A strong south westerly and a leaden sky greeted four Wheelers at PC and the forecast sunshine seemed unlikely, though after 30 minutes or so, the sun came out and stayed out for the rest of Andrew’s ride to Gressenhall. Andrew took extreme action to avoid writing the ride report, more on that later.
To cover the miles we had a fairly direct route south and west, taking us through Gresham, Matlask, Itteringham (where the pub is up for lease), Heydon Park, Reepham to the crossing of the A1067 at Sparham.
At Elsing we turned west and into the easier crosswind to our destination at The White Swan. Having arrived just a few minutes after the 12 noon opening we were the first customers through the door and were well looked after by the staff.
With a good selection of food and drinks to choose from, we each managed to have something different and were all pleased with the quality of the meals. Chris even claimed the soup was the best he had tried and his dessert looked very good as well. During our meal, a good few other customers turned up, so it was good to see a pub doing well in the current conditions, where closures seem to be happening almost daily.
So after a very good lunch we set off, knowing that we would have a tailwind all the way home and it did make a big difference.
We went up to Brisley Green, then to Broom Green before a stop at the picturesque Bintree Mill, where we watched a red kite soaring in the wind.
From there it was through Foulsham, Thurning to Saxthorpe and onto the Matlaske road for home. We were enjoying the wind assistance and 20mph+ speeds and shortly after the S bends, Andrew hit a lump in the road, lost control and crashed, Chris fortunately just managed to avoid riding over him. Remarkably Andrew got back to his feet without any apparent major damage and his bike seemed fairly unscathed as well, just requiring some rear mech adjustments to get it working again.
A post ride update from Andrew – he went to Cromer Minor Injuries unit for a check-up and luckily got away with minor cuts and bruises.
After that excitement we re-routed to Plumstead and Baconsthorpe to get Andrew home in the shortest distance.
PC to PC 56 miles at a 14.5 mph avg.
Riders: Ian A (photos), Chris S, Mark M and Andrew B leading
Upcoming Rides –
Saturday 25th – Jane’s, East Rudham
Wednesday 29th – Rising Sun, Coltishall
Routes for rides on the website under Dates and Destinations: https://nnwheelers.co.uk/club-runs/
North Norfolk Wheelers 