A Man, a ‘Van and a Bike - I See the Light

The planned cycle ride for today was 29 miles or so, in the end I did 19.5 miles instead, that was partly due to my fitness and much to do with the weather. At the point I needed to make a definite decision it was raining (the Met Office were still saying there was less than a 5% chance of this) and more importantly there was a head wind. Now you would think that if you cycle nearly 10 miles with a headwind then turn round and cover the same ground in reverse you’d then have the wind in your favour. As my sailing friends will say it never happens that way! I did achieve my main aim which was a visit to the East Lighthouse on the Nene* Outfall. 

First stop on the way down was Sutton Bridge (or Crosskeys Bridge as it’s also known) itself. 

A book I was reading recently commented that not only are these structures marvels of engineering but it’s amazing that they still survive carrying traffic volumes and weights far greater than was ever anticipated. The current bridge dates back to 1897 and originally carried both rail and road traffic. Now both halves are used for the road. 

From there I pedalled along the riverside to the lighthouse. 

It’s not a very big lighthouse, it’s not even much use for its primary purpose of leading boats into the channel since a new sea wall in the 1940s moved the shoreline some half a mile further out, it does however hold a very important place in the global conservation movement. 

In 1933 Sir Peter Scott lived in the lighthouse at a time when he was deciding what to do with his life. As the son of Scott of the Antarctic there were certain expectations and he decided to pursue his training as a wildlife artist, later providing the illustrations for The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico. 

Up until 1939 Scott created wildfowl ponds around the lighthouse but was called up to serve in the war. Due to the land changes, carried out to provide more land for farming, he didn’t return but his conservation work there provided the basis for his subsequent founding of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge and the World Wildlife Fund (now the Worldwide Fund for Nature of course, I never could see the point of the name change!) There have been plans for a visitor centre, etc. at the lighthouse since around 2012 but finance has never been forthcoming. 

On the way back along the river I took a couple of photos of the grandly named Port Sutton Bridge which, in its current form, opened in 1987. 

It’s not much of a port! Looking the other way from the same spot, and past the winding hole, is Crosskeys Marina. 

This “marina”, which is actually just a pontoon, was opened in 2017 at a cost of £900,000 of public money as a gateway to the Fens. Frankly, it fails! 

At this point I decided to head directly back to site through Long Sutton rather than travelling down the other bank of the river and looping round. With the headwind and my aches I either needed to take a reasonable break or do the sensible thing and turn up the assistance on the e-bike. I did the latter! Even with that the nearly 20 miles I travelled still used less than 50% of the battery life so I’m happy with that. It bodes well for later plans. 

A lesson learnt today is that I need to carry the small camera as well as, or instead of, the large mirrorless one and I need to find a way of having it readily accessible. One of the plus points of travelling by bike is you see small interesting details but it’s not worth stopping to get the big camera out of the rucksack. 

I may look again at small camera options but one thing that’s useful on the mirrorless is I can connect to it via WiFi and download pictures to the phone which I can then use in the blog and for post cards so I’d l like to retain that capability. I’ve been using a new blogging app this time, called Blog Touch. It did cost £4.99 but so far it seems to work well. 

*I did say I’d tell you how the river name is pronounced, in case you don’t know. Typically people from Northamptonshire pronounce it Nen whilst downstream of around Wansford they pronounce it Neen. Some years ago I was in the Local Studies section of Northampton Central Library when I came across a copy of the original George III act, “For making navigable the River Nen or Nine.” So I contend we pronounce it correctly in Northamptonshire and the others should use either our pronunciation or Nine but not Neen!