We caught the 08:56 train to Thetford which took about half an hour, then spent another half hour trying to find a food shop, which did at least provide the opportunity to see the centre of what was once the 6th largest town in England. We eventually came upon a European store and bough a rye and caraway loaf and some Lithuanian curd cheese. Outside the shop, a drunk Hungarian clutching a can of beer engaged us in conversation, he likes it round there, has lots of friends and works at the recycling centre. I’d heard that drunken east Europeans were a factor in the brexit majority vote in this area, it’s a pity that minor parochial issues clouded the bigger picture.
The road out of town was busy but there was a cycle path alongside. A cyclist offered unsolicited advice about routes, which I found annoying, my approach is to ask people if they need help rather than thrusting it at them. I have faith in the cycle.travel recommendations and again it didn’t let us down, we were soon onto calmer roads, later there was a five mile stretch of a B road which had fast vehicles though it wasn’t too busy.
We stopped to admire the unusual church of St Andrew & St Patrick at Elvedon which has two towers and a cloister. The story of this church is well worth a read.
Later we paused for our picnic on a bench in another churchyard. It was again cold and I regretted not taking my cycling longs, 10°C mid afternoon in southeast England is poor for the end of May. We passed chocolate box thatched cottages and the lovely town of Clare but it was too chilly to stop for photographs.
We reached Christine’s sister’s family house in Wethersfield at 16:15, good to see them again and also to be out of the cold.
73.1 km (45 miles), 645 m of ascent