A cycle ride to Hawstead Suffolk

Another early morning start. There was a clear blue sky and it was already warm at 8am as I set off for Nowton. I went past Nowton Park and the church at Nowton before reaching Hawstead. Here there is a big open green with wild flowers and an overgrown football field.

From this point there was a long climb up Bell Lane, the road twisting and turning but I climbed up this fairly well making use of the 15 gears. My bike is old and heavy but it is doing the job for me filling in as a temporary means of providing me some exercise and site seeing around Suffolk.

I returned home through Nowton Park where there wasn't a sole to be seen.

Today I did 11 miles for a total of 49 miles this week so far. It was also day 3 of Juneathon and this was another motivation to get out on the bike.

A cycle ride to Great Saxham Suffolk

At 8am I set off on my cycle for a shorter ride of 9.3 miles to Great Saxham. This morning was warm and dry which was welcome after yesterdays rain. I hade to compete a bit with the traffic on the road going out of Bury St Edmunds to Little Saxham.

Once I had turned up the hill to Great Saxham it was traffic free. The minor road between Gt Saxham and the A143 Horringer Road is shown as unknown and it is not possible to get directions following this route for some reason.

There was a nice downhill stretch back to Lt Saxham along the A143 before turning back to Bury.

Thats day 2 of Juneathon and so far so good.  What I have noticed so far is that cycling just doesn't give you that buzz, that runners high that you can sometimes get during a good run. Perhaps it will come if there is such a thing as a cyclists high? I am still getting pain in the heel so I am not ready yet to try running unfortunately but may be in a week or so.

A wet cycle ride to Stanningfield Suffolk

The forecast for today wasn't good and in hindsight I chose the worst time to get out and do my Junethon Cycle ride. At about 1pm the rain started as a steady drizzle and progressed into a steady rain. I wore two tops and a pair of shorts as despite the rain it wasn't cold.

At Great Whelnethum I passed an old 2nd world war pill box

However by the time I reached Stanningfield I was soaked through. Feeling damp I decided that the  Red House Pub at Stanningfield would be my half way point.  I was begining to struggle to see through my glasses and every so often this led me to stop and try and dry the lenses. Rather than find a different way home I took the easy decision of just repeating the same route home.

The ox eye daises in Cullum Rd are slightly going over now.So a wet start to Juneathon and 13.4 miles on the board. Roll on tomorrow hopefully the weather can only be better!

A cycle ride to Lackford

I warmed up for Juneathon with a 16 .4 mile ride out to Lackford in Suffolk.  I woke early this morning and eventually got up at 6.30am. The weather was overcast and the dark clouds threatened rain as I set off through Bury St Edmunds and out of town to Fornham Saint Martin. Out at Culford I disturbed a muntjac deer which was crossing the road and then made a bolt for it crashing through undergrowth to reach safety. Muntjac deer were in the local news this week after repeatedly raiding allotments in Bury St Edmunds the local gardeners want some action to cull them.


At Brockley Corner I decided to veer towards West Stow rather than Ingham. I notice on the map there is at Brockley Corner a Hill of Health Tumulus. Not sure how this got it's name ironic for a burial mound.

After West Stow I followed the road past the Anglo Saxon Village. Here you are just within the KIng's Forest . Here there is a mixture of pines and broadleaf trees and you are always likely to see deer. I turned for home along the Mildenhall Road and the next village I reached was Lackford. The run for home was fairly straight taking me though Flempton, Hengrave, Fornham All Saints and home.