All this talk of getting lost over the fens is absolutely fine, provided that you pick a low vis day and fly low. Then indeed one twisty little road and twisty little stream and twisty little village does look exactly like the next one, particularly with 5km visibility from 1500' and "the next one" being 6km away.
On a clear day from FL95 you can see the whole of East Anglia. No navigation is needed other than "oh look, there's Norwich, it's around 30 miles away, there's no military airspace at this height, just point at it and go". (OK, so the 172 does take a while to get up there, but you get a whole different view of the world.)