Sunny Sunday Ride at last

The forecast of cloudy and dull was thankfully wrong!
With a bit of a wiggly route planned which was plotted to confuse Jane and take us on some new tracks and lanes!
We made our way towards Walsingham but cut across to Hindringham and then over to Bale , stopping to take a picture of the village sign. Over the A148 and along quiet lanes to Swanton Movers where we to a track to the Church and then into the Nature Reserve which was pretty and new to us. We did take a wrong turn somewhere and ended up coming out on the Fulmodstone Road. Onto Guestwick where we turned and headed north up to Briston , Story and on into Holt, taking the Cley Road and making our way to Glandford for a stop off at the Art Café. Lunched on Binham Blue Pate and Salad. Bought some expensive Coffee roasted there. We made our way back to Binham in a very round about way going to Saxlingham , then back over to Langham. Had a detour over Langham Airfield to get a view out to Sea which was very clear , with the turbines easily visible. To make sure we did over 40 miles we went from Cockthorpe to Stifkey , then finally to Binham via Long Lane!

Lovely ride of 43 miles, mostly in sunshine with not much wind

Village sign in Bale 

Sign in the Swanton Novers Nature Reserve. Heard a Buzzard whilst reading this . 

Track in Reserve 

Road side display of wild primrose in the sunshine.

Town sign in Holt - The Owl being the Town's symbol.

View from the Bridge over  the River Wensum to Wiveton Church

View from the Bridge over towards Cley-next-the-sea.

Sunny pose outside the Art Café in Glandford.

View down to coast and out to sea from the edge of Lanham Airfield.

Sunday 22.03.15 Garmin Connect

Garmin Connect

Brandon scenic route

The much maligned Town of Brandon does have some pleasant areas. Cycled from the Farm to Town to get some shopping , via the River. Saw a King Fisher and plenty of other birds. Came back along Chalk Road track. Round trip of 7 miles.

Monday ride 16/03/15

Had a day off work and having got quite a few jobs done in the garden justified going for a ride as I needed some tacks to fix some roofing felt onto the Bin Shed. What started out as a quick ride to Wells and back ended up as a 33 miler!
Went via Wighton and then onto New Holkham before heading through the Park and past Holkham Hall. There must be an event coming up as there was plenty of activity and Marques going up. Headed into Wells and got the tacks , plus some bird food , just to add some weight to my bike ! Had a tea and flap jack in the little cafe. The sun had decide to come out so I decided to ride along the coast road to Salthouse and go up the steep hill to test my new gears.
The wind was coming from the north east, so I was straight into it along the coast road. I also decided that I wanted to try and hit and average speed of 13 mph for the ride. The "bastard" hill in Salt house was not too bad and the low gears were perfect. Managed to hit >30 mph on the hill down towards Wiveton before taking the smelly road to the Glandford Ford. Up the hill past the Highland Cows and onto Langham. It was starting to get cold and a bit misty as I got to the Langham Airfield Dome before  going through Cockthorpe and onto Binham.
33 miles covered with an average riding speed of 13 mph.

Long straight road through the Holkham Estate. 

View Out to the Life Boat House at Wells Next The Sea

View up the Channel at Wells

Village sign in Stiffkey

Cley-next-the-Sea and the very special Windmill.

Monday 16th March Garmin Connect

Garmin Connect

Cold ride to Hoe ( near Dereham )

Not a very good weather day for a ride , cold northerly wind and very cloudy / dull.
We only saw the sun once for about 10 minutes during the whole of the 42 mile ride.
The brightest thing we saw was this field of cabbage type plants grown for Game cover near Hindringham:

We rode through Thursford ,stopping to take the picture of the village sign and the phone box which now is used to store a defibrillator - hadn't seen that before.

Took a restricted bridleway to the south of the Village which was a rough old track that popped out onto the A148 , then after about a mile we took the track into Kettlestone and onto Little Ryburgh.
Essentially following Cycle route 13 through the Villages of Brisley, Bilney & Beetley before crossing the B1146 near Gressenhall to get to the mid point of our ride : Hoe.
After our experience of the Café at Gressenhall last weekend , we had decided on a picnic, including hot soup:

This was the Jetboil's first outing this year!
What we hadn't reckoned on was how cold and windy it was, not the time of year for an outside picnic in North Norfolk! The soup was nice and hot , even if we did have to stir it with the end of a 15mm pedal spanner! The bikes came in handy as a table:

 

 

Normally we are warmed up after a lunch stop, today we were properly chilled. We made our way north , cycling around the perimeter of Robertson Barracks , which is pretty well hidden away in the middle of nowhere. We then came to the Village of Worthing which is in need of a new sign!

Only in Norfolk ( Narwfulk) would you find this !

We continued the theme of Villages beginning with "B" by going to Billingford , then on to Bintree, taking the minor road to Bintree Mill before going into Guist , from here on , it was into a keen head wind with a serious chill in it to Swanton Novers , then a dash back to Binham as the light was dropping and the mist rolling in from the sea.



 

A good ride , but quite hard gong after lunch. Hoping for a bit of warmth next weekend ..... please.



Garmin Connect sunday 15.3.15

Garmin Connect

Another windy ride Sunday 8th March

We had been monitoring the forecast all week and it should have been a fine sunny day with temperatures up to 16 degrees.
Well , it was warm , but rather dull and windy with a strong wind ( 19 mph) coming from the South West. Also with about 15 miles to go it started to rain!
Anyway we set off with a route programmed in the Garmin to take us to Gressenhall, just north of Dereham and then back roughly along the Wensum valley.
The wind was pretty strong as we headed to Hindringham and then worked our way around Thursford and onto Great Snoring , taking the intriguingly named Dilldash Lane

Our route  took us into Fakenham then through Pudding Norton and onto Colkirk which is a pleasant village with a lovely village green and sign.

