Doddington to Parsons Drove
Day FOUR: Doddington to Parsons Drove (11 June 2021)
Ascent: 230 m
Legs: The flat landscape of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire meant the legs felt good and well rested
Following a good sleep and a lie-in I pack up as much as I can with the trailer still inside the tent. Then I pack up the tent around my gear until the tent inside become the outside. The tent poles are now used as the core of my rolled up sleeping mat. Again, I leave without eating. This was supposed to be a very short day to get me close to the planned parkrun on Saturday. Due to covid the parkruns are still not happening but at least my plans and route have provided some rest. The day is however, far too short, so I detour via Wisbech to stretch it out to a still modest 29 miles.
After the pleasant town of March, I pick up a National Cycle Trail (No. 63) and on a quiet lane stop for my first non-campsite cook-up. After getting organised with all the equipment and ingredients I need, I sit on some soft grass and get to cooking. My usual meal of coffee made in a mug with fresh grounds (the grounds mostly sink after a stir) and noodles with a small tin of kimchi on the side. Wild cooking is actually easier than campsite cooking as you don't need to worry so much about finding the right place to deposit coffee grounds and your dirty dish water. In the wild, provided you have thought to bring enough water for cooking, you can easily ditch your grounds, wipe everything clean with long grass and finish with a wipe using yesterday's snaffled serviette. Taking any rubbish with you to be deposited in the next bin.
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| Get organised before cooking |
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| Find a place where you can sit in peace |
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| Cook food you find tasty; it doesn't have to be plain noodles |
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| Tasty noodles |
Today could have been short and dull, but once refreshed I first come across a disused railway crossing and sidings with carriages - OK maybe that bit is dull...
Next, a beautiful church in the village of Elm just south of Wisbech. It looked a little unloved and this was explained when I saw a final notice for electricity supply to be switched off stuffed in the door. This served as a general reminder of the church re-organisations that are occurring across the land.
Moving on and Wisbech felt to me like a curious place. A market town with newer housing developments, it has good, strong and hansom buildings at its heart and has a large old town. What is odd is that some of its shops appear to be stuck in a time warp. There is a "Fancy Fayre", a guns and fishing shop, and a general purpose clothing store that reminds me of my childhood in the 1970s. Rather than the W.I. decoration evident at Doddington and March, it looks as though it has a new role in accommodating the immigrant crop picking community. In its relaxed gardens and squares it is hard to find a bench not occupied by small groups enjoying a late morning drink of cider. Of course, I am setting my ideal as a polite 1940s market town but with a Costa Coffee not far away; I want my supermarket stocked with affordable fruit and veg but don't want the pickers taking up bench space when I'm looking to sit down.
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| Wisbech |
Not more than 10 minutes out of Wisbech a Farm Shop sign presents itself and I think of ice-cream. When I arrive however, I find myself in a greengrocers, no rustic breads, cakes, local beer or ice-cream. I am initially disappointed until I step inside and am greeted with a cornucopia of fresh fruit and vegetables. Center stage is a whole 'aisle' of heritage tomatoes. I stock up on strawberries, cherries, asparagus and lots of tomatoes. In addition, I inspect the shelves heaving with preservers and on a nearly bare shelf see a 'chutney' called Zacusca. In appearance it looks like a preserve you might find in your local Polish or Romanian store. In chatting to the Moldavian sales assistant I am informed it is a Moldavian recipe made in-house by the person I am addressing. She is very proud of her product which is made by cooking up assorted vegetables including tomatoes and aubergines, but it does not include the vinegar and sugar of the English equivalent. I acquired a jar and it proved a hit with bread and cheese later in Woodall Spa, and spiced up various pasta dishes. I ask if I can take a photo of the display and while I pack away my goodies the stall is refreshed ready for its photo shoot. Anyone who has tried out lightweight (gram counting) travel will notice that I haven't learnt my lesson and am happily adding kilos to the coffin I am towing.
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| The best of Lincolnshire produce |
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| Zacusca (like chutney) |
Tonight's campsite is another Camping and Caravanning Club campsite and I am greeted as the only camper with a tent. I see I have fallen into a camino style daily routine, getting up early, eating when hungry and simply wandering to my destination each day with no cares. It is very freeing as I don't even have to co-ordinate timings with any travel partner(s). As I use a mobile navigation app all I need worry about is listening to the "turn right at the fork" style instructions and enjoying whatever surprises and opportunities are thrown my way. Today I fancy chocolate and that means a two mile walk to the nearest village where I stock up on noodles, biscuits and a single snickers bar. A red London bus is parked up and is selling fish and chips. It is too much temptation.
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| Fish and chips |
On paper, today was a short and dull day but turned up many surprising treats. I ended the day with a beer in the campsite bar and was given some birthday cake as an extra treat to end a fantastic day. Reflecting on my approach to planning this journey I had planned some parkruns and tailored the route and campsites to accommodate them. With no parkruns, the route (with my added detour) looked on the map like something of an aimless meander, like a river snaking its way on a path of least resistance it has little control over. Well, if one of my goals was to get to Yorkshire, then another had been to see and explore the English countryside and today provided that in abundance. This wasn't a trip about getting from A to B in the shortest time, or even the shortest distance and oddly Komoot with its rigid instructions let me explore without worrying about the rather circuitous route I was unwittingly following.
Day 5: Parsons Drove to Woodall Spa
