Norfolk and Norwich Group of Advanced Motorists
Registered Charity Number 1051282. Affiliated to the Institute of Advanced Motorists Ltd.
It was around 0800 when the messages started to be posted on the WhatsApp group, Southwold today, you do know that the Latitude festival is on? Oh and there’s also the Old Buckenham air show, both of which were on our route. This still didn’t deter 8 riders from turning up on a glorious sunny Sunday morning. We rode as one group to the market place at Swaffham to pick up a further 5 riders. Splitting into 3 groups we made the decision to bypass Old Bucks but to risk Latitude as we assumed most festival goers would already be there. Ian C and Mel led two of the groups to Watton and then down to Old Bucks, bypassing the centre thanks to Mel’s route planning and on to Harleston. We were heading towards Halesworth when we spotted the dreaded road closed ahead signs, fortunately it was a week-day closure and we were able to navigate the twenty or so coned off holes in the road as we made our way towards Reydon. We passed the Latitude venue with the minimum of hold ups and made our way to our destination which was the Old Hall café. Normally we would go onto the pier but parking can be problematic and given it was a rare sunny day we knew it would be busy. The Old Hall fulfilled our basic requirements of a brew, cake and ample parking. Offering scenic walks, bike hire and a maize maze it is a very popular venue and worth a visit if you are in the area. It would be remiss of me not to mention that Ian’s group arrived slightly later than the rest of us, Ian’s excuse was that he had 2 postcodes in his sat nav beginning IP so it wasn’t until they were nearly at Sizewell that he chose the alternative one.
As per the norm competing commitments meant that several different routes were chosen to get back. All in all, it was varied ride out covering around 150 miles in pleasant riding conditions let’s hope the next ride out to Melton is as good.
Cheers for now
Dave C