Out of focus .... but you get the general impression!
The roads were pretty quiet as we pedalled past Oxwick , then through Whissonett & Stanfield before arriving at Gressenhall where we stopped at the Museum of Rural Life and had a lunch stop. It was rather disappointing Café, really poor serving from a grumpy woman who was enough to put anyone off staying and eating. We did manage a sausage roll and tea .

That about sums it up!

Nice Gates!

Fuelled up with sausage rolls we set off for the return journey , hoping to have the wind behind us all the way back. We made good progress to North Elmham and took a little deviation to look at Bintree Mill and the River Wensum

It was here that the rain started and kept going all the way back. We went via Guist and then past Swanton Novers before taking the little roads to Bale , Field Dalling and onto Binham. We followed a Barn Owl along the road before it flew across the fields.
Arrived back at the Barn having done 43 miles.

Garmin Connect - Sunday 8th March

Garmin Connect - Sunday 8th March

Weekend Owl watch

Came downstairs at just gone 5:15 to make a cup of tea to spot a Tawny Owl sat in the sycamore tree at the front of the house. Managed to have a good look at him through the binoculars even though it was still dark. He / She was there on Sunday morning too.
Saturday morning inspection of the garden for owl pellets was incredible. I found over 30. Most of them were below the entrance to the nest box in the eaves on the garage side of the barn, Strangely however we did see Stock Doves also going into the nest box, so not sure what is going on.
Found 3 fresh pellets on Sunday morning, all under the entrance again.
On our walk on Saturday morning we witnessed crows mobbing a Buzzard and an Egret in the field below the Priory. The Egret was still around on Sunday morning.
On a drive to Holt on Saturday morning we saw Buzzards and Kestrel.
On our bike ride on Sunday I lost count of the number of Kestrel we saw , was easily over 10. Also saw 2 Buzzards and  followed a Barn Owl along the road from Field Calling into Binham.

Windy Sunday Ride. - Hunstanton and back - 46 miles.

We had planned to ride to Hunstanton since mid week and had been monitoring the weather forecast. Looked like it would be fine and dry , although rain was due after 17:00 AND there was strong winds from the SW. We set off ay 10:45 and headed towards Walsingham, straight into the wind which was much stronger than expected but we put our heads down and pushed on. I had bought a little "wing" mirror   and it was pretty good and we stopped in Walsingham  by the Church ( well one of the many) and swapped it onto Jane's bike for her to try.

Shrine of  Our Lady in Willingham - bathed in Spring Sunshine.

From there it was on past the Farm Shop and up the hill to Egmere and across the B1105 and along the little lane , past the ruins of a Church. There once was an entire village in the area which was abandoned and left to fall into ruin in the 15th Century.

Remains of Egmere Church

We carried on the minor road , coming out in between South & North Creaks. We actually had the wind behind us for about a mile which was a welcome relief! We then took the minor road in North Create and climbed up to a particularly "high" point ad exposed area with the road heading directly SW , straight into the wind. This made for a tough couple of miles before we got to Stanhoe. After Docking and on an open and exposed stretch of road , we stopped and got of the road and waited for approximately 30 Boy Racer / Gary Boy type cars to go past at high speed and all giving a throaty roar from their twin exhausts..... some looked quite smart and others pretty rough! Quite a few of them were Subaru's!
After Ringstead we took the road which skirts around Hunstanton Park and then round the back of Old Hunstanton before arriving in Hunstanton where we stopped at the Café on the cliff edge
There was some serious Kite Surfing going on in the distance and some of the surfers were taking off and literally hanging in mid air.

 Treat of the weekend was a Fish Finger sandwich for me and Jane stayed safe with a Cheese and Pickle Sandwich ( for her din dins). I made the mistake of treating us to a bowl of cheesy chips which we managed to see off anyway , but regretted later!
On our way out of Hunstanton we spotted a procession of what was either Nuns or Klu Klux Klan making their way from the beach to the Car park

 

Nuns or KKK ?

The route back took us initially along the A149 with the wind almost behind us. We sped through Thornham and then Brancaster. Both villages seem to have an increasing number of renovated house with pastel shade paint work and very neat looking low maintenance gardens. This area has the feel of  being well to do and could be call the Gold Coast.

We stopped for a picture of me outside what must be one of the last remaining AA boxes in the country.

 Took the road to Burnham Market from Burnham Deepdale and then onto Burnham Thorpe.
On the road from Burnham Thorpe up to New Holkham , we spotted 2 Red Kites and a Kestrel enjoying the winds and waiting for us to get out of the way before they probably came down on the road to clear up the rabbits and pheasants which had met their untimely end earlier.
We were treated to a Barn Owl hunting the road side verges as we cruised down Crabbe  Road into Wighton.
Arrived back at Binham having done 46 windy miles. Good ride and our legs knew they had been out cycling today.

Selfies in Hunstanton Café

New Coat and attempt at a water crossing.

Not a cycling related blog but worth recording.
Treated Amber to a new coat as her first one was getting a bit small. Very smart purple number with a fleece liner. Out on our walk on Saturday Amber , we thought was just going to look at the stream by the Ford in Binham and cross over the bridge. But no , she went straight through but stopped part way and nearly got swept down stream.

Just having a little look at the stream.

look on Jane's face is priceless & that is one wet and cold Schnoodle!
Amber crossed over the bridge on Sunday morning !