The Dun-South-Lowe-Bec-Ket Run

Having had our slower day at Orford Ness et al, it was time to make a move, although in honesty, neither of us really wanted to leave our Leiston micro-cottage.  We reckoned it was 'only about a hundred miles ' to our next hotel, so there was plenty of day to strike north for a bit.

First stop was only a few miles up the road, at Dunwich, 'the' village that fell into the sea, such has been the rate of coastal erosion.  Dunwich is also the destination of the Dunwich Dynamo, popularly known as The Dun Run, a hundred mile overnight bicycle ride from London, and the shingle beach on which bestie and I enjoyed for a few minutes is where one crashes out under a blanket, next to one's noble steed.

Another few miles up t'road was Southwold, a very pretty seaside town with pier and a parade we chuntered up and down before obligatory photos of the beach, the lighthouse and each other.

Our main destination before heading west was Lowestoft.  The A12 is carried over Inner Harbour on a new bascule bridge with a rather lovely design, as visited by Auto Shenanigans not very long ago.  At the nearby Asda we took in the view of the Gullwing bridge, and I then made a dash into the shop for a new USB power adapter since the one I installed on my bike several years ago had become very temperamental.  Typical cheap eBay rubbish, it seems.  A hop, skip and a jump took us to one of bestie's destinations, the easternmost point on the British mainland.  You'd hardly know it was there because it's surrounded by industrial units and barely signposted either!  But there is a large compass rose there, with bronze plaques pointing to places all around the world: Edinburgh, John o'Groats, Ljubljana, Zagreb...and a place 200-odd miles away called Petit Couroune, which happened to be twinned with our next destination.

Skilfully avoiding a local yokel who was clearly under some sort of influence, we left for the town of Beccles, lunch and a bit of a rest. We found our quayside cafe on a short spur of the River Waveney, and enjoyed hot baguettes and some decaf lattes, but the day was so lovely and warm that we downed plenty of water too!  We didn't really have time for an afternoon splash at Beccles Lido (and in any case our hotel would have something similar) and instead made haste for the big roads west towards Kettering.  Well, sort of haste.  We rode northwest past Norwich to see Kings Lynn, which bestie recalled as a destination once upon a time.  On South Quay, next to the River Great Ouse, there we found a cafe and had a refreshing pot of tea for a while.

Then we made haste for Kettering!  Passing through Peterborough we hoped for a glimpse of the Hovertrain, but I think we were just a bit too far away on the bypass to see it.  One day, though.

At long last we reached the outskirts of town and piled into our last stay of the holiday, for which we treated ourselves to a spa hotel.  I'm sure the posh clientele were knocked out when we turned up in our dusty, roadworn motorbike clothes and leather boots!  Sadly, as with last year's holiday, we were too late arriving to use the pool that evening but figured we could use a pre-ride session in the morning.  What we did make use of was the restaurant, and we enjoyed a very lovely meal.  My mushroom risotto was excellent, and the chocolate pudding likewise.  And with that, we retired to our room for a little bit of trip planning, a cup or two of herbal tea, and quite a bit of YouTube on the internet TV.  We made an interesting discovery too but you'll need to read bestie BikerBabe's blip to find out what!