Good Friday, 18th April 2014: My apologies for the large delay in producing a post. I have been on holiday in the Scottish Highlands and wonderful it was too. I had hoped to complete a few posts as I travelled – but the Internet connections were a little like wet string! Given the mountains the mobile phone connections were also very patchy. We would find no signal and then a few txt messages would worm their way into my phone, but I would only be able to line up replies and hope they would get sent as another brief connection was made.
Despite it being a Bank Holiday it seemed to me that the roads were pretty quite – well the ones followed by the RR30 and NCN1 anyway. Yes there were loads of people at Felbrigg Hall – but not particularly in my way. That was all to change over the second half of the journey.
The good news was that although the weather wasn’t as nice as I had anticipated from the weather forecast it wasn’t too bad. I only really got caught in light rain once and I soon dried off.
The bad news was Wells-next-the-sea was rammed full of people, I punctured, replaced the inner tube and in my impatience nipped it. All this whilst there were loads of people milling around.
This wasn’t the path I cycled, the route followed the road out of Wiveton, but it did pass Blakeney Esker (a ridge formed by glacial action. There is a byway across the edge of it, but not the route of NCN1. The other side of the road has a car park for motons to het out and enjoy the Wiveton Downs Nature Reserve.
Blakeney Esker
Map of my Ride
Information about Blakeney Esker
I trundled along the country lanes through Langham, (where I once went to see glass-blowing in action). The next stop was Binham famous for Binham Priory. Although if I am honest I didn't know about the Priory until I came across it on this ride. Which means that the route has changed since the last time I cycled it – or I cycled past it without noticing!
Binham Priory
The church is still in use as a place of worship and there seemed to be a Good Friday Service on when I went past.
Priory Church of St Mary and the Holy Cross, Binham
I can be a bit fussy when it comes to cycle routes – little-used country lanes and hard-packed mud. smooth byways work best for me. After passing through Binham and then Wighton the route followed a RUPP or green dot path as I think of them.
The path wasn’t too bad, occasionally soft and sandy but not so much that I felt front wheel sliding away. In the distance you can see it passes through a wood, which again was hard going but not for too long.
Off-road Route Wighton to Wells-next-the-sea
At first I though that the entire field was taken up with a solar farm, it appears to be a single strip of solar panels and a reservoir.
In the distance you can see a tower on the Holkham Hall Estate. This was at the crossroads of several green dot roads – Gallow Hill. (Here is the reservoir on the 25K map.)
The View from Gallow Hill
At this point I had a choice, I could have taken a more direct route to King’s Lynn (16miles/25Km), but I was on a roll.I had come in from the left and was taking a route behind me – Market Lane. The more direct route would initially follow Gallow Hill Belt.
Gallow HIll crossroads
Market Lane was quite a stony route and downhill. It was the least pleasant track of the day for me. Fortunately it wasn’t that long. I soon found myself in Wells-next-the-sea and quickly popped out onto the Quay. As I mentioned it was like dropping from an uninhabited place to one packed with people. Had there been a law passed telling people to go to the seaside?
I cycled down Beach Road and had a look at the sea, these boats are purpose built for use by companies involved in the offshore wind farms in the Greater Wash (by Tidal Transit).
Eden Rose – Wells-next-the-sea
Although it was busy, the weather was not too warm and so most people seemed to be milling around. It wasn’t that clear to me how/where I went next – around the Holkham Meals.
Wells-next-the-sea Sands
It was a sandy and stony path, not too bad for cycling along although sand isn’t my favourite cycling surface. There seemed loads of people and quite a few kids and dogs, so I had to take care picking my routes. At one point I thought the sand was getting softer – it wasn’t it was my back tyre going down.
I could face fixing the tyre along the track so decided to carry on in the hope there would be a more suitable place to mend it. The flat tyre provided better traction in the sand.
Next – Fixing the tyre and back to King’s Lynn
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