Widdershins around East Anglia

[mjr]

The A17 provides a more direct route from King’s Lynn to Fossdyke, however it’s far from safe for cycling. This makes it wise to take to the back roads resulting in a journey of over 12 miles to do what the A17 manages in under 9.

I think that is not quite correct. It's 25 miles to Fosdyke by car and 26.5 by bike on shortest route. The difference between the OKish old Main Road and the newer straight ex-railway A17 between West Lynn and Sutton Bridge is almost exactly reversed between Sutton Bridge and Gedney (as cars on the A17 detour around the settlements to the south, a bit longer), then the difference Gedney-Fosdyke is annoying, with the A17 hogging the direct Washway Road while the quieter old Boston Road heads towards a ferry at Stone Quay that is no longer there (since 1815 if not before) before you double back to Fosdyke Bridge on a detour whose distance is never recovered. If the Fosdyke cycleway was extended south a bit over a half mile to the Moulton Seas End turn, it would cut 2.5 miles off the ride (making cycling 1 mile shorter than driving), but I cannot see Lincs CoCo doing anything that useful for cycling in South Holland this decade!

Anyway, factcheck over and thanks for a great write-up.

 

[IaninSheffield]

I think that is not quite correct. It's 25 miles to Fosdyke by car and 26.5 by bike on shortest route. The difference between the OKish old Main Road and the newer straight ex-railway A17 between West Lynn and Sutton Bridge is almost exactly reversed between Sutton Bridge and Gedney (as cars on the A17 detour around the settlements to the south, a bit longer), then the difference Gedney-Fosdyke is annoying, with the A17 hogging the direct Washway Road while the quieter old Boston Road heads towards a ferry at Stone Quay that is no longer there (since 1815 if not before) before you double back to Fosdyke Bridge on a detour whose distance is never recovered. If the Fosdyke cycleway was extended south a bit over a half mile to the Moulton Seas End turn, it would cut 2.5 miles off the ride (making cycling 1 mile shorter than driving), but I cannot see Lincs CoCo doing anything that useful for cycling in South Holland this decade!

Anyway, factcheck over and thanks for a great write-up.

Apologies, you're right of course.
Not sure why I said from King's Lynn when I meant to refer to the meandering back roads from Chapelgate to Fossdyke.
Thanks for the factcheck 👍

 

[Saracenlad]

Another great write up Ian. Very inspirational again. We have camped on all of those sites too; I agree with your comments about West Runton and that awful access road.