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The East Anglian Way

Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2022 4:45 pm
by Boab
The East Anglian Way

Over the last two and a half years we have been working on a route around East Anglia that take in some of the most scenic parts of the area. From Napoleonic forts, castles and cathedrals, to the back country roads filled with history. Small foot ferries transport you across the water and deep into the four counties. The 500km route surrounds you in stunning views, gravel paths and bridleways long since forgotten.

While lock downs came and went, various rules about exercise changed, we couldn’t have thought of a better time to explore the countryside in and around where we grew up. The history of England can been seen in the many ancient towns and cities along the way. From Colchester the first Roman city, to the ruins of abbeys destroyed by Henry the VIII. Along the route you will have the chance to discover more than just an epic bike ride.

East Anglia has seen its fair share of ups and downs throughout the centuries and the changing landscape reflects that.

So the idea was to allow others to take in what we have been lucky enough to have on our doorstep but we wanted to do it is such a way that riders could tackle the route in a way they wish to do so and at a date that is convenient to them.

So on Friday 24th June will be the official start date for such an adventure. Whether you want to take part in the official rally that weekend or join the route close to home before the cut off date, this is your adventure.
https://fuelyouradventures.com/east-anglian-way

Re: The East Anglian Way

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 8:46 am
by Boab
Was considering riding this route at the weekend. Managed to find a GPX online, cause obvs people are going to upload the GPX files they're sent so they can plonk them onto their GPS devices. Started by looking at the bit closest to where I live and 😱...

Evidently you have to take a photo of a Cambridge college, but the route goes nowhere near any of the colleges, before taking you on an interesting route to get to the Roman Road towards Haverhill. Rather than just following that, it takes you down into Linton, but rather than going all the way down the bridleway and onto the one way system, it takes you off into random side streets, before popping you right back passed where you'd have come out on the bridleway anyway; for no benefit, it takes you passed a shitty newsagent, when there's a better Co-op on the one way system. You're then directed down the A1307, which is a high casualty road of death, it's dual carriageway that that point too. You then jump back onto the Roman Rd, but continue passed where it stops being a restricted byway and turns into a footpath, so we're now into the legal grey area. It re-joins the A1307 after that, so you can then cruise r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶r̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶m̶i̶d̶d̶l̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ into Haverhill, although they take you down the old railway, some of which you don't have a right of way to cycle down, as it's footpath.

Going to have to go over the route on a bigger screen, with RoW overlaid. I hope that the bit I've looked at isn't indicative of the standard of the rest of it, otherwise it'll be a hard N O P E, from me.

Re: The East Anglian Way

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 10:14 pm
by fatbikephil
Disappointing that - see my post on the Tiso overland 500 thread - I suspect a lot of these routes either haven't been ridden and just planned on a map, or lacking local route knowledge planners just bung the route wherever. Using public footpaths for a bike route seems a bit duff though. Putting a good ITT route is tricky and you do need to do a lot of research (and bike riding) to stitch something together that's going to be good.

Re: The East Anglian Way

Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2022 4:52 pm
by Boab
I've been (re) reading the CyclingUK website this afternoon.

https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/campa ... h-trespass
https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/cycli ... e-off-road

It seems to come down to that right of reasonable use conundrum, and if you're happy to commit trespass against the landowner. 🤷
Unsealed Unclassified Roads (shown on OS maps as 'Other Route of Public Access')
Sometimes also referred to as ‘green lanes’ or ‘white roads’. Once again, technically not a ‘public right of way’, but rights of access on these routes are generally the same as on byways open to all traffic.
Which is interesting as far as the fens go, as there's loads of white roads on the map; although I think this relates to those green dots? Quite a lot of them have gates and Keep Out or Private signs on them though. So that bit after Lakenheath might (or might not given the blurry signage on Street View) maybe OK to whizz down. I have no desire to get into a barney with a landowner, or representative there of, though.

On the page where you make your donation to get the GPX they do have this:
We have ridden the route several times and have had no issues with shared paths and bridleways. There are some sections of hike-a-bike on foot paths, so smile, say thank you and giving people space normally goes a long way.
They have the exact same wording on the Cambridge Gravel Jam page though, so it's proper cut and paste. Feels like a bit of hand washing, "but we told people to get off and push"... Given the general lack of decent RoW signage in places round here, and that at least one of the footpaths in question is a fantastic gravel road, I'd be very surprised if people actually got off and pushed.

On some level you have to trust that whomever came up with this route knows what they’re doing.