Day 5: March to Peterborough 19 miles

Rich opts for the full English today but I’m struggling to keep up, so go for poached eggs on toast. Our Welsh waiter used to work on luxury steam trains, so has visited the railway at Dereham and both knows St David’s Head and where we’re from. The only steam train he didn’t work on was the Flying Scotsman: ‘Dead man’s shoes’ he said ruefully.

We leave Ye Olde Griffin Inn, crossing Town Bridge and pass the old Middle Level Commissioners’ Office which is now a Wetherspoons. We buy our lunch in a combination of a garage Londis and Lidl and head off towards the river again.

We opt to follow the Hereward Way today as it is the most obvious walking route from March to Peterborough and, as a recognised long distance walk, should be well-signed and in a reasonable condition. We have had enough of battling hostile vegetation.

There are conflicting stories about Hereward the Wake but it certainly seems true that he was an Anglo-Saxon noble who led a rebellion against the Norman capture of the Isle of Ely in 1070. He is said to have escaped following defeat and continued his resistance from the fenland where the Norman’s were unable to find him. It’s easy to imagine a local managing to outwit a foreign enemy amidst the confusing streams and marshes of the fens.

The Hereward Way is a 110 mile walk starting from Oakham in Rutland and ending at East Harling Station in Norfolk. It links the Viking Way at Oakham with Peddars Way at Knettishall. We walked a segment of the Viking Way on the HoCWalk.

We are soon high on the north bank of the River Nene (old course) and pass the new Middle Level Commissioners’ offices which look very smart (as far as we can see; they are mostly hidden by a high hedge).

The path is good but not as well signposted as we were expecting, or much signposted at all. We then come up against a ‘Private no public access or right of way’ sign on a gate. There is a short detour down to the road on the map, presumably where the landowner would not grant permission for the footpath. The path goes alongside a lawn, wedged between a fence and some bushes. Needless to say, it is in a woeful state and we are soon crawling painfully on our hands and knees to make progress. I’m not sure how many people walk the Hereward Way.

We reach the road and follow it for a short way until it’s time to turn back to the river. Needless to say, there’s no waymark and instead there’s yet another gate marked ‘Private Road. No access to the River. Trespassers will be prosecuted.’ This gate is opened, however, and it’s definitely the correct route. Maybe we need the Public Footpath stickers again. We now follow the river high on a dyke for quite some time. On the opposite bank, there are two tractors cutting down the vegetation. Our side must be due a cut fairly soon, but it is easily passable.

At Top Hake’s Farm, we turn onto a long, straight track, which we will follow for some time. There are peacock butterflies all over the thistles and I try again to take a perfect peacock picture. Meanwhile, Rich startles a roe deer from out of the reeds, the first time we’ve seen a sizeable wild animal for some days.

The long walk next to telegraph poles with the track stretching out ahead almost suggests the North American prairies and just as we’re thinking it will never end, the track turns right but the path is straight on, or at least it should be. There’s no visible path and we yomp our way between the reeds and a wheat field.

The next obstacle is a ditch to cross. There’s nothing to see but somehow Rich locates some metalwork that marks the safe bridge. We finally reach the end at Hake’s Farm and join a road where we decide to stop for a break.

We now turn into the village of Turves, one of only two conurbations on our route today. It once had a pub, but now it’s closed down. Even the van parked outside is for sale. We cross a level crossing and continue for a while along an unclassified road next to the Twenty Foot River that has looped round from March. Long freight trains frequent the railway, reinforcing the prairie like feel of the landscape.

We pass back under the railway and continue on the dyke above Twenty Foot River. There are a number of rivers and drains named after distances in feet. They are in fact named after the original widths of the waterways. We go on a bit further and briefly join the B1093, complete with road graffiti to encourage fixing of the road. That section has now been mended, but there is still a San Andreas style fault running down the middle of the road, suggesting there will be more subsidence in the future.

We then leave the road to pick up the north bank of Whittlesey Dike. We are starting to tire of these long, straight paths where the flat landscape makes it difficult to judge distances. We decide to stop for lunch serenaded by a lapwing, rather than the reed warblers and skylarks that have been our soundtrack for most of the day.

We carry on alongside the dike until we reach the road into Whittlesey, the only other conurbation on the route. We go past the industrial estates, stopping at a level crossing, on our way into town where we stop for a welcome orange juice and tonic at the Wetherspoons. In pubs, houses, cars and bars, we can hear the preparations for the England match.

We leave Whittlesey by an unclassified road that follows the course of the Roman Fen Causeway. This takes us by a watercourse called Morton’s Leam, an artificial course of the river Nene built in about 1490 and running from the Back River to Wisbech. As we’re walking, Rich spies a young fox up ahead. We follow it for quite some time before it notices us and scampers off into the bushes. As the path becomes metalled, a muntjac pops out, crossing the path and diving back into the undergrowth. We cross Morton’s Leam and the River Nene on Shank’s Millennium bridge to arrive at the Green Wheel and our final few miles into Peterborough.

The Peterborough Green Wheel is a 20.2 mile walking and cycling route around the outskirts of the city with various spokes out from the centre to the wheel. As we arrive on the wheel, people are sitting in front of a car boot watching the football on a TV in the back. Unfortunately , they are showing replays of the DRC goal.

We see some swans and rabbits and even spot a cormorant but we are now keen to get to the end of the riverside paths. We soon find ourselves arriving into Peterborough, where there have clearly been attempts to smarten up the riverbank, but the clutter of tents and detritus from boats sadly undermines these efforts. All the tents and boats have their radios tuned in to the football.

The footpath is now closed because of building works, but we cross the parched grass of the park towards the gothic cathedral and soon locate the Premier Inn, our stop for the night. As we arrive, there are cheers from all the open windows. England have beaten DRC 2-1.

Total distance: 75 miles