Day 13 - 1st October

Through wide East Anglian skies, with hardly any clouds in them, to the furthest east - Lowestoft Ness. I went on the A505 and A11 through Baldock, Royston and Newmarket, the route we used to take between Welwyn and Norwich. Things have changed a bit since we did it in Dad's Morris Minor - the A11 bypasses Newmarket, and the A505 does the same for Baldock and Royston. Both roads are now mostly dual carriageway, and the A505 has even acquired a tunnel and deep cuttings in the chalk through the Weston Hills. The old A11 through Newmarket has a new number but is still single carriageway, and has a lot less traffic than I remember.

I went through one of the contenders for best place name of the trip - the old favourite "Six Mile Bottom" - on my aching two thousand plus mile bottom. However, my personal choice is "Box's Shop" in Cornwall - who was Box, and why was his shop so special they named the village after it?

Lowestoft Ness is the most unprepossessing of the four points, you get to it along Gas Works Road - which doesn't promise much - and it is just behind the Birds Eye factory. There is a car park, a circular marker thing on the top of the sea wall, and a sign saying there is a £50 fine for any un-authorised vehicle on the sea wall - so my bike is pictured on the edge of the car park as close as you can legally get. When Jeremy Clarkson visited he parked on top of it, but then Top Gear and legality have never been comfortable bed fellows.

Furthest East, in a legal position (sorry about the lack of focus)

The disc in the middle of the dart board above

Travelled to my Mum's in Norwich through Corton, which is just to the north of Lowestoft, so I could recreate the first long(ish) ride I ever made on a bike. After O levels I worked as a waiter at Corton Beach Holiday Camp for the summer and would travel to Norwich and back on my day off on my Lambretta LD150 - my first proper bike/scooter, not counting the Bown 50 moped (made in Wales) which was the first motorised transport I ever owned. Things have changed quite a bit in the 40 odd years since, the camp is no longer there, I think the site may now be the Auzure Seas Holiday Village; and the railway we used to use to go into the bright lights of Lowestoft for an evening is long gone.

I was greeted in Norwich by balloons and a welcome banner, and some more donations form the Norwich ladies - thanks.

A boy and his bike (note how grubby the waistcoat is now)

Distance today 156.0 miles in 5 hours. Total distance so far 2,171.2 miles.