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.