Day 9 - Pentney to Hemsby

We spent a very comfortable night at Little Abbey Farm in Pentney and started the day with an excellent breakfast made by Diane, our landlady. On hearing about the ride she very generously sponsored us.
My bike had also spent a comfortable night under cover:

The farm is a working farm and keeps chickens, pigs and sometimes cattle as well. It was great sitting there in the breakfast room watching the chickens being corralled by a large cockerel.

Because my original route was based on a planned overnight a few miles further north, I had to do a bit of replanning and adapted my route to suit.

All sorted, I set off - with the bright sunny sky, I decided it was a day for wearing shorts but with the wind still blowing I wore my fleece until I'd got warmed up.
Once again, I was enjoying the riding and the sights that unrolled before my eyes.

Talking with Diane at breakfast time, she'd mentioned that one of her family would shortly be taking part in a bike ride between a number of churches in the region and I realised that there were actually a lot of churches around. It also got me thinking about the fact that churches are very clearly defined on OS maps and that I was using them to check my route - they were easy to see in the landscape and made it easy for me to keep my bearings.

As I passed through a village called Castle Acre I noticed that not only did it feature the remains of an abbey, it also featured the remains of a castle and also this archway:

In the next village I stopped for a drink of water and a piece of chocolate. Whilst I was enjoying that I could hear a jet aeroplane and managed to spot it - it was a Eurofighter just a couple of miles away. I was hoping it would fly around a bit but I think it was just on its final approach to RAF Marham. As I was looking at it I heard a car pull up behind me and when I looked around, a young vicar had got out of the car. He asked me where Lexham Hall was, but although I had no idea, I had a map and soon found it and provided him with some instructions.

Here's another example of how I was using a church to navigate - I knew from the map that there was a church with a tower in the approaching village and that the road would bear left before turning right and going past the church. As you can see from this photo, that's exactly what the road is about to do.

A little later I could see that there appeared to be a disused railway crossing the road - looking right I could see some track - but it was looking a bit disjointed:
Looking left the track had mainly gone and the station buildings were being used for some other activity:

Shortly after, I arrived in Aylsham having covered 34 miles in just over 2 hours - not bad for a fatty! Looking at the clock I realised I could treat myself and take a ride on a narrow guage steam railway. So I did. It was the Bure Valley Railway and having purchased my ticket I'd soon loaded myself and my bike into one of the carriages.

The train took me seven miles to Wroxham - Ali reckons it wasn't cheating if I sat on my bike the whole way. Jan met me at the end and we went into Wroxham and had lunch at a riverside pub.

The afternoon ride would just be 15 miles or so and as most of that was on an A-road I didn't take any pictures until I got back on the quieter roads. I stopped at this village because it seemed to be named after my mum:

Here's the village sign:

Janice went past me about now and I knew I was nearly finished. I took a slight detour to go through Winterton on Sea to recce where we were going for tea tonight and passed this rather large church tower:

Finally I arrived at Hemsby - it was a bit of an eye opener with amusement arcades all over the place, but I made my way through it, found Janice and we took a couple of photos to mark the end of the ride:

Once again I've completed a long ride and couldn't have done so without my Jan. She's sorted out some great accommodation and kept me supplied with food, water and good cheer throughout the ride.

For our final night on the road, we'd booked into a B&B at Great Yarmouth - here's the view from our bedroom window:

.... and here's the view in the dark:

and a closer view of the windfarm:

After settling in, we went out for the evening and met up with Russ and Tracey in their home village of Winterton-on-Sea. We spent the evening reminiscing and chatting about, well, life, the universe and everything! It was really good to meet them both and provided a nice finish to what has been a very enjoyable and sociable bike ride.

Thanks to all those friends and family who met up with us on the ride and thanks everyone else for tuning in and reading for the last 9 days.

Bob and Jan.

Day 8 - Stamford to Pentney

I've been having problems connecting to the net, so haven't finished writing this blog yet. Sorry if you can't wait for my scintillating text!! I'll try and insert more words later today.

The George Hotel at Stamford was quite luxurious and we dined well there. The breakfast room was bright and airy with a massice collection of convex mirrors on the walls.

When we got back to The Beast, that little car that had been parked next to it seemed to have skulked off!

Although my bike seemed to have found a companion.....

As I rode off, Jan stayed in Stamford and had a walk around. She tells me it was very picturesque and worth a visit.

The wind was a lot stronger today and blustery to the extent that I couldn’t always tell which way it was blowing! However, it was generally behind me so as long as I was heading east I was OK. After the first few miles we were into the fens and everything became very flat and open. There were drainage ditches everywhere and the roads all seemed to travel in straight lines. Looking at my OS maps I could see that most of the time I was only two or three metres above sea-level. With the wind behind me I was really flying along and managed a top speed of just over 31 mph on the flat! This meant that I covered the 30 miles to Wisbech in a fraction under two hours and had managed to finish my lunch before Janice joined me. We’d arranged to meet up at a National Trust property called Peckover House in the middle of Wisbech. It’s a really surprising place – from the front it looks like just another imposing house in a whole row of them but behind it there is a marvellous garden, all of which dates back to the 18th century. We didn’t have time to visit the house itself and will have to come back another time.

