New guide book features Cambridge walks using public transport

Walks Around Cambridge Using Public Transport, a new pocket-sized guide book by Cambridge-based author Stephen Chadwick, suggests some highly rewarding and very scenic walks that many people familiar with the local area may not even be aware of.

Available in Cambridge shops, including Heffers and Waterstones, and also as print-on-demand at Amazon (amzn.eu/d/8labzwH), the guide is aimed at local residents, as well as visitors who wish to visit and explore the surrounding countryside on foot, and without using a car.

“It [the process of writing the book] actually started somewhere else – in the Basque Pyrenees,” explains Stephen, whose wife is French, from the Basque region of Spain, hence his knowledge of this “brilliant walking area”.

He has in fact written two guide books on this specific region – Walks in the Basque Country: France and Spain and Walks in the Basque Country Using Public Transport.

“I originally wrote a walking guide book to the Basque Pyrenees about eight or nine years ago, and then Cambridge was the next obvious place to do,” he says.

“I’ve also done one in Barcelona as well, so it’s part of a series, and I suppose it [the new book] took about a year to do the walks and plan them.

“It was quite difficult in the winter, there was quite a lot of flooding – especially out on the Ouse Valley – and mud and so on, so probably nearly a year, I should think, and I finished last autumn.”

The book – Stephen’s fourth – is superbly detailed, offering excellent photographs, maps, easy-to-follow route descriptions, and a breakdown of times and distances.

There are 26 walks featured, which are between seven and 20km long. All of them are accessible by public transport and all are within 50 minutes of Cambridge.

Was Stephen familiar with most of the walks before he began his research?

“Well I’ve lived here all my life and I’ve walked all my life, and with the car we’d always gone to the same places – and suddenly with public transport, it opened up a lot of new options and I discovered a lot of new walks,” he says.

“For a few years I’d been looking at this long-distance walk called the Harcamlow Way; it’s from Harlow to Cambridge in a kind of double loop…

“It’s nice, you can go from Wimpole to Cambridge, or even go from Fulbourn out to the Roman road and Horseheath, you can go from Linton down to Great Chesterford…

“There’s some very nice little sections to do, so I’ve included quite a few of those.”

Stephen says that the book is “for people who live here – and visitors, but really for people who live here who want to walk; they want to explore the area and they don’t have a car, or they don’t want to use a car”.

He adds: “There’s a lot of interesting sites of interest and historic sites… and some places, like the National Trust properties, Wicken Fen, for example, it’s very difficult to get to by public transport.

“There’s about one bus a day from Ely – but if you don’t mind walking for a couple of hours, it’s a pleasant walk from the railway station in Soham, or the bus stop in Burwell, or even along the Cam at Waterbeach.

“So walking and public transport does open up a lot of interesting spots.”

Stephen, who has also worked in educational publishing, web design and teaching, reveals that his favourite local walk goes “across the Fens from Burwell to Wicken, and then through to Upware, where there’s this extraordinary pub called the Five Miles from Anywhere…

“Then down along the River Cam to Waterbeach is a great one.”

Stephen says he has another book in mind, this time focusing on walks in the north of England.

Walks Around Cambridge Using Public Transport is available now.