This Saturday I headed again to the coast but again didn’t make it. The A10 north from Cambridge ends up in Kings Lynn and on the way skirts around Ely and other old towns. It can be frustrating with sometimes slow moving agriculture and few places to pass but has its nice moments. So far so good but on reaching the large roundabout outside Kings Lynn the penny dropped that on a sunny bank holiday everyone would be heading for the coast. So the road up to Heacham and Snettisham was jammed with cars pulling caravans. Giving that up as a bad idea I scooped myself up onto the road toward Wisbech, not that I would want to spend a Saturday afternoon there, but the road was empty though completely full in the other direction. Via a river event in scenic Upwell and some beautiful fen roads, in a strong fen wind, I made it back to sunny Cambridge. Next time I need a slightly better plan.

[sgpx gpx=”/wp-content/uploads/gpx/kingslynn-wisbech-return.gpx”]

Another Saturday ride out from Cambridge took me to Beccles, well very nearly to Beccles. I was aiming for the coast, again, but time and the body set a slightly closer destination. This is such a good model-a train ride from round the corner Liverpool Street up to Cambridge and then so soon on the bike I find myself in beautiful countryside. On the map I found an interesting corner of the Norfolk coast just up from Great Yarmouth and set my sights there. I took some of my favourite roads, through the Swaffhams, Mildenhall then the A11 briefly, the A1066 to oddly named Diss and the A 143. None of them would get awards but all of them fun, and relaxing to ride certainly compared to the London roads, with opportunities for overtaking. The weather was cool – around 15 degrees and often overcast but dry-ish. After two years of owning my BMW Nav V GPS I finally worked out how to tell it to show me the information that I want to see – all on one screen: my speed, the temperature, the fuel range and what direction I am pointing in. Amazing. I wonder what else I am missing out on.

Near Beccles, hunger, impending rain and other bodily requirements saw me parking up, next to an impressive array of other bikes at Macdonalds Beccles where I was revived by a cup of tea (milk delivered from four tubular sachets, and chicken nuggets ‘do you want four, eight or twenty?’ and other facilities and a few words with other leather-clad rain-defying bikers. Looking just now at the track on Adze, I see I was barely a hundred yards from the interesting sounding Our Lady of Perpetual Succour Church in Gillingham (I wasn’t in Beccles at all). How sad I didn’t keep going for a minute or two longer to investigate this church. There is even somewhere to part there – though they probably don’t serve tea.

On the way back I enjoyed some spirited riding on the A 143 and a loop of getting lost in Bury St. Edmunds. Avoiding the A14. Life’s simple pleasures.
[sgpx gpx=”/wp-content/uploads/gpx/beccles-may-2017.gpx”]