We had a quick walk around the garden - here I am in the orangery:

and here's Jan underneath a rose arch......

Jan wanted to take a picture of me outside this place for some reason:

As I started riding again I noticed that the wind had shifted round to be more from the south west – this meant that any time my route went too close to being southerly my speed was cut by more than half. As I went along a road called The Smeeth, NCN1 joined my route but then just as I thought I’d follow it for a while rather than my planned route, I came up to another “Road Closed Ahead” sign. If the road that was closed was the bridge over the river, I was going to have to do a BIG detour and would have to ride into the wind. Reverting back to my route, there was no problem and I stopped on the river crossing to take pictures.

Big skies and long flat vistas are the order of the day here. My photos don't capture how windy it was though - I could imagine it being very bleak here during the winter.

This is a river called The Great Ouse, you can see the volume of water it deals with is massive and I crossed two others of a similar size and hundreds of smaller ones, all of which drain into The Wash.

Tonights stop was at Little Abbey Farm in Pentney. It's a very friendly place and we would recommend it to anyone staying in the area.

Day 7 - Earl Shilton to Stamford

After a smashing night staying with our friends Kevin & Julie and a great breakfast they made for us, we didn't set off until gone 11:00hrs today. There was quite a strong, blustery wind from the west and there had been a threat of rain so I was wearing my long leggings and a fleece top over my T-shirt.

Todays route took us in a generally easterly direction through villages such as Stoney Stanton, Broughton Astley and a host of others with double-barrelled names. Sure enough, when I pulled up at a pub to "spend a penny", it was in a village called Peatling Magna! There were so many double-barrelled names, that I was gobsmacked when I saw this signpost:

Not one on that signpost - what were the chances of that?

Well actually, in that area, it was quite common! However, take a look at the name of the cycle network route 6 that I was following:

Guthlaxton? Trips off the tongue does that!!

I carried on through Smeeton Westerby, Kibworth Beauchamp, Kibworth Harcourt and Tur Langton - I spotted this windmill (there were others) as I rode along:

The village of Hallaton was very picturesque - but almost dead! I only saw two people the whole time I was in the village!

Just a few miles later and only a couple of miles from the lunch stop, I encountered the only really steep hill of the day. It was hard work but made slightly easier by the strong, blustery wind. I was however still breathing hard when I pulled up to meet Janice at Don Paddy's Wine Bar in Uppingham. I treated myself to a couple of pints of cider with my lunch which was a superb pork loin open sandwich with a mustard mayonnaise and baked apple slices. Janice couldn't resist the quiche and took a picture of it especially for Louise!

Here's a picture of a rather cheerful me - I don't know whether it is just the cider speaking but I have genuinely enjoyed riding today.

The following two pictures illustrate the similarities between two different transport systems - I was hoping there might be a road version for me to snap as well, but no luck.


Shortly after going through South Luffenham, I went past an army base (a Royal Artillery regiment I believe) and was about to stop and take a picture of the two old artillery pieces guarding the main entrance when I realised I was being watched by a chap carrying a real gun, so I thought better of it and carried on riding.

Shortly after passing through a village called Wing, my intended route was blocked by a closed road sign. After a quick conversation with a couple of locals who were conveniently nearby, I planned a reroute which would have minimal impact on my mileage and amount of climbing I'd have to do. I was now in the county of Rutland - a small county that is mainly occupied by a reservoir called Rutland Water. I stopped at the visitor centre and treated myself to an ice cream. Whilst I sat eating it I phoned my Dad to let him know how we were doing and it was obviously as windy in Sussex as it was up here by the amount of wind noise on the microphone at his end. Unbeknowst to me, Janice was also in the large car park at the visitor centre at the same time as me - but I didn't spot her.

There's a signposted cycle route from Rutland Water all the way to Stamford but I only saw one other cyclist - he was behind me and catching me rapidly as I slowly wound my way up a slight hill. I couldn't let him catch me so somehow I managed to find some extra energy and upped my speed. Helped by the road flattening out and the wind remaining at my back, within a mile I'd completely dropped him - teehee - and I was rapidly approaching the finish. Being a Sunday, everything seemed to be closed in Stamford but I easily found our hotel, The George Inn. It's a bit posh and there were even a couple of Supercars in the car park:

Beauty and The Beast!

Stats:

Unfortunately I left my speedo on my bike and it's locked away for the night!

But, I think they are:

Miles ridden today: about 48.5

Average speed: about 14.1 mph

Maximum speed: 40.1 mph (I can remember that one!)