and this will take you down the final mile back to Ely, via the hamlet of Queen Adelaide.

This is an excellent short cycle ride for a sunny day, but if there’s a southerly wind, I’d strongly suggest doing it in reverse: going out along Branch Bank and back down the Lynn Road.