2 July 2016 Cambridge Club Site, Great Shelford, near Cambridge

It is only about twenty miles north to Ely, our destination for the day; by 10am we were driving into the town, a small city of just over 20,000 inhabitants, granted city status by royal charter in 1974. 

Parking at that hour on a Saturday morning proved to be a breeze, although had we been half an hour later, it might have been a different story. We found free parking, for two hours and thought it would probably suffice. Again we misjudged the time required; we spent the whole two hours at the Ely Cathedral, the big draw card to tourists and then only left because of the parking situation. There we had spent half of that time on a walking tour of the ground floor of the structure, while others took a tour of the tower, or “lantern”, an octagonal structure constructed to replace the Norman central crossing tower that collapsed in 1322. We saw them as little specks high up above us daringly looking down at us in the nave.

Ely Cathedral

Ely Cathedral is apparently one of the most impressive churches in England, and because of its long evolved and involved construction history, is quite fascinating and does require an unhurried visit. 

Ely itself is built on a 23 square mile Kimmeridge Clay island which at 26 metres ASL is the highest land in the fens. Today after centuries of drainage projects (of the type explained when we travelled through the fens in 2015), the Great Ouse runs along one side of the “island” , once the best transport route for the importation of stone for the cathedral, and for the exportation of eels, peat and reeds. Today the river was busy with leisure craft, narrow-boats and launches.

Birds and boats on the River Great Ouse

After coming away from the Cathedral, we moved the car to another parking spot in the city, only after driving about for half an hour seeking a space. By now the city was packed with weekenders made worse by the fact that today is the first day of the British summer school holidays. The weekend markets had also attracted the crowds and of course the improved weather had its part to play in the chaos as well. Once resettled, we transferred our lunch from the eski to the backpack, believing that if we were to stay seated in the car to lunch, people arriving would be queuing beside us thinking we were about to go. Better to escape the car park entirely! We walked down through parklands all part of the cathedral grounds, cattle grazing in the adjacent field, until we arrived at the river. There we found a spot in the sunshine and watched the comings and goings of the river traffic, before setting out along the river bank on foot ourselves.

After half an hour of riverside walking, we found our way back up into the city’s High Street and market place and wandered through to see if anything caught our fancy. Already having eaten, there was nothing that needed to be purchased, so we then headed back to the car and on out of the city, heading about nine miles south to the Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve, a National Trust owned and managed property, offering a very different entertainment to that of the morning.

One of the few remaining fen windmills

The wetland area covers 610 acres and is one of the few remaining un-drained fenlands in the country and includes fenland, farmland, marsh and reed beds.

It is not entirely natural, because humans have managed the fens for centuries, and the reserve is still managed to conserve its fen state. Sedge and reed cutting are still carried out in a rotational basis and water is pumped in and out to maintain the correct wetness to suit the ecological balance.

We walked around a relatively short board-walked path, choosing to avoid the longer perhaps more interesting walk, because the afternoon was getting away yet again and we needed to find a superstore before returning home.

When we did arrive back at camp, having avoided a rash of very heavy showers, we found the site even busier than yesterday; this the portent of the next eight weeks. Fortunately our corner of the camp is populated by over-fifties who all choose to live and play quietly.