Cambridge to Brinkley: E2 Day 93

Today I walked on ancient tracks, first a Roman road and then the prehistoric Icknield Way.

Leaving the campsite early I returned to the E2 via recently built apartment blocks, which likely house many of the people working at the nearby megacampus of the various Cambridge hospitals. While the brick faced housing looked modern, landscaped with grass areas and public sculptures, as a community it lacked a heart. I saw no shops or cafes. Judging from a sign, much more similar housing was planned. The Biomedical campus caught my attention, it was where "academia, industry, research and health meet".

The roads were packed with cars on the morning commute and I was glad to reach a quieter road and then a hedge lined path, like a miniature avenue. After a community woodland I had to follow a busy road for a short way to reach the Roman Road. Thankfully the only traffic on this ancient highway was myself and a few dog walkers. Vehicles such as 4 x 4's were not allowed or restricted which meant the track was unsullied and in good condition, unlike my earlier experience on the Viking Way. In places it was lined with trees, elsewhere it ran between hedges, everywhere it ran in a straight line typical of Roman road construction. Sometimes the original banking up of the height of the road compared with surrounding ditches and fields was visible. The ghosts of those who built the road almost 2000 years ago can be justifiably proud of their work. Once again the rock hidden beneath the soil covering was chalk, so instead of the flat trails of the Fenland, the road rose and fell as I crossed the gentle undulations of the land.

The Roman Road, a pleasure to walk along.

Pylons striding across the landscape.

I left the Roman Road to join the Icknield Way. It is a long distance path I have walked along before, one which tries to follow a series of tracks even older than the Roman Road. This lead me to Balsham, a village with a café where I enjoyed a coffee and apple strudel (my second coffee of the day, the first from a petrol station just off the Roman Road where it crosses a busy, modern highway, the A11).

Icknield Way. 

Beside the various tracks I followed today there were yellow cowslips and, as a sign of summer, the cow parsley was unfurling its white flowers while the cleavers and stinging nettles were rapidly gaining height. For lunch I ate a cheese salad baguette on a grassy verge, while admiring two red kites floating on the wind currents above me, moving this way and that with just a twist of their wings or tail feathers.

Tonight I am a lone camper in the garden of a pub. Inside the beams are so low that even those of moderate height will need to duck their head. The toilet with its high cistern claims to be an original "Crapper" design but seems to work perfectly well. However the proprietor said that it would likely be replaced if it misbehaved due to difficulties accessing the moving parts.