Club Run to Vera’s Coffee Shop, Stalham 22/02/2023

With five Wheelers away with other commitments, Ian A and Mark thought they were the group, so they were surprised and pleased to see Graham J roll up. With Graham not having been on a club ride since October he planned to ride part of the route before heading back but wanted to say hello and let us know he was fit and well and would be joining us for future rides as time permitted.
Unfortunately the first hour of the ride was a lot wetter than forecast with rain and drizzle soaking the roads and requiring rain jackets. As the day progressed and we headed further south, it became dryer and brighter and the roads were mainly dry for the remainder of the ride.
Our route took us to Hanworth, Lower Street, Felmingham and then some different roads through Westwick, up the B1150 to Heath Road, across the A149, Yarmouth Road to Sandy Hills to cross the A149 again.
It was here in the trees that we had another surprise, John S was waiting for us. We had not seen John since our December mince pie feast at the Lighthouse, Walcott, so it was great to see him out as well.
So we headed south through Worstead to Anchor Street to join the busy but wide A1151/A149 for about a mile to Vera’s at Meales Garden Centre. Vera’s didn’t look that busy but many of the tables were booked, though we were found a table that was vacant for the next hour.
Meales is a big garden centre and the café is large and obviously busy and the staff were friendly and efficient but the food and coffee we had was nothing special, it was filling and reasonably priced, so it did the job.
Leaving Vera’s we had another mile on the main road and B1159 before turning onto quieter lanes for East Ruston. Here we deviated from the route to go to Honing Long Lane (the golden mile) to view the daffodils as we had seen patches of daffs in full bloom. Alas the golden mile was only green, we were probably a week too early. So we continued to Witton, where we re-joined the route and at Bacton Wood, John headed for home while we continued on the familiar route north west through Knapton, Trunch, Northrepps, Metton to Gresham for the final split.

PC to PC 52 miles at an average speed of 13.9 mph
Riders: Ian A, Graham J, John S and Mark leading

Upcoming Rides –
Saturday 25th – Pensthorpe
Wednesday 1st March – Junction 21, Themelthorpe
Routes for rides on the website under Dates and Destinations: https://nnwheelers.co.uk/club-runs/