OpenStreetMap

Took the train from Waterbeach station to Ely today, then walked the 12 miles back along the west side of the Ouse/Cam that was previously largely un-mapped. A very chilly, misty morning but it was windless and not raining, so actually a very pleasant walk. There was a short section that I did last weekend, so I by-passed this via a byway/bridle way running south from Little Thetford, which is also now on the map. I had to make quite a number of adjustments to the alignment of the river Cam, which I think was traced from satellite and originally crossed the path that I was following. It now actually runs between the two embankments for the whole route! There is a single footpath south of Little Thetford which I put in a stub for, don't know where it goes but it heads towards Stretham - this will need mapping at some stage. Most of it is also tagged embankment=yes, although there's a short section which doesn't follow the embankment and actually goes between a couple of lakes and the river. Will need a return trip to map these lakes plus the adjacent embankment. Also a section of embankment just east of Waterbeach station needs adding.

Location: Wicken, East Cambridgeshire, Cambridgeshire, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, England, United Kingdom

Discussion

Comment from Mark Williamson on 30 November 2008 at 03:25

Hi Donald!

That's great work! I've never quite figured out how the path on that side of the river worked, so it's really good to finally see it finally mapped comprehensively! OSM's footpath coverage seems to be becoming really quite comprehensive over a wide area of fenland, which I think is great. Huge congratulations on taking the effort to survey the whole thing in person.

I once tried to cycle down the path that starts at Waterbeach Station Road but it was very muddy and I fell of my unicycle due to poor traction in the sludge - took months for my ankle to fully recover. It was rather poor luck as I hadn't even got out of sight of the road!

Two points that may be of interest: if I recall correctly, towards the end of Long Drove near Joist Fen there is an Easterly footpath which goes down to the river, allowing you to join the Fen Rivers way. I went down there sans-gps a couple of years ago, so I thought it'd be worth just noting here that I think the path exists (may not be signposted from the riverbank end, though!).

If you're around the Little Thetford area, I think there's a path that goes NE out of the village, starting randomly between two houses and looking a bit like a driveway. It doesn't go very far, just pops out on the main road. Was quite muddy when I went there...

Cheers,
Mark

Comment from Donald Allwright on 30 November 2008 at 14:17

Hi Mark,
Thanks for the tip about the path from Long Drive/Joist fen to the river, I'll check that out sometime when I try and map the lakes properly. Looks like there might actually be a few tracks from Long Drove in that direction, but not sure how many of them are navigable as far as the river.

You're a unicyclist too?!!!! I've never really got to do much off-road as my skills haven't really got good enough, but I must admit I hadn't thought of using it to do mapping!

Cheers,
Donald

Comment from Mark Williamson on 1 December 2008 at 00:45

Heh, yes, I've unicycled a lot around this area.

Recently I've been finding that I need to go somewhat further afield to find places I haven't been a million times before (not to mention haven't been mapped!) so I've been riding the b*ke more. Still, I think for certain mapping trips (esp with a lot of walking / climbing over stiles) a unicycle could be preferable. Might also be useful if I go train somewhere, e.g. to Thetford to map paths.

I have a couple of big wheel unis for road and off-road riding and a little one for tricks (I have a BC wheel but can only do a slow-fall-off at best!). I should really try to get out more on them since it was good fun and excellent exercise!

Cheers,
Mark

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