After a busy evening of packing, repacking, changing my mind, unpacking and repacking for the hundredth time, I woke reasonably refreshed and excited to be departing on this years Scottish adventure.
With my bike loaded and a copious amount of coffee inside me, I got going just after 9:30. Todays destination was to be my parents house just outside Lincoln, conveniently located halfway between my home in Essex and the Scottish Borders. But, I had an important stop off point on the way.
Taking my normal route up through Suffolk, Norfolk and the Lincolnshire Fens everything was going fine until leaving Sudbury. My route along the A134 was closed for a cycling event.
Not to be deterred I took to the rural back roads. And, I mean rural. Grass was growing up the middle of some of them, and an ample layer of gravel provided added excitement on many of the blind bends. There was also no other traffic around to follow, as everyone else was behaving themselves and taking the official diversion route back to the A14. But, I was on an adventure, so no mind numbing dual carriageway for me!
The lady in the box (satnav), soon got the gist of what was happening and more by luck than judgement I appeared to be heading in generally the right direction. Once past Acton and through the historic village of Lavenham I picked up the A1141 back to the still closed A134.
I was now about halfway to Bury St Edmounds, and I seemed to recognize where I was. With a bit more village hopping on unclassified roads I arrived in the village of Sicklesmere just a couple of miles from Bury. I was now back on track having taken over an hour instead of the usual fifteen minutes it takes to get here from Sudbury.
A fuel stop was now needed fairly urgently, so I stopped at the large 24 hour Tesco's on the outskirts of town. Then it was onwards to Roudham near Thetford for my important mission of the day.
Roudham is the home of the St Georges distillery and The English Whisky Company. I was here to pick up a nice aged single malt to amuse my Scottish malt loving mates on this trip. There is also an excellent coffee shop on site. I enjoyed a large Americano and a lemon curd muffin, while I posted my English Whisky exploits on social media. This had the desired effect of provoking Robbie, who organizes our trips north of the border. He advised me to sleep with one eye open if I insisted in bringing any contraband with me. I pictured him applying the blue face paints as he send his text reply.
With my bounty of English nectar safely stowed in my top case, it was time to get back on the road.
The satnav selected a slightly different route from the distillery than I had planned. But, for one it was a good choice. Smooth TT like lanes heading in the general direction of Swaffham. It was a great way to bed in my new tyres and brake pads. The roads were fast and flowing with barely any straights. I wasn't going at a ballistic pace, just making steady progress and soaking up the scenery.
I was soon on the A47 amongst the slow holiday traffic to Kings Lynn. Here I joined my usual route along the A17 across the vast Lincolnshire Fens. It always amazes me that they grow so many cabbages and cauliflowers out here. Who eats them? I for one am not the biggest fan of these school dinner horrors even though I eat a lot of other types of vegetables.
All to soon the aromas of brassicas gave way to the spiced fragrance of one of my dads amazing curries, as I turned onto their driveway. I was ready for some good food as I had been quite a ride due to the road closures and slow moving caravans.
Tomorrow I head for the border!
Here is my vlog from the trip so far.
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