I can recommend sleeping in a hedge if you want a really good night sleep on the next night! I can also recommend staying on a motorway services for a prompt breakfast and early getaway.

Today was going to be long, but also very flat, so I was hoping that i could complete the 40+km during daylight. I planned this hike in the middle of summer and hadn’t thought how the shorter days would affect it. The shortest day is 7 hours 49 minutes, and while I hope to walk at 5km/hr, this is rarely achieved over a long day and 40km seems to take 9 or 10 hours. I think I need to re-plan the later sections as the nights draw in. Anyway, I’ve typed too much for yesterday, and I’m running out of steam. Today was all wide open “Fens” where the paths were, rather annoyingly, zigzagging everywhere, presumably to avoid ditches. Or very straight paths which, rather annoyingly, are a bit boring. There were shops in exactly the right places, and apart from tired legs, aching feet, the day worked out perfectly.

The route went through some really nice little villages with thatched cottages. A lot of them have straw animals on the ridge (in Peru they have terracotta cows – ask me about them). Once you start to see them, you notice them everywhere and I’m sure tey tell a story of the owners. I spotted a kangaroo, which is self explanatory, but not sure about a house with a witch on it!

Over the two days of walking, it’s been treally interesting seeing the countryside as autumn approaches. Mushrooms popping up in random places, and trees loaded with berries. The leaves aren’t really starting to fall, but there are loads of conkers under the Horse Chestnuts.

I think the only thing to mention, is how well non-car based travel is treated. Both yesterday and today, I saw two fine cycle bridges crossing main roads. The blue one was massive, only to make a nicer gradient for cycles and to avoid the impossible 180° turns on the ramps that we get down where I live. The white bridge was particularly impressive, being a cycle crossing the motorway near the services. While Cambridge is the “cycling city”, it has influence in the country side as well. I also saw the “guided bus” which is much like a tram but whizzed past on a special track taking people into Cambridge.

I made it into March by about 5pm, and the trains seemed to be confused – I could have travelled in either direction, via Cambridge or via Peterborough, but both ways were showing cancelled connections. I opted for Peterborough and found myself on a direct Intercity train to King’s Cross, perfect. While it only cost £28 (with railcard) the distance and time taken means that I’ll try to do the remaining four sections in one go, as the train cost and travel time increase dramatically from here. I’ll need to find accommodation to suit the shorter days, or perhaps I can fully embrace winter wild-camping and go a bit feral!