Suffolk and Norfolk

[Oldhippy]

I shall be pottering around Suffolk and Norfolk next week on my 'make it up as I go along' camping trip. So much history and ancient bridleways, Peddars Way and so on. I will loosely follow the Rebellion Way. If you see a loaded to the gills Genesis give me a wave. 😁

 

[All uphill]

I shall be pottering around Suffolk and Norfolk next week on my 'make it up as I go along' camping trip. So much history and ancient bridleways, Peddars Way and so on. I will loosely follow the Rebellion Way. If you see a loaded to the gills Genesis give me a wave. 😁

Have a great time.

Say hello to Bungay for me, if you pass that way.

 

[HobbesOnTour]

Enjoy your adventure!

And may I suggest

If you see a loaded to the gills Genesis give me a wave.

All bikes loaded to the gills benefit from a wave - not just the feckers on shiny new bikes

Bon voyage

 

[All uphill]

Enjoy your adventure!

And may I suggest

All bikes loaded to the gills benefit from a wave - not just the feckers on shiny new bikes

Bon voyage

I never saw you as the envious type, @HobbesOnTour

I'm sufficiently envious of @Oldhippy 's forthcoming tour to have put dates in the diary for September to revisit scenes from my childhood in the Waveney Valley.

 

[HobbesOnTour]

I never saw you as the envious type, @HobbesOnTour

We all have our moments of weakness

I'm sufficiently envious of @Oldhippy 's forthcoming tour to have put dates in the diary for September to revisit scenes from my childhood in the Waveney Valley.

Always good to have something in the diary.
A Buen Viaje to you!

 

[SuffolkBlue]

I shall be pottering around Suffolk and Norfolk next week on my 'make it up as I go along' camping trip. So much history and ancient bridleways, Peddars Way and so on. I will loosely follow the Rebellion Way. If you see a loaded to the gills Genesis give me a wave. 😁

Sounds great. Don't let anyone tell you that Suffolk and Norfolk are flat!! Ok, so there are no major climbs but it "undulates" a lot and it always seems to be windy here!! Road surfaces are currently quite poor but that seems to be the same everywhere. It's actually the less used back roads that are in better condition.

I'm sure you've got a brilliant route planned out but if you would like some tips on places of interest to visit/cafe stops then drop me a PM and I'll see what I can come up with. I'm located in North/Mid Suffolk but my family are originally from Norwich (I'm the only Suffolk born in the family)!

 

[mjr]

Good luck. Following the Rebellion Way loosely is definitely best, especially between Lynn and Ringstead where it boringly follows NCN1, possibly because its creators were unfamiliar with the permissive routes through the royal parishes. If you'd like a detour with more off-road, but not the full swamp Peddars Way treatment, I humbly suggest https://cycle.travel/map/journey/372214 as a pick-and-mix. There's a couple of bits where it uses tracks (mostly farm vehicle tracks) that are officially footpaths that I've ridden cautiously a few times and no-one has ever complained (usually you see no-one on them, they're not like the coast path boardwalk!) and a couple of gates at Reffley Woods which I really ought to check have been widened to allow bikes. Some of those I couldn't get cycle.travel to follow the exact route because OpenStreetMap doesn't quite have the right access settings, so the track takes a straight line.

 

[All uphill]

Sounds great. Don't let anyone tell you that Suffolk and Norfolk are flat!! Ok, so there are no major climbs but it "undulates" a lot and it always seems to be windy here!! Road surfaces are currently quite poor but that seems to be the same everywhere. It's actually the less used back roads that are in better condition.

I'm sure you've got a brilliant route planned out but if you would like some tips on places of interest to visit/cafe stops then drop me a PM and I'll see what I can come up with. I'm located in North/Mid Suffolk but my family are originally from Norwich (I'm the only Suffolk born in the family)!

Places that come to my mind are Burgh Castle and Caistor St Edmund, if you like Roman sites.

Framlingham, Norwich and Bungay castles are good Norman sites, and then there are the dozens of lovely medieval churches.

I'd be interested in your recommendations @SuffolkBlue. My ideas about cafes and places of interest are all 25+ years out of date.

Apologies @Oldhippy if I am butting in to your thread.

 

[Oldhippy]

I love Framlingham Castle so will get there. I'm armed with Sustrans Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk maps and shall be wherever the fancy takes. Framlingham, Norwich, Bury St Edmunds I want to see. I will make a lot up because I can and don't forget to wave if you see me at the side of the road trying to figure out I am. 😁

 

[mjr]

If you don't like my very bendy route and want something more direct and wilderness-y like Peddars Way but less trashed by scramblers, Icknield Way under its various names (Brick Yard Lane, Eastgate Drove, Icknield Way, School Road, Vicarage Lane) runs north from the old church at Gayton Thorpe (on Rebellion Way I think, a short hop west of Peddars Way) to eventually Sedgeford station, where a bit of farm-track I've not used links a dead-end bridleway to NCN1 near one of the less-trashed bits of Peddars Way. But if you use all that, you'd miss a lot of sights from the RW guide.

I don't really understand why Peddars Way gets all the attention from National Trails and Norfolk Trails, while this branch of Icknield Way seems pretty undocumented and unexplored for cycling. There are some history/walking pages like http://www.twithr.co.uk/norfolk/icknieldway.htm

 

[HobbesOnTour]

don't forget to wave if you see me at the side of the road trying to figure out I am. 😁

I'm intrigued!
Who I am?
What I am?
Where I am going to?
Where I am going from?
Or purely existential..... If I am?
😀
A bike adventure - great for thinking and figuring things out!

Is a bit of stealth camping an option?

 

[Oldhippy]

Stealth camping is very much an option. There is a large tract of Common forest I believe along the Rebellion Way.

 

[Oldhippy]

Cycling is undoubtedly where I do my best thinking.

 

[sevenfourate]

Sounds great. Don't let anyone tell you that Suffolk and Norfolk are flat!! Ok, so there are no major climbs but it "undulates" a lot and it always seems to be windy here!!

Agreed. So either you're right. Or; i'm even more unfit than i thought.....

 

[HobbesOnTour]

Stealth camping is very much an option. There is a large tract of Common forest I believe along the Rebellion Way.

Well then, you really have lots of freedom!
Enjoy!
(And get some dirt on that shiny feckin' bike of yours )