Easy Riders Halesworth Holiday Day 3 Ride 11/05/2023
Our third day of riding headed to Southwold. It was a day forecast to have intense thundery showers, and if you look at the photos, you’ll see a huge variation in skyscapes.
Easy Riders split into two groups, and pedalled off through Halesworth, then through Blyford and Wangford. Here there was an astonishing, enormous, thatched church. Ann’s group decided to take a closer look and spent time at a coffee morning where the residents were incredibly welcoming and hospitable. This was extended because an intense thundery shower came along, so they remained dry, warm, and well fed while it passed over.
Gifford’s group pedalled on to Southwold in brilliant sunshine and were completely unaware of the rain behind them. Once at the seafront we wandered up and down the pier, then walked to a seafront café for some lunch. We encountered some of our non-riding group members – Ella, Barbara and Sue exploring main parade, then Mave and John appeared too.
One of Southwold’s claims to fame, is that George Orwell lived here for some time in his teenage years, and in his 20s.
On arriving back at the bikes, Helen realised she had a puncture! She had the third puncture of our holiday, thereby making it a hat-trick. As usual the whole group got involved in turning the bike over, wheel off, tube out, detailed inspections of the tyre etc. During all this, Ann and her group arrived, then went off to find a recommended gluten-free bakery.
Gifford’s group pedalled off through Southwold, along the estuary of the river Blyth, then crossed the river via a pedestrian bridge. Amazing, brilliant light, and astonishing clear sky/cloud formations, depending on which way you faced. We had a little detour into Walberswick for some ice cream, then onto a bridleway that had obviously had some recent rain. It was sandy and muddy, and several times I yelped in panic as my front wheel skidded about. We returned to tarmacked roads and pedalled back to our accommodations.
30 miles c9.2 mph.
Our whole group went to the Huntingfield Arms for dinner. It’s a pub restaurant to be recommended – the food is so good (and reasonably priced) that most of the time you need to book to get a table.
3 great days and a fantastic time was had by all. Many thanks to organisers and participants.
Cathy MacTaggart
