Lawshall - Lowestoft - Wymondham

Miles today 106.5
In 6 hrs 35mins burning 2833 Kcal climbing 2220 ft

Miles total 531
In 34 hrs 57 mins burning 17417 Kcal climbing 26780 ft
Most miles in a day : 106.5

A relatively early start in sunshine this morning. It was pleasant and slowly warmed up, causing me to slowly fill my back pockets with clothes as I removed them. Showers had been forecast and I didn’t want to get caught out again.

Initially the route was rolling through arable farm land. It was a slow descent from 330 feet altitude to the sea. I decided that I like Suffolk. It was flat, I had a tail wind, what cars there were, were driven by nice people who gave me room. After 3 hours this was tempered by the need to stop as my sit bones and balls (steady) of my feet were hurting. It was the relentless flatness and tailwind that caused this. I was not moving around on the saddle, or changing the pressure on my feet which is normally caused by hills, junctions etc. I stopped in the sun, ate, had a wander round, quick wee, and then tried to figure out how to fit everything that I now didn’t need or want to wear into my three back pockets. When I left I was a hump back to the upper waist. Just over 20 miles to Lowestoft.

Down the High Street, couple of cakes and a drink, and off down the promenade. It is a wide prom, and it has a cycle lane along it, a fact the walkers failed to recognise, and indeed it seemed to be on the majority’s desire line as more seemed on it than not. I weaved gently through the people to the end of the prom where the cycle path ended and left me nowhere near a road and only pedestrian areas. I tootled on and got back on the road.

So where is the Ness? I had mapped it on my sat nav, but ended up going down two wrong roads. They haven’t gone out of their way to let you know where it is. The only sign I saw was 100yds from it in the industrial estate that backs onto the sea. It is a bit of a let down. They have tried, it could be far worse. A car park with a few cars with people on the phone and a couple of dog walkers, dominated by a huge wind turbine, and backing onto the gas works. No one to chat to and share my arrival. I lent my bike against the ‘art’ to mark this as the furthest east, sat on the art and ate my cakes facing toward Ardnamurchan. Me, my bike and a bee.

Finding the way out was almost as difficult. Back into the industrial estate, out another way and onto a main road. The cycle path came and went, leaving me on the wrong side of the main road, which I needed to cross to get back onto the right side of the road. Perhaps if the people who design the cycle paths rode a bike from time to time, maybe more of them could be of some use.

Norfolk welcomed me and I passed through the north end of the broads. The scenery was familiar, much like the Somerset Levels and Moors. Then I was back to arable, mile after mile of stubble, and newly ploughed land. Trying to hide behind hedges, where there were some, for shelter from the wind, I tacked into the wind heading for Wymondham.

I arrived at the B&B just after my dad, and it started to spot with rain. It had been sunny intervals all day, even up to 25C, and to mark the end of the day there was a thunderstorm. It was so heavy torrential rain came into the B&B outside our room, so determined was it to get me wet.

It’s a half day tomorrow. Intended to be a rest day. I feel fine, but realise there is a long way and many more hills yet. I’m fine on the flat and pushed into the wind ok. My power drops quickly on the hills, and my heart rates are down though tiredness. All said and done quite good really.