Five Harriers Go Mad in Hunstanton

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A few weeks ago during a bike ride Larissa asked if anyone fancied a ride to Hunstanton, we all loved the idea and after much messing about with dates we fixed it for yesterday. Leading up to the date many emails were exchanged and even some lovely shirts sorted out by another friend Estelle. We met at the local stadium at 6am, Larissa, Estelle, Krysta, Steve and myself. By 6.15 we had departed, the morning was cool and breezy and the forecast sunny. We spun out the first few miles with relative ease chatting along the way. Out first stop was at the glamorous Fenstanton little Chef where we enjoyed tea and the free lollies on offer (they still do them!) We also discovered we had a resident grasshopper on board but it appeared camera shy. Back on the road we were progressing well and soon reached Ely with its beautiful cathedral - here was our next stop and as we arrived we bumped into Jenny Lovesey who was busy with a pal practicing the art of 'shopping' - an activity to replace 'running' whilst she is on the injury bench - get well soon Jen! 

We dropped into a recommended café Tea for Two which was superb, great cakes (I can vouch for the sticky toffee pudding cake!) and al fresco dining meant we could watch our wheels, great facilities and they even filled our water bottles, top notch. Despite having the urge to sit in the sun eating cake all day we ploughed on. 

The ride was going well, then at around this point the wind picked up, as we approached a place called Ten Mile Bank it became really difficult, this was a long flat monotonous road and the wind was coming at us straight on for the whole distance, for me the hardest part for the day.

A quick pit stop for tea and a wee in The Angel in Watlington and we were back on it. We were counting down the miles now and the mood changed to one of determination. We stopped again at a pub called The Feathers in Dursingham, here we managed some half decent tea, a free charge of our iphones and the most unusual snack on sale - pork scratchings with a little pot of apple dipping sauce! I stuck with tea... This was the last stop and we knew we weren't far from the end. 

We left Dersingham thinking we had around 13 miles to do, as we turned a corner we saw a sign that told us Hunstanton was only 7 miles away! This was greeted with cheers and we set off with renewed vigour. The last few miles into Hunstanton were fairly undulating, and the the roads busy so we had to work hard. As we cycled up the hill towards the town we cam across the HUNSTANTON town sign, I nearly got off my bike and kissed it! We had done it! We stopped for a quick photo shoot and headed towards the beach. Larissa and I had popped our swimwear on at the last tea stop so we ran into the sea straight off our bike to the bemusement of passers by.

A few photos and some fish and chips later we were on our way back to Bedford. 

A great day out and a real achievement for us all, some of us had not cycled anywhere near this mileage before. And special thanks go to Helen and Dave who drove all the way there to bring us back - we didn't fancy the ride home! Approx 104 miles and 8 hours cycling time.

Sarah

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