NORTH SEA SUMMER

I slept well on the ferry. The North Sea was as calm as could be and there was a holiday atmosphere on deck as the sun went down. Leaving Hoek van Holland In the morning as we slid into the docks at Harwich it was a grey, drizzly Sunday morning. The whole of the Harwich old town was closed, but then, it was very early, so I had some breakfast in a seaside shelter and admired the run-down, crumbling seaside architecture while I waited for the Harwich harbour ferry to take me across to Felixstowe. Harwich Breakfast spot Luckily the pier had a nice little cafe beside it where a small group of travellers was waiting to cross, among them a Dutch couple who came regularly to Suffolk on their bikes to escape the overcrowded Dutch bike paths.  They loved the fact that in Suffolk you can cycle all day on the dense network of small country lanes and hardly see a car - or another cyclist.  After my own experience I had a lot of sympathy with them. Harwich harbour ...

I had reached King's Lynn at the end of July, where I had caught a train back to London, leaving the North Sea coast free for holidaymakers during the school holidays. It was the end of the first week in September when I started off again, catching the train back to King's Lynn and cycling off along the course of the old A17.  This is a trip I've made many times and I didn't feel the need to take the detours that the NSCR takes to avoid traffic.  I almost regretted this decision as the heavy lorries hurtled past me on the A17 between Saracen's Head and Fosdyke, but it was soon over and I was back among fields full of cabbages again.  I should say here that although I raced through this part of the journey it's well worth making a few stops to see some of the astonishing fenland churches, especially the one at Walpole St Peter. River Welland at Fosdyke Bridge Cabbages On the way to Boston I found another dyke, but this one was made getting on for 2000...