Walk Cambridge is an active walking club and social group, aimed at working age people living in Cambridge and the surrounding area.
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Meet at Swavesey guided busway stop for a 10:45 a.m. departure, and a 7-mile walk to St. Ives, from where you can get the bus back to Swavesey, Cambridge, or wherever else you started from.
This is not a walk along the guided busway - apart from a very short section at the start - so you won't be dodging cyclists for the whole day. Rather, it is an attractive route which goes "off the beaten track" and weaves its way between trees and across fields on either side of the river Great Ouse. The route is currently dry but there is some long grass which can be very wet after rain, so do consider this when choosing your footwear.
There are two pubs along the route: the Pike & Eel at Needingworth, at roughly the halfway point, and the Old Ferry Boat at Holywell, at roughly five miles. Both are in attractive riverside locations, so I suggest that we eat our packed lunches outside one of these pubs, so that we can then buy drinks and use the toilets afterwards.
If we do that at the Pike & Eel, then as I think the Old Ferry Boat is in the more attractive location, I might suggest that we stop for a quick drink there too, so do come prepared for two pub stops in fairly quick succession. As this is a shorter walk than most, it does allow time for this type of thing.
For those coming by bus from Cambridge: there is a 'B' bus which arrives at Swavesey at 10:20, and an 'A' bus which arrives at 10:36. For those driving: there is a free car park on the north side of the guided busway here, signed from the road as "Guided busway drop off point". Despite that name, people use it as a car park, and in my experience it's fine to do so, at least outside working hours (and we will be using the guided busway later anyway).
A warning for drivers: when I enter "Cambridgeshire Guided Busway Swavesey" into Google Maps on my smartphone, it identifies completely the wrong location (Westwick near Oakington), so please don't rely on Google Maps to get you there. You might be better off entering "Advantage MG", which is the name of a car dealership right next to the car park, sorry "drop off point".
