For me, this acted as an nice overnighter, April's BAM and a good few miles in the legs for a Scotland trip next month. I grabbed my bucket n spade and stretched the distance to 35 miles on the way out, heading to the North Norfolk coast. The route back I extended and modified to about 45 miles with a cafe stop to break up the ride. The longest day on day route I’ve done since last year. We have a lot of this though....
The route was a mix of cycle paths, trails and back roads of Norfolk. No mountains, nothing more than rolling hills to ride on. Norfolk is not flat but it’s not the best training for the Badger Divide next month but it’s all I’ve got to work with.
I left a little later than planned after faffing with bike bags. (Another post from me about replacing an Acepac front harness for my gravel bike). The trip up went well though, quicker than I thought I’d do and was a nice ride. Back roads were quiet and cars few and far between. Although, if you were the prick in the Porsche you purposely sped past me on a tight road, hopefully the gods send someone to spoil that shiny paintwork of yours.
Sea!!! You're buying the ice creams!
Made it to the coast a couple hours before dusk and it gave me time to collect some drinks, something for breakfast and fish n chips for dinner. The place is a bit touristy and the queue was massive. It helped as I got talking to guy in front who does his own tours...LEJOG, trips into Europe etc. Made the wait interesting. Quite a few people looked as if I was some sort of alien.
Once I ate the chips, I found a loo and then cycled towards my spot. I knew most of the tourists would've gone and I only met a few dog walkers. A little detour along the beach led me to the dunes were I mooched for a bit and found a nice spot to pitch. The sun was going down. I was pleased with how the ride had gone. The weather was perfect, no rain at all. A couple of beers helped while away the time til bed.
Sunrise...
Slept pretty well and got up about 5.45. There wasn't much chance of meeting anyone there at that time but I packed up, headed out, rode for about 20mins and then found a bench to brew a coffee before heading towards home.
Rode part of the Rebellion Way home. That was supposed to be my route for this weekend but I settled for an overnighter as I’ll be in Scotland next month. I kept to the back roads and picked up the NCN1 south to Reepham, where I had a coffee and sausage roll.
After that it was bike trails 12 miles homes, firstly on Marriott's Way and then Weavers Way. Got home pretty happy with it all and back to do family stuff over the bank holiday weekend.
