Day 10, to Beccles

Another good day of cycling. Sunny weather and quiet country roads. Monday is a holiday making accommodation difficult to find this weekend; we’re staying this night at a pub/motel in a small village and paying a bit too much. We’ve sorted out good places for the next two nights.

We’ve done about 620km in our eight days of riding. We are roughly following the N1 cycle route, but the N1 goes to extremes to use footpaths and cycle lanes, trading comfortable pavement and a direct route for car-free routes. Google maps offers routing for bicycles and often comes up with a better route, using the N1 where it is reasonable and more direct roads where it makes sense. Between the two we’ve found good cycling the last few days without riding unpaved footpaths or busy highways.

Motorists are considerate. The narrow roads make it difficult to pass and the hedge rows limit visibility on corners, but drivers wait until the way is clear. Almost to a fault.

We are easing into distance riding. Our legs are stronger, Inge’s cold is slowly going away, we are starting to get the feeling of powering up some hills and cranking on the flats.

Good cycling maps are impossible to purchase. They are available; Sustrans has great maps but didn’t think about distribution. Bike shops have never heard of them, the occasional tourist office may have a few, but generally they are a secret. This seems typical of the UK. It reminds me of the old project management joke: “Good, cheap, fast. Pick two.” Here it would be: “Good idea, well done, well delivered. Pick two, hope for one.”

Some photos

Canterbury

Cnaterbury

Canterbury

Canterbury

Ferry across the Thames

High Street Maldon

Maldon

Ipswich

Ipswich

Ipswich – old and new

Ipswich