Touring Norfolk in a motorhome

 Day 10 – getting to Norfolk via another 36-mile bike ride around Cambridgeshire countryside

Route: Great Shelford – Whittlesford – Duxford – route 11 to Hinxton – Icketon – Great Chesterford (via the river café and white witch and buddha just past the roman villa) – Littlebury – Audley end – Saffron Walden (via castle) – Ashdon – Bartlow – Marks’s grave – Harcamlow way roman road – e2 European long-distance route – Worsted Lodge – continuation e2 – Shelford Road – Cherry Hinton Hall – Addenbrookes hospital – Royal Papworth hospital – a1301 – campsite

Distance: 36 miles

Expenditure: £6 for coffees and cakes

 

Country roads and narrow lanes, the villages pass by one after the other. Cottages from the 1600’s with plasterwork patterns and climbing roses, pastel coloured paint and red tile roofs. Then there are the timber framed houses from late 1500’s; white plaster with etched or stamped pattern work between old grey weathered wooden beams, the latter furrowed, creased and weatherworn over the centuries.

Crossing little streams and fords with more hornwort clumps, bright green in the clear waters, white petalled flowers mid-channel, we watch dancing dragon flies darting between reed clumps and yellow irises. They skim low across the water surface evading the sudden rise of the lurking chub and dace. Aerial acrobats.

There are ancient halls and a little steam railway at Audley and a Saxon castle built of earth and flints serves as a great picnic spot Saffron Walden where we run down to the road to watch the traction engine ‘The duchess’ lumber through narrow streets; letting off steam, blowing her whistle and clanking her chains. Her weighty rumble rattles ancient diamond latticed window frames in the narrow street houses.

(https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/audley-end-house-and-gardens/ and https://saffronwalden.gov.uk/tourist-information-centre/ )

And the fields. Oh, those rolling fields. Huge swathes of corn and wheat dabbled with splashes of scarlet red poppies. A fabulous ride along an ancient roman road, now a mere footpath lined by cow parsley, foxgloves and nettles, where deer roam and pheasants take flight as we pass by.

This part of Cambridgeshire is definitely cycling country, that’s for sure.

Take the time to stop off at the Riverside barns -  Café where you will find the white witch. (https://www.facebook.com/theriversidebarns ). It is a funny little place with a spectacular pond brimming with fish and damselflies. Clearly known by locals who congregate at the tables beneath an enormous ‘whomping’ willow, whose slender branches drape right down to the ground, the coffee and cakes are good, the atmosphere calm and serene. There is an old bric-a-brac shop, a recycled/upcycled clothes shop, an art gallery, all in a mixture of wooden huts and converted railway covered wagons from the bygone age of steam.

 

And talking of cycling, keen cyclists that we are, we take the following gear with us in Bryony:

·        Cycle helmets

·        Cycle clear glasses

·        Gloves – fingerless and full waterproof

·        Two Ortlib pannier bags

·        Tool kit comprising two multi cycle tools, a pair of pliers, a set of spare chain links and two spare inner tubes (one for each bike because they have differing wheel rim sizes), some plastic gloves

·        Spare brake pads

·        Some mineral cleaning fluid and Johnson baby earbuds

·        A cleaning kit – stiff bristle brush, chain brush, chain mineral oil bottle, dirt buster cleaner spray

·        Two pumps – one hand pump and one very large stirrup pump that stays in the motorhome locker

·        Three bike locks – gold secure and three extra thick wire cables – silver secure.

·        A small handlebar bag each

·        A small first aid kit and an orange bivvy bag

·        We each have a Rab cycling windproof as well

·        Both bikes are fitted with front and rear lights

With this gear we can carry out most simple repairs and change tyres after punctures etc. If you think we are missing something from our list, do please let us know.