| This stretch of the Ouse Valley Way takes you out of the lush water-meadows of Huntingdonshire and into the flat, black Cambridgeshire Fens. It’s an area that’s rich in history. Starting at the old town of Godmanchester with its Roman origins and interesting old buildings, you make your way literally underneath one of the few working watermills still left on the Ouse, before walking along a pleasant, hard-surfaced route into the bustling market town of St Ives.
The landscape starts to change in the six miles or so between St Ives and Earith as the Great Ouse heads out into the Fens. At Earith, where the Dutch Engineer Cornelius Vermuyden began work to shorten the course of the Ouse along the Old and New Bedford Rivers in the 1600s, you follow the course of The Old West River past Stretham’s Old Engine, where you can find out all about the draining of the fens over the centuries, before continuing on towards the historic city of Ely. At Stretham, the Ouse Valley Way joins the Fen Rivers Way.
With fields of black soil and endless skies stretching ahead as far as the eye can see, the much-maligned flat fens can be a magical and mysterious place. At “Pope’s Corner,” the Ouse meets the Cam and you’ll be able to see the impressive towers of Ely Cathedral dominating the skyline miles before you eventually reach the city’s waterfront.
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