ITMA. It's that man again

Herewith Stan Harris's log of his recent trip to his Cottage in Suffolk with Tim Welch.

Looks though they had a good trip - and they were even talking in a civil manner to each other when they were out with the club during the following week!

Tim & Stan Trip to the Cottage

I left home at 7.15am to ride to Tims house in the Oval, Turnford.

On arrival I was greeted by Mary & Tim and after a short chat we got on our bikes for the first leg of our ride to Takeley by going over Harlow Common, Foster Street, and Hatfield Broad Oak.

After a short comfort break we continued on to Great Dunmow then on towards Finchingfield where we had another short stop.  We had an interesting talk with a local resident who was also a weekend cyclist.

We continued on taking the lanes to Stoke by Clare then on to Clare, we were going to have a cafe stop there, but after a short discussion decided to carry on Via Postingford, Upper Street,,Stansfield,Rede,Hawstead,and Horringer, this route bypassed Haverhill to Bury St Edmonds.

We had a short stop there before taking the last leg of the days ride towards Thetford.Until Bury St Edmonds our ride had been mainly through country lanes, the last 14 miles, however, was all along a main road, the road in places was not in good repair, so full concentration was required to avoid ridges and heavy Lorries etc.

We eventually found our Premier Inn Hotel after a tour around Thetford inner roads, and we booked in at about 3.45pm we covered the 80 miles in very good time and no bike problems. After a bath and a short rest we went to the restaurant for our evening meal.

Our room was very nice it had a double and single bed; I took the single as it was near the window but I could not open it so was quite hot in the night.

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We left the Hotel at 8.15am and rode back into the centre of Thetford, we had to find the road to Brettingham this was the beginning of a long stretch of country roads going through East Harling, Quidenham, Old Buckingham, New Buckingham, Fonces End, Hapton, Oprow, Beckenash and

We went under the A147 until we reached the tee junction of the (Ipswich Norwich road.) We turned left towards Norwich and we soon crossed the Norwich outer ring road and on to the inner ring road. Where we turned right following the Norwich station sign, we rode past the station taking the road parallel to the river then keeping on for about two miles until we came to the A1151.

There is a Launderette on the corner that has been there for many years and is a good land mark for me. We were making good time and I was confident about the route from there on, we stopped for a short time in Wroxham before carrying on the last leg of the ride to Catfield via Ludham.

We Arrived about 2pm so had plenty of time to sort ourselves out before taking a slow ride into Stalham passing the Harnser Pub where we decided to have our evening meal at about 6pm.

 I called in on Carol and Terry and had a short chat before making my way back to the Cottage,

 Tim went direct back to the Cottage and was catching up on the farming news, by reading the Catfield News magazine and he now knows how many tons of sugar we have in storage.

We both had fish and chips and a pint at the Harnser, but decided not to stay for the pub singing entertainer, so left before he started.

We watched television for a while and talked before Tims eyes began to close so, suggested we turned in for the night not sure what time it was but before 10pm I think.

Tims alarm went off about 6.40am even though he was in the main bedroom and the door firmly closed I could hear it, so it was time to get up.

 I had the first bath the water was piping hot the immersion heats the water overnight on the cheaper electricity and it easily enough for two baths so we were both clean and ready for our porridge, before cleaning the rooms, sorting out the linen and preparing to leave by 9am.

We were dead on time and left the Cottage exactly at 9am to ride to Norwich to catch the 11am .We arrived at Norwich Station 10.30am and thought we had done well, and would only have half of an hour wait before boarding the 11am train home.

Unfortunately the train was cancelled and we had to wait a further hour, then we could only book to Liverpool Street and had to book another ticket to Cheshunt. It took me a long time to get over it.

Eventually we arrived home a little tired of trains but think the bike ride home with the rain and wind against us might have been worse.

I think it was a successful trip and we covered 163 miles total at an average speed of 11,8mph.We had no problems with the bikes and no punctures.

As usual I took too much stuff, my fault.