Ouch! We cycled from Wainfleet in Lincolnshire to Cambridge in, well Cambridgeshire, today. You wouldn’t expect anything less of us, would you. We were thinking about going all the way to London, but we had two 11 pound bags on our backs, and we aren’t as fit as we could be.

The ride started easily, and we got to Boston within the hour. At a place called Sutterton Roundabout we pulled in and had our first sandwich and cake (that’s a Toffee Muffin – with real toffee). Now that area on Lincolnshire makes the prairies look positively hilly, and so it was that the GPS mounted on our handlebars only wavered between -3 and +2 metres above sea level! Following the local dust storms in a field at Tydd St Mary (woah baby tornado!) we rode on towards Wisbech – Market Town of the Fens. I’ve no idea what it looks like because there weren’t any signs to the town centre, so we took the ring road through the middle of town (I know, ring road, you’d think it would go around town, wouldn’t you? But don’t forget that this is the Anglia region.

My backside was beginning to get very sore now. The bag on my back was heavy, the head wind from the south was making the going difficult, and the saddle was unforgiving. Actually, it is still pretty iffy now as I sit here on the sofa in the flat in Islington.

Following Wisbech we ploughed on through fields of cauliflowers, onions and gladioli (yes, really) until we entered Norfolk for a while. This was a complete surprise as I hadn’t realised a quick jaunt into this county was on the cards. Next was Ely. Now, what was interesting was that following the cake, I had the power in my legs to ratchet the speed up to 20mph, but by the time we got to Ely I was down to 13mph.

England’s third smallest city, Ely was founded in 673AD and has a huge cathedral. This is a great place to eat sandwiches and cake (chocolate cake that is. Cath went for Pecan pie though we had both ordered muffins – cake confusion).

Now my backside was in pain from the seat as we powered on towards Cambridge. I was pleased to see that we were only 16 miles away, so the miles thundered by until we rode into the city centre. With no road signs pointing to the train station we were amiss until we spoke to a local girl who pointed us in completely the wrong direction. After talking to another couple from the US, we eventually road onto the forecourt.

There were no trains leaving Cambridge station because of maintenance works.

You may understand our immense and huge disappointment when we read those words. Luckily there was a bus to the closest station with a service. Unluckily they didn’t take bikes and they were about 20 miles away.

Bugger.

Well, there was nothing for it. After cycling for over 90 miles there was no way we were going to let another 20 get in the way, so we hired a taxi van and took it to Audley End station. Well – what did you expect? A quick ride to Liverpool Street Station in London and we were on our way, cycling to Islington and home. Too tired to eat proper food, I downed a tin of soup (which is obviously not food, it’s drink), and Cath had some instant pasta thing (the British equivalent to Kraft Dinner).

So, not quite Wainfleet to London, but a great ride anyway. We got to see a lot of flat land and rode through three counties – Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, and still had enough money left over for a fish supper (or something).