Summer Days in the Fens – Day 8!

The telegraph pole harvest near Ely!

This Summer’s heatwave has brought an early harvest for the farmers in the east. Heading to Ely train station this morning, the farmers were already out and busy at work (see extra), whilst other fields were ripening in the sun. I’m not exactly sure what crops were being harvested, but as you can see from my blips, they’ve also had a good crop of telegraph poles around Ely this year!

A very warm start to the day, but arriving in London, things got even hotter! With the temperature outside in the 30s, Paddington Station (which basically is a huge glass greenhouse) was like being in a sauna! With two hours to wait for my third train of the day (long story), and with that train then being late, adding another extra half hour waiting time, I was very relieved to get on an air-conditioned train heading west where it was slightly cooler (only 28 degrees – ONLY?!!). 

Unfortunately with the Paddington train being late, I then missed my connection in Bath to my local station, and had to wait an hour on Bath platform as the next train was also late! So door-to-door, my return journey took 8 hours (and this is the quickest route!), with 3½ hours spent sitting on train platforms in the tropical heat. At least it gave me time to enjoy a spot of people watching and take some sneaky pics which I’ve included in a postcard of my travels across London (see extra).

(I intended to use my London postcard as my main blip, but in the end I couldn’t resist those big open skies of The Fens. A backblip, hope to catchup fully tomorrow…)