One track mind

[lnr]

Ok, we're mad. Saturday we woke up later than intended, had leftover pizza for breakfast and then headed to the station and got the 11:33 train to Kings Lynn and set out from there to cycle to Hunstanton. With no map, and nothing to effect repairs. We found National Cycle Network route 1 and it seemed to be going in the right direction, so we followed it for a bit, and then just followed road signs and our noses. We reached Hunstanton about 2pm or so and went for a potter and a swim and then had fish and chips for "lunch" at about 3.

At this point we should probably have headed back the way we'd come and gone back to Kings Lynn, but we knew there were trains from Sheringham or Cromer, and it didn't look *too* far around the coast, so with the vague thought we could give up and find a B&B at Wells next the Sea if necessary we headed on along the A149, and eventually made it to Cromer. We stopped at the Ship pub in one of the villages (Brancaster: The Ship Inn) for a pint of lime and lemonade (him) or soda (me), and then for an icecream and a sit down at a cafe in Wells, but otherwise just had a couple of little stops for a glug of water, catch our breath, admire the views and to put on lights when it began to get dim. We got into Sheringham at 21:15 and realised we'd missed the previous train by 25 mins, and it was over an hour til the next one, so we pressed on the last 4 miles to Cromer, for a total of 63.5 miles.

To get from Cromer to Cambridge you have to change at Norwich. The last train from Cromer to Norwich is 22:27. The last train from Norwich to Cambridge is 22:10. You can see the flaw with this little plan. So with 45 mins to kill we asked the 4 most immediately obvious places if they had a room for the night, and when they all said no we asked the last for directions to the station, which had entirely eluded us so far. Norwich looked like being almost as hard to find somewhere to sleep in, especially since it was now after 23:00, but the chain hotel near the station pointed us at a street with some B&Bs on it, and one of them turned out to have a spare double room. So for the princely sum of 10 quid each we got a half decent night's kip before getting the first train home on Sunday morning (9:15am), for a very lazy Sunday of dozing, reading, listening to music, takeaway curry and The Truman Show.

Gmap route - though the first bit is rather fudged - the hybrid view doesn't have data at a high enough level to spot off-road routes. The calorie counter on that page is based on running. I've tried entering relevant data into assorted calculators, and it's possibly the trip burned anywhere between about 1500 and 5000 calories.

Comments

[nja.livejournal.com]

That's an "interesting" route through Dersingham! I'm really jealous - it's ages since I went any distance on my bike, and that's one of my favourite parts of the world. Castle Rising, the bit where the road does a dog-leg at the Burnham Overy mill, Wells, Blakeney, Cley. Sigh.

[lnr]

Well we didn't have a map. We got to the junction at the bottom and it said Ingwossname right, all other routes left. So we went left, knowing that right was probably shorter and better but not being quite convinced enough to just go for it.

I definitely remember the dog-leg at the mill though, lovely spot. And Cley is gorgeous and it's *insane* that the road through it is still designated as an A-road. Didn't see the Castle proper at Castle Rising, we'll have to go back. Really enjoyed the woods at Sandringham. And swimming in the sea at Hunstanton was just fabulous. Perfectly warm, and just lacking in *depth*.

[nja.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I've driven the same route "through" Dersingham, it's not at all obvious if you don't have a map. Castle Rising is easy to miss - they formed the ramparts by digging out a large pit and piling the earth round the edges, and then building the castle in the pit, so it's not visible at all if you approach it from the wrong angle.

[senji.livejournal.com]

That's quite some way :-)

How much sea did you see?

[lnr]

We first spotted it about 5 miles or so before Hunstanton. It kindof went in and out of sight a lot along the coast road after there though. Lots of up and down little valleys a bit inland, and lots of salt marsh even when we were quite close.

[bjh21.livejournal.com]

Cor. That's quite some distance. I did a slightly shorter version of it in reverse a few weeks ago (http://bjh21.livejournal.com/132028.html), only I'd actually planned it, taken a map, and so forth, and I'd worn myself out by the time I reached Hunstanton. Well done!

My route is here (http://bjh21.me.uk/junk/tracks/2006-06-10.html) if you zoom out far enough to see the coast.

Oh, and the next section of coast is quite nice too, though you might find the ride to Great Yarmouth rather short after this one.

[lnr]

It was partly having seen your posts on the subject that made me think we could do it! Doesn't looks like your route was *much* shorter than ours mind. The Yarmouth bit does sound tempting too. Was maybe thinking that next time we'd book a B&B in advance and do the whole lot in two days, set off at more sensible times of the day, and get to spend some more time at the seaside itself.

Mind you I'm flagging at about 40 miles, so a bit shorter isn't a problem.

[the-elyan.livejournal.com]

I know those train rouites well...

Lynn to Sheringham is a hell of a hike - 55 miles or so? Have done it on the bus, and that's bad enough...

There is indeed a plentiful supply of B&B's near Norwich station though, and you can wake up and look over the Wensum to the weeping willows and the beautiful spire of the cathedral beyond...

[lnr]

We were on the wrong side of the house for the view, but it was nice walking back to the station past the willows.

It was about 60 Lynn to Cromer, and Cromer's supposed to be 4 miles from Sheringham, so yeah 55 is not far wrong. Though we did add a little extra with faffing.