Suggestions for 200 - 400 DIY starting North Norfolk Ending mid-Essex

[Oaky]

Out of interest - regarding the warnings about the unpleasantness of cycling the Kings-Lynn -> Hunstanton road:-

1. is it likely to equally apply on a weekday? (It'll be Friday 20th when I do the ride)

2. does it also apply along the rest of the A149, Hunstanton -> Cromer?

I'm currently leaning towards taking the routes already suggested upthread and avoiding the coast road, but wouldn't mind taking in some of it, if it's not going to be too unpleasant.

I'll be able to sniff it out for myself anyway next week when I'm on holiday there.  I'll be driving along there a few times myself prior to riding home.

I've probably decided to use Hemsby instead of West Somerton for a control, just to get a bit more choice of possible control locations.  Hemsby will be 106km into my ride, with a start time of ~11am, so there should be enough stuff still open.  from there it's only another 25km to the Reedham Ferry, so I should have time for a snack or even a proper dinner at the Ferry Boat Inn (or soemwhere in Reedham proper) before crossing.  Hemsby also adds 2km to the "cycle" distance on ViaMichelin, which makes me less worried that e.g. Autoroute 2010 might come out too short (although I think Martin is happy with ViaMichelin distances). 

Controls and distances now look like this:-

  0km King's Lynn
 43km Wells-next-to-the-sea
116km Hemsby
141km Reedham
176km Southwold
266km Swaffham
352km Saffron Walden
405km Maldon

(Then I ride the 12km home to Witham and sleep for as much of Saturday as I can).

BTW - I will be navigating with a few pages out of the road atlas, a few strategically printed out detail maps of tricky bits and a list of towns along my way.  Anyone care to open a book on just how ludicrously over-distance I end up going through navigational issues? 

[Fidgetbuzz]

Chris and I checked out the south gate for Holkham on Sat. The side gate for pedestrians will take a bike - giving a lovely ride to the monument and then down to the hall. Audax rides use the cafe as a control if you want a stop here before wells.

[Oaky]

Chris and I checked out the south gate for Holkham on Sat. The side gate for pedestrians will take a bike - giving a lovely ride to the monument and then down to the hall. Audax rides use the cafe as a control if you want a stop here before wells.

Many thanks.  That's this gate  I guess.

[Chris S]

Chris and I checked out the south gate for Holkham on Sat. The side gate for pedestrians will take a bike - giving a lovely ride to the monument and then down to the hall. Audax rides use the cafe as a control if you want a stop here before wells.

Many thanks.  That's this gate  I guess.

Yes.

[Oaky]

Well,  my first 400, my first DIY.  (all subject to validation, of course).

Many thanks to all who helped with route advice etc.

I'll try to find time to do a proper write up soon, but in the mean time, a summary.

East Anglian "againsterly" Hairdryer.

Combine Harvesters.  All night! (with awesome lights!)

Halesworth, Harleston or poss. Attleborough (memory is very vague about this point) where I was saved from dying of thirst by finding a kebab shop open and downing a 1.5lt bottle of pepsi.

I went most of the way round with, I think, (according to my own calculations based on ViaMichelin and a 15kph minimum) about 1.5 hours in hand for most of the time from about 100km onwards.  I really slowed towards the end, but I'm not hurting as much as I though I would.

The on-the-road distance turned out at 452km (against a ViaMichelin figure of 405km  ), taking me a spit over 25 hours to complete.

The very, very top, lifesaving tip for me was this:-

turn R at Eriswell - go thru Mildenhall which is small but has petrol stations and ATMs - so fluids and grub potentially available

The garage pastie, water, Lucozade sport, wine gums, and Double Decker from the 24h garage at mildenhall saved my ride!  (I think the guy behind the till got a bit fed up of me turning back into the shop and grabbing more stuff to add to my pile ... "oooh double deckers!" ... "Anything ELSE sir?")


(Oh, and Red Lodge was very welcome too, despite having just pastied myself up at MIldenhall).

[Tomsk]

Chapeau, Oaky!!
I'm seriously impressed by the garage raid, closely followed by a visit to the randonneur's Mecca that is Red Lodge!! But no pub stop?!

[Oaky]

Chapeau, Oaky!!
I'm seriously impressed by the garage raid, closely followed by a visit to the randonneur's Mecca that is Red Lodge!! But no pub stop?!

Lunch in the Stiffkey Red Lion (Huge plate of Balti chicken and rice accompanied by a Wherry IIRC).  Dinner in the Ferry Inn at Reedham (Veg. Lasagne with a Ferryman's ale from the Humpty Dumpty Brewery). I also had a sneaky half of Stoker's in the S&C on my way past on the final leg.

I toyed with the idea of a pub stop somewhere on the way out of Southwold, but thought better of it at the time.  With hindsight I should have done it, then I wouldn't have been so low on fluids on the Southwold to Swaffham leg.  A pint of Adnams, a pint of Orange juice and lemonade and a refill of my bottles would have gone a long way to making that stretch much more pleasant.

I was going to finish in the Blue Boar, with a pint or two of "A Drop of Nelson's Blood", but in the end opted for an ATM receipt and grabbed a pastie from Greggs, before pootling the 10 or so km home to Witham to shower and sleep.

EDIT: Each pub stop saw me ordering three drinks at once: a beer, a pint of orqange and lemonade and a pint of tap water.  I suspect they thought I had imaginary friends with me.

[Tomsk]

Thats more like it!!

[delthebike]

East Anglian "againsterly" Hairdryer.

Congrats Oaky!  
Now, about the name...  

[Oaky]

East Anglian "againsterly" Hairdryer.

Congrats Oaky!  
Now, about the name...  

I have some, at the moment.  Long overdue a cut actually.  Practically dreadlock material.

Clippers out tonight, if I get time.

[Oaky]

I finally got round to writing this up: A solo DIY 400km Audax: Kings Lynn to Maldon (The Long Way)