Roundabouts,
Gas and A Pudding (LGD -393 Days)
Saturday
15 April 2017, 73 Miles
Click here for
Route Flyby
Well
it all seemed to be pretty clear on the ‘phone. Daren (Nairo) Morgan and I had
arranged to meet in the car park across the road from Tesco in the centre of
Watton. I arrived early so I had the time to have a quick look round to
see this small and rather unprepossessing town. Five minutes was all it took
and, at the risk of annoying the locals, I felt that was all the time I needed
to see what Watton had to offer. So back to the car to await Nairo’s arrival.
Next thing I knew was a phone call – “Where
are you?” “In the car park opposite
Tesco!” Anyway, long story short, so was Nairo – but a different car park.
No matter we were soon reunited, kitted up and ready to roll.
With the prospect of a fairly strong and
gusty wind from the north west we had decided to head north west on the outward
leg of the ride, hopefully benefitting from a tail wind back. To ring the
changes I had included a few lanes which I hadn’t ridden before. Nairo was amused
(I think) to hear that I have a map of
East Anglia which I mark up to show which roads I’ve ridden on. The map’s now
quite well marked so I’m at the stage of trying to fill in the gaps. With the
strong wind, and my selective deafness, it was sometimes quite difficult to
hear what Nairo was saying but I did catch the words “obsessive” and “affliction”.
Hmmm.
We made good progress to our first
landmark, the lovely small village of Castle Acre which was quite quiet. If the
wind risked cooling us down, the short sharp rise into Castle Acre was perfect
for raising the body temperature. Leaving Castle Acre we continued to head gently
upwards, making light of the wind, along one of those typical long, straight,
deeply hedged Norfolk lanes. This one forms part of the Peddars Way, a 46-mile-long
path starting on the Norfolk/Suffolk Border and ending at the coast near Hunstanton where
it meets the Norfolk Coast Path. The coast path which covers the 44 miles from
Hunstanton to Cromer is a lovely walk which I did a few years ago.
At Great Bircham we turned north east bound
for Burnham Market. This provided us with immediate relief from the wind and
our speed picked up. It was also much easier to hold a conversation. We had thought
that Burnham might be a good place to stop for a quick drink and cake but when
we arrived it was absolutely heaving with people and it seemed almost as if
every Range Rover and Discovery owner in England had decided to come here today
(Easter Saturday). Mindful of our last café frustration with the Hell Angels in
East Harling (see 1st April) we decide to press on and seek our sustenance
elsewhere. I subsequently discovered that the crowds were there for the Burnham
Market International Horse Trials. And this being rural Norfolk, the highlight of
the day’s programme was some camel racing!
We didn’t have far to go as a couple of
miles down the road Nairo spotted a café sign so we pulled over and treated
ourselves to coffee, cola and some tasty coffee and walnut cake. The “café” was
actually a rather more ambitious venture since it also sold local produce and
assorted country crafts stuff. It was also heaving with people so we had to
wait rather longer than was ideal before our order arrived.
Suitably refreshed we set off heading south
east with the wind fully in our favour and made good time to Fakenham. I
celebrated our arrival by doing a lap of honour round the roundabout before
entering the town – Nairo was somewhat less complementary about my antics! As we head out of the town we stopped at the Fakenham
Gas Museum which seemed a rather quirky attraction to find in north Norfolk.
With some post-ride giggling on the
ineterweb I learnt that the gas works produced town gas from 1846 to 1965 when
it was the last one operating in the UK after the others had been closed and
demolished. It is the only complete town gas works in the country and has been
converted in to a museum which opened in 1987. It is also protected as a
Scheduled Ancient Monument.
We paused at the delightfully named hamlet
of Pudding Norton with the remains of St Margaret’s Church visible from the
road. The church is believed to date from the 12th and 13th
centuries and it is thought to have been used until the reign of Elizabeth I.
Little is known about it after then. Today, only the west tower and part of the
west end of the nave remain.
Nairo and I continued to make excellent speed
as we headed south east towards Dereham before turning back to Watton. The
riding was excellent marred only by quite a lot of traffic. This being rural Norfolk
even the B roads are busy. The last leg back into the wind made sure that any
fuel left in the tank was pretty well used up so we adjourned to Watton’s
greasy spoon to top up.