I had an intention to ride the Norfolk Border on the summer solstice in 2019, but something or other came up, which made it something that I’d have to put off for another time. Given the 2020 situation with Covid-19, I had the free time with no weekend commitments to hit the summer solstice of June 20th 2020.
I’d heard that the border ride was indeed a sportive in the summer time, and managed to find and edit the GPS file that the sportive organiser’s offer on the internet. I edited the route to start and finish in Outwell – pretty much the most Westerly end of the route, this was because I’d need to drive from home to the start point and back, and I wanted to make that the minimum distance really. Route planned and date sorted, I was going to get up early and head over to Outwell to be able to start the ride at sunrise.
Up Before Sunrise
03:30am wake up call, and leaving the house at 04:00am meant I was in Outwell around 04:45, bit of faff parking up somewhere ‘safe’, then I got kitted up, and was off… watching a lovely sunrise and looking forward to a good day awheel.
The ride was nice and peaceful early morning, and I enjoyed very much just turning the wheels trough Kings Lynn and out towards the coast at Hunstanton. As I got closer to the coast the road started to rise and fall a little but nothing severe. I was focusing on how nice it was to be riding in peace and also just metering the effort, after all this was the first 300Km+ ride I’d done in a while. There were some very colourful poppy and lavender fields heading through Heacham – worth a photo stop.
Coastal Section
Hunstanton came to me, and I popped down to the sea front for a quick picture of the early morning blue. Nice, but not my end of the coast really. I’ve spent loads of time further round the Norfolk coast and was looking forward to riding through it again
I’d decided to take a food stop in Wells-next-the-sea, at the Co-Op there. I got a couple of croissants and a Muller rice along with a coffee, they went down well but meant that a toilet stop was becoming necessary. There was a loo in the shop, but it was blocked off with a wall of toilet rolls… the irony.
I had to get moving again and look out for an ‘opportunity’ for a comfort break. Well, the roadside wasn’t offering any such obvious facility and I had to keep things locked down until I rolled into Cromer. I knew that in Cromer there was a public loo at the top of town in the cliff top car park, however I didn’t hold out much hope for it being; a) open and b) clean enough to use. To my delight it was open and it was unusually clean. Bonus.
I had arranged to say a hello to my brother in law and his family in Mundesley, just a bit further on round the coast. This would be the first time I had seen them since the top of lockdown in March, so I was really looking forward to meeting up – albeit socially distanced.
The timing was great, I arrived in Mundesley around 10:30am, promptly placed my order for a coffee and a bacon & sausage sandwich and waited for food and family to arrive. It wasn’t long before both were with me and it was so lovely to see my brother-in-law, his wife and my nephews. I ate my sandwich and drank my coffee whilst they got ice cream and larked about on the grass above the beach. I wasn’t with them long really, 30-40 mins was all as I had to get riding again, but what a nice stop…
Continuing round the coast I knew what was coming, it was such a well trodden path for me from the days when I used to live in Norfolk… Bacton, Walcot, Happisbugh, Waxham, all the way round to Great Yarmouth. The riding was typically windy and my legs were protesting at the effort to maintain speed.
Heading Inland
Great Yarmouth was the point at which the ride began to head West, directly in land and straight into the wind. A bastard on tired and unconditioned legs, but the skirmishes on and off sections of dual carriage we’re keeping me on my toes. From here-on the roads were main and wide, with relatively rough surfacing (the kind that doesn’t allow any kind of freewheeling without grinding you to a halt), with plenty of traffic too. I was looking forward to a McDonalds at a garage soon, the drive throughs had just started to open up again post Covid-19 lockdown and I was again in need of food.
I stopped at a Services in between Beccles and Loddon, but unfortunately the McDonald’s drive though was absolutely stuffed with traffic, I didn’t want to queue up on my bike, sandwiched in with that lot so I headed to the garage and got a very average sandwich, a can of coke and some milkshake. The rest off the bike was welcome but the food was just functional. Leaving the garage I was on my way to parts of Suffolk I’d spent time in; Harleston – one of my mates I did my apprenticeship with lived here, and I spent many a boozed night in the pub there. Through Harleston, and then it was Eye and Diss that I was aiming for. I’d spent many, many nights in recording studios around these 2 towns. Happy memories were passing through my thoughts, even though my legs were protesting and felt relatively empty.
BCQ to look out for
The road was becoming a drag to be honest, my distance legs had not been exercised in the normal way this year, mostly due to the suspension of Audax events. John Gallagher, of Crewe Clarion and Audax UK membership had told me about the CTC’s British Cycle Quest (BCQ) and I had been picking off some of my local checkpoints whilst out for rides. Passing through Thetford, I had the opportunity to gain my first Norfolk BCQ checkpoint. The idea is that you ride to a checkpoint, or point of interest and answer a question about that particular thing. Checkpoints can be buildings, statues, post boxes, village features etc etc. You record your answer against the checkpoint and then every now and then you send your recorder sheet into the CTC for validation. It’s not Audax (but is very muh like an info control), but it gives you a purpose to ride to destinations that you may not otherwise. I like this kind of thing, especially as it is free and open to non members. So, I arrived at the statue of Thomas Paine in Thetford to answer the BCQ question and once noted (photographed for later) I had a sit down and a snack.
Finishing Up
The next highlight of the ride was to feel as though I was on the finishing leg, which upon leaving Thetford and getting through the forest to Brandon, certainly felt as though I was on. I was edging back into Fenland territory and fortunately the evening had calmed the wind down a little bit. Legs were very fatigued now and I was pushing hard to keep speed up and get back to the car before sunset. I was spurred on by listening to a download of Shaun Keaveny’s 6Music show and in particular a track by Vitalic called La Rock 01. Just what I needed.
A road closed sign unnerved me a little as I was heading off to Welney Nature Reserve. Any diversion on these fen roads would have been a long and not needed nightmare at this stage, fortunately I could get through ok. Past Welney, and I just had a few more K’s to go. Easy riding now.
Arriving back at the car, I was very pleased to find it as I left it. I was overall quite happy with the ride, I’d enjoyed very much the stretch from the start and round to Great Yarmouth, but the Suffolk border parts were a slog into a nagging wind on unconditioned legs. In mind of the lack of distance riding so far through 2020 I was pleased to have rattled off a 320Km ride, but as far as undertaking any serious 1000+Km randonné in the near future… this ride showed me there was much work to do.
