25th May 2025 - Ride to Southwold – Elke Martin

A cloudy but warm Sunday morning and 6 riders turned out for a ride to Southwold. We all rode together until Swaffham, picked up one more rider, then made two small groups with both groups riding the same planned route.

Once we headed further into the ride after Thetford, Watton, Old Buckenham, Pulham Market etc the roads became more interesting, winding through some lovely Suffolk landscape with a few lengthy sweeping bends to enjoy towards Harleston and Halesworth, arriving at a superb cafe slightly short of the Southwold Pier to Old Hall Cafe & Walks situated in Reydon, Southwold IP18 6SG. This cafe offers wonderful locally sourced produce and a great broad menu, a few of our riders took up the Old Hall Breakfast which looked extremely inviting. I think this café was originally introduced to us by one of our other core riders that wasn’t with us this time round, so thank you Mel T!

We sat outside welcomed by glorious sunshine overlooking miles and miles of the amazing Blyth Estuary & mudflats, a definite sense of serenity. After good conversation we all decided it would be rude not to take advantage and go on to the Southwold Pier. Surprisingly it wasn’t as busy as we thought it could be for a Sunday Bank Holiday weekend. We even had the designated motorcycle bays all to ourselves. Roly made sure to check whether we needed to pay, fortunately we didn’t! 

We walked and wondered out and about onto the Pier, for some, rekindling childhood memories. After soaking up some sun, sea and cheeky Sunday ice cream there were opportunities for a few fun photos. 

The return route was pretty much a direct route back where riders started to peel off home. Some mostly took the A47 and a few chose the longer route back. 

Thank you, Ian Rodie for leading one of the groups and Paul C as tail Charlie and thank you Roly to tail Charlie my group. 

Nearing home at Sandringham it was the icing on the cake to see a lot of the sports cars turfing out of the Annual Pageant of Motoring, Classic Car event on Sandringham Park - a celebration through the years - some serious Aston Martin’s and other wonderful head turning vehicles!

All in all, a great day out. Our next Rideout is to Bircham Windmill.

Elke