When driving east of Peterborough this past weekend, I commented to Mrs Mouse that I never go this way on my bike. It’s either a bit further north to go Lincolnshire or occasionally south of there. So with the fine weather yesterday I decided to go on a bit of an adventure and plotted a route to head almost due east.
After 90 minutes I was getting to unfamiliar territory on the Cambridgeshire fens. Straight roads on banks slightly raised above the flat landscape.
Or going besides the wide drainage channels.
Just about every stretch of road had undulations and cracks from subsidence and it took concentration to try and avoid the worst. But I was often taken unawares and ended up riding a bucking bronco with bum leaving seat and suspension bottoming and topping out. My seating position doesn’t allow putting much weight on my legs but I tried my best to try and protect my painful back.
Several stretches are so bad they have temporary traffic lights to close one side of the road. This stretch was the worst though the picture doesn’t do justice to the dips and undulations.
Everything is low and flat around here but you do sometimes get a choice of taking the high road or the low road. Anyone for a bit of two wheeled limbo dancing?
I ducked going under the bridge though I should have be OK with my low seat height. A tall person on an adventure bike would probably be testing out the efficacy of their helmet!
After 3½ hours and 110 miles I arrived at my destination at the Thetford forest. Never been there before and it looks like a lovely place to go for a long walk, seems to have a good mix of tree types rather than the dark, monotonous monoculture of confiner plantations you see everywhere.
After eating the lunch I brought with me in the calming dappled shade of trees, it was time to reverse my route and head home.
90 minutes from home the clouds started looking ominous.
There was no rain forecast for the day, so I was just in my riding jeans and leather jacket when the heavy rain started, which meant I got rather wet. Still, the rain produced a lovely smell in the air, all very refreshing after a long and warm day. 10 minutes later I was on dry roads again and had dried off by the time I reached home, just in time for tea 
I’m in the middle of the country and for day trips I can’t get to the really nice bits of the UK. E.g. Wales or Yorkshire and up. So spend my weekly rides going by agricultural fields and gentle hills, with the occasional run to the Peak District for a bit of moor action with rocky bits. All nice enough, but I occasionally crave a change, and flat land with big skies and straight roads can provide that. Though I think I’ll stick to Lincolnshire for that, the roads aren’t backbreaking.