Malva-llous

For months I’ve needed to return a bike to friends Alicky and Jonno, who lent one as a spare to Gugs and I last summer. We kept missing each other but today I dropped it off successfully, and it was great to catch up with them on their doorstep.

From their side of town I then got over-excited about a new walking route. I was a tad over-ambitious walking all the way to Baits Bite Lock, over the Cam and then back via the villages of Horningsea and Fen Ditton. Luckily Jonno had given me a slice of syrupy malva pudding (a recipe from his native South Africa), which fuelled me. I’d under-estimated the muddiness. The fields were effectively bogs, and sometimes around here it feels like it might have been easier if the flat badlands of East Anglia had never been drained, instead of the flooding events and sluices that are part of the landscape’s ebb and flow.

I reverted to using the roads, which were heavily layered in rubbish, likely not helped by the strong winds that blow in this region. I saw plenty of typical McDonalds cartons and Wet Wipes wrappers, and also spotted a letterbox flap. A robbery gone wrong?