Day 16, Lowestoft to Chatham

The day didn't start well,  raining and strong winds by the time we set off. Waterproofs on. 

First waypoint was at Southwold. The place was deserted.  Not hard to see why, as the wind was so strong here, it nearly blew Ginny over as we came to the end of the road. I've never been in wind that strong before on a bike. Quite scary. I was worried enough to avoid a right turn with the wind battering us.

Away from the gale, we wound our way through small wet country lanes, either covered in water, mud or gravel until we came to Sizewell. Again deserted, with little to see but the nuclear power station, one of several we've passed so far this tour.

Thorpeness,  Aldeburgh and Orford were all paid a visit, maybe even worth a stop under better weather conditions but we just rode through, finally making a stop for coffee on the A12 near Woodbridge. As we rode by Sutton Hoo I couldn't help thinking of my ma and my recently departed uncle Roger, who took her there years ago.

By the time we'd finished coffee we'd decided to abort the rest of the twisty road route and just head straight for our fuelling stop, then to home. We both agreed it hadn't been pleasant tiptoeing around the lanes, never knowing if you would be faced by gravel, mud or just some muppet going too fast in the middle of the road. It's a whole different experience in the dry.

The route to the fuelling stop would have taken 2 hours. We were all the way home in that time, greeted in Chatham by the heaviest rain of the day. Welcome home.

Tomorrow we are on the road again, this time headed for St Leonards. One the way I shall be having new tyres fitted to Ginny, and we hope to meet up with Paul my brother, for a spot of lunch maybe.

Day 15, Grimsby to Lowestoft

Probably the worst day for me. The weather was, once again, very nice and we avoided any showers but the taffic was a real pain.

We hit Cleethorpes first,  another nice seaside town, then down the coast to Mablethorpe. After this the land is quite flat, so you cant actually see the sea, as it's hidden behind a huge sea wall. The next time we saw the sea was at Skegness, where a diversion to the seal sanctuary for my kids, with Crocs, etc, proved fruitless, as I was unable to get another photo. From Skeggy, we moved inland to Boston, where we stopped for lunch at BK. The disappointment for me of riding through Lincolnshire, was not seeing the BBMF in the sky.

It was after this that the traffic got really bad, as we moved towards Hunstanton and Kings Lynn. Hunstanton is another nice and very popular resort but a bugger to get through. We weaved our way through Norfolk. In all honesty, it's hard to say where we have been, as we are following a blue line on TomTom all day but some names stick in the mind. We passed some manor houses and windmills but the most unexpected sight as I rounded a tight country lane had to be, a Spitfire on a pole.

A replica, it stands, until October, on the site of former RAF Langham, alongside the Langham dome. I've not yet read the blurb but I believe it was used in air gunner training. 

Time was getting on and we decided to skip some stops in Great Yarmouth and head straight to our next fuel stop. Unfortunately, that was closed for works but we found another not far from the hotel. Our last stop was at Ness Point, the most easterly on the UK mainland.I couldn't find anything to attest to that but I'm assured by a friend that there is a plinth And that the wind turbine is called  Gulliver.

 From there, it was just a short hop to the hotel. We arrived just in the nick of time to bag one of the 3 remaining parking spaces.

Our room, like so many it seems for Booking.com customers has a shit view and like most for us, is furthest away from reception. The view from the bar makes up for it, though the picture doesn't do it justice. I expect it looked a lot nicer earlier in the day.

Tomorrow we head for home, Chatham. That's not the end of the tour though, just a stopover in my own bed, as we continue around the south coast. I've now clocked up over 3000 miles since I left home on June 20th.