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About the 2003 Challenge
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A five-day journey through the fens, all in aid
of Willingham community services.
Like many Fenland villages, Willingham has lived an isolated existence
for most of its history. Iron Age man came to stay in 300BC. They
lived along Scholes Road, past the bed & breakfast, and built
a fort at Belsar's Hill.  Then
came the Saxons who settled in 600AD behind the Post Office. In
Medieval times the only carriage road from Cambridge across the
undrained fen to Ely ran close to Willingham via the Aldreth Causeway,
so pilgrims and traders would have stopped at Willingham at the
edge of the fens on their way to Ely.
Everyone travelling to and from Willingham in Medieval times would
have faced the perils of marshy land, rolling fog and exceptionally
late buses. With nothing more than horses or boats, the rivers (Ouse
and Cam) and a blind faith in self-preservation would have been
their only natural guidance through the fens.
Unlike the Challenge Team however, these people did not have the
benefit of full-spec, highly rugged off-road bikes, single cockpit
sports kayaks, GPS, Mars bars and plenty of neoprene. So it is not
for nothing that this five-day journey attempted to recreate the
essence of early fen travel, by circumnavigating a route through
the south fens facing hazards no worse than punctures and failing
GSM coverage!
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