cycleride

	The Bike Ride
John Rousell and I spent a week - in July, 1999, cycling across the country from Barmouth in Wales to Great Yarmouth in East Anglia. Over 340 miles. We were dropped off in Barmouth on Sunday evening by Sandy and Leon and we spent the first night at the local Youth Hostel. Jim Scott had been coming with us, but an operation on his back had not quite healed so he did the ride later in the summer - alone and quicker! Luckily the weather stayed fine all week - just a little headwind all the way. The first couple of nights we ate either in the Youth Hostel or in a local pub - The Copt Oak! After that we catered for ourselves - why not, I'm a chef. By the time we reached Sheringham on Friday, we'd learned how to forage for ingredients and had wonderful meals: Hot salad of potatoes and croutons - Roast Cod with caramelised onions and bouquetiere of vegetables - Fresh fruit salad Our first night was spent at the Youth Hostel in Shrewsbury. That was day 1.		John and I on Sunday evening getting ready to cycle the short way to the Youth Hostel at Dolgellau

		And this is us, the morning after - getting ready for our 'jaunt'. The sunny weather is deceptive, there was a wind in our faces all the way through Wales.
		This is John still cycling uphill - in Wales, during our first day.
		And here's me happy to be at the top of the biggest hill we crossed in Wales - because of the wind, we couldn't make any fasted than 35mph on the downhill stretch.

The Bike Ride
	Day 2. Shrewsbury to Copt Oak After hours of slogging our way along the 'old' A5 we cut across country, through Market Bosworth towards Leicester - with the goal of staying at Copt Oak Youth Hostel. You can see by the length of the shadows that it was quite late when we got there.	When we left Wales, we stayed at Shrewsbury, Copt Oak, Thurlby, Kings Lynn and Sheringham Youth Hostels. To see the YHA web site and get information about how to join go to: http://www.yha.org.uk I joined YHA at my local Information Centre in Huddersfield and it cost me £11.00 John joined via post. Every hostel was different - we thought Thurlby the best - for us!

	Day 3. Copt Oak to Thurlby We left Copt Oak fairly early on Wednesday morning, knowing that the worst was behind us. That also means that our bums were 'sore'!!!	The ride through Leicestershire was excellent. I'd never really visited this part of the country and was surprised at how beautiful it is. The rolling hills took us through to Melton Mowbray and then on to Bourne, where we shopped for the evening meal. We stayed at Thurlby tonight.

	The Bike Ride
As we had 'broken the back' of our intended journey by the end of our third day, we decided to slow down and to take in the North Norfolk coast - instead of cycling directly to Great Yarmouth. This turned out to be a great decision as we passed through some wonderful countryside and met some lovely people. One we met was a chap we nicknamed 'Barnsley Bill'. He had cycled down from Barnsley to Thurlby - just to accompany his son who was cycling down to Cambridge! Just over 100 miles - nothing!! He told us about some of his other jaunts including a trip to see his sister (longest one day journey!) in CARDIFF……			The weather during this week was superb - here I am letting my poor feet cool down, just before negotiating Melton Mowbray and continuing on to Thurlby
			We thought that Thurlby was the cosiest place we stayed in. We met 'Barnsley Bill' and his son here. Now they were cyclists!
	Day 4: From Thurlby - to Kings Lynn
		I hope the YHA don't mind my poor attempt at animating their 'icon'

The Bike Ride
	We made a triumphant entry into Kings Lynn towards the end of our fourth day - the sun was shining and the 'Manfreds' were playing in the town square. Day 5 Kings Lynn - Sheringham	Our ride through The Fens was a little weird. It seemed as though cyclists were the lowest form of transport and we met quite a bit of abuse from other drivers. This was contrary to the courtesy we received elsewhere across the country. We were now determined to put in an extra day and to see the Norfolk coast. We cut up through the county to Sheringham and had a great Friday. The weather didn't let us down and we ambled up through the most amazing (and often weirdest) countryside.
	Here I am enjoying an early morning 'sunny' breakfast at Sheringham Y. H. 5 days down and a stroll into Great Yarmouth in front of us.
The amount of different religions celebrated in this part of the world surprised us. We had lunch at the original Sue Ryder shop along the way.

	The Bike Ride
We had another easy day on Saturday as we cycled down to Great Yarmouth where we were being picked up for the return home to West Yorkshire. The whole week was absolutely fabulous - to coin a phrase and after such a sunny ride it was a tremendous pleasure to just fall into the sea and cool down. Cycling - we recommend it. David and John July 1999		And after breakfast we pose yet again - this time outside the enormous Youth Hostel at Sheringham
		And this never happened! We never did get a photo of us both doing handstands in the sea at Great Yarmouth.