Back from the East - part 1

Back from my holiday a few weeks now and it was quite an experience. I didn't get the best weather, but I think I made the most of the sunshine I had. What I did get was a similar experience to last years “Summer Holiday” to Southwold, which I was kind of expecting. The Fens are hardly a great distance from Southwold and they both share some pretty flat ground. I wasn't sure that that would have the same effect on the weather and as I'm no meteorologist, I'm still not. What I do know is that on more than one occasion, I had days where it was bright sunshine with immense black clouds on the horizon. To be honest it's probably the flatness of the land that does this more than anything else. I could see the weather coming, when my usual experience is of a place with more hills and a lot more trees.

Middle of nowhere

Having the fun of driving around the M25 and the M11, I got into the borders of the fens on Thursday lunchtime. Having been sunny all the morning, it clouded over by the time I got to my destination. It was in fact so sunny on the drive that I actually got unexpectedly burnt and developed a bit of a truckers tan. This I didn't see as a particularly good sign for my weeks weather. However it soon cleared up and I got lots of photographs of Ely.

Ely Cathedral

 Ely is pronounced Eelee, and named supposedly for the large quantities of eels that were once caught in the marshes around the town. Before the fens were drained, the area was mostly marshy and underwater land with a few drier islands of slightly higher ground where people lived. As such there are many depictions of eels around the town. While not one of the 4 Fenland major towns I was aiming to visit, it was very near to where my B&B accommodation was and has an amazing cathedral.

Ely eel sculpture

Wisbech (pronounced Wizbeech) is “The Capital of the Fens” and was an odd place to visit. I say odd because due to weather patterns I went on a Sunday to try to get this potential photo hotspot on a sunny day, and like many a Sunday in many a place it was dead quiet. It also meant that I stood out a lot as a tourist and got plenty of funny looks. However from an uninspiring wet and grey start, the sun came out and I got some really useful photos. Of all the tourist sights in Wisbech, the gardens of Peckover House (a NT property) were a real treat. Not only were they beautiful to look at but full of really interesting nooks and crannies, including; a cat cemetery, a tiny wooded hut with amazing stained glass windows and a Victorian Orangery. The abundance of flowers also meant there were lots of insects and I could indulge my passion for stalking butterflies. They also had a couple of honeybee hives, which were wonderfully busy if quite scary to try to get close to and take photos.

Tame Peacock butterflies at Peckover House

I visited Chatteris twice while I was away. The first time I got drenched within 5 mins of stepping out of my car. I got so wet that I just drove all the way back to the B&B to change and wait for the worst to pass. Luckily by about 3pm the rain seemed to be going away and this time, dressed in my waterproof trousers and still slightly squidgy leather jacket, I took another stab at it. By the time I got there however it was blue skies, sunshine and mid twenties temperature. Chatteris didn't seem much like your usual tourist destination even though it is one of the 4 major towns in the fens. It certainly had a small town air and I felt very out of place. However it has a gorgeous church and an interesting graveyard.

Broken Tomb in Chatteris church graveyard

Once the rain had stopped I also took a trip to Stonea Camp, which is a prehistoric camp that was at one point entirely razed for farmland. Its earthworks have since been rebuilt and was home to many grazing sheep when I got there. It also allowed some impressive views of the surrounding land and the rainstorms that were coming and going. Be warned, the road to the camp is one of the most challenging and scary I have been along. Basically single track with ditches either side, I wouldn't want to meet anything coming the other way. Much of it is not tarmaced and obviously has some heavy farm traffic moving along it. It also has some huge dips and bumps, a real adventure for my little VW polo and one that had me fearing for its underside and wishing I had a 4by4, although I was very proud of my car, managing it with no apparent issues.

Stonea Camp

Photos from my Flickr feed, more at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/noblueskies/sets/72157627135849157/

Part Two: More of the Fens.