Day 2 Norfolk Coast Tour

After waking up at 5.30am, and after a coffee, I packed up and was on the rode nice and early. Rather than going on the roads I followed the coastal path, which after about a mile ended. So was left pushing dragging the bike along the beach until I could escape onto an actual road. This would not be the first time today I would realise how heavy a loaded up bike is. I did finally manage the 5 miles into Hunstanton where I grabbed some breakfast: a lovely sausage sandwich.

After breakfast I headed towards Wells-next-the-sea, it was about 20 miles on small country roads. A lovely few hours annoying car drivers in Norfolk.

There I took a little break in a coffee shop to decide on a ‘plan’ for the rest of the day. Although last night’s wild camping was a success I fancied needed a shower. So after a bit of googling I found a campsite in Cromer, close to the town, booked it and jumped on the bike to cycle the 21 miles.

I now know how Hannibal felt crossing the Alps with his elephants. This was not the easiest cycle ride. There were bloody great hills everywhere, twice I had to get off and push the bike up them! At the top of one of the mountains I stopped to buy a bag of tomatoes from a lovely old boy. We had a little chat and he wished me ‘good luck’ on getting to Cromer. I did wonder why he wished me good luck. All was soon to be revealed.

So it took slightly longer than anticipated. When I did finally reach Cromer I found out there is some sort of mahoosive carnival going on, there was traffic everywhere, people everywhere and kids everywhere.

So I was thankful to find the campsite, which, given the trillions of people in town was pretty quiet.

It’s a pretty basic campsite, although it does have showers. So after a tin of Heinz sausages in spaghetti (fuel for cyclists) I headed to the shower block keeping my fingers crossed that firstly, they worked, and secondly were hot.

They did work, and they were indeed hot. For all of about 2 minutes. Must remember that in the morning!

I had a stroll into town early evening – there was a carnival going on – it was rammed. They were queueing in the street for fish and chips. They were queueing in the street for kebabs. In fact, people were queueing for everything.

I bet Hannibal didn’t have to deal with that.

I didn’t hang around in town for long, just long enough to take some pictures.

I wandered back to the campsite to see if I can come up with a plan for tomorrow. Slightly worried about the weather, the BBC app said ‘heavy showers and breezy’.

Wish me luck.