I’ve been away for a cycling weekend with friends to King’s Lynn in Norfolk. We cycled about 150 miles over a Friday and Saturday.
We stayed in the Duke’s Head Hotel in the middle of King’s Lynn and cycled a circular route each day. The routes were mostly country lanes and, apart from a couple of busy stretches, we saw hardly any cars.
- Day 1: We cycled a route that was south and east of King’s Lynn to Hingham and returned via Swaffham – 83 miles.
- Day 2: Our route went north east to Wells-next-the-Sea and Holkham and we returned via Burnham Market and Sandringham estate – 75 miles.
We started cycling each day at ~8.30am and finished at 5.00pm. We stopped for an hour for lunch each day and had several other shorter stops for punctures and water or snacks.
I cycled the routes on my flat bar Trek hybrid bike which was excellent. Road bikes would also have been OK apart from one short bumpy bridleway section near Wells-next-the-Sea.
Two people from our group cycled a different route along the Peddars Way with their mountain bikes on the second day. Overall though, our group used hybrid bikes.
Trip Highlights
- The magnificent park estate of Holkham Hall near Wells-next-the-Sea.
- The country lanes that are part of National Cycle Network Route 1.
- Sweeping countryside views on the Day 2 route.
Lowlights
Cycling against the wind on the first day. I reckon that took an extra 25% effort.
Overall
I found the days physically demanding because I’ve not done as much long distance cycling this year. As a result, just sitting on a bike for 6-7 hours was tough enough. However, we didn’t have many breaks on either day. And both days were very windy and cycling was much more difficult because of that.
I have been cycling in Norfolk before and the routes this time overlapped very slightly with that earlier trip. However, it was great to to get away and explore a new part of Norfolk on this trip.
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