Having envisioned watching the sun come up over the horizon, then walking down the golden sands for a morning dip, it was with some degree of disappointment that this was the view that greeted us when the alarm went off.

To be fair, the howling winds that woke us in the night did raise suspicions that the forecast might have made a dramatic change from what was previously advertised. We took breakfast as late as we could and pushed our check out back as far as possible as we could see the heavy rain was due to stop after 10am. Rather unceremoniously, with no offer of an extra cuppa in the dry, we set out into a damp and stormy morning along the coast, but grateful that the worst had passed.

We both agreed that once again, it was not a swim day…

There really had been a lot of rain overnight…

We navigated with our ‘feet up’ through several flooded lanes and negotiated three different road closures during the morning, pressing on slowly with fingers crossed that our bikes would be allowed safe passage through both water and road cones.

The strong tail wind helped things along, but the skies never really brightened up until into the afternoon, by which time we’d seen a few slights including the largest thatched barn and a mill at Horsey.

Great Yarmouth was everything we thought it would be. In the summer it must be so busy, as it’s set up to receive many, many visitors. But at this time of the year we were able to cycle through with too much trouble and the beaches were pretty much deserted. We passed up the offer of a ride by the pier on a donkey and saved our cash despite the lure of the rows of neon ‘amusement’ arcades.

It must have been quite a grand place in the early 1900s as some of the buildings were very ornate and distinguished. I suspect the original architects would be turning in their graves if they saw the tacky plastic frontages that have been added onto their designs in more recent years! There was a marked drop in temperature into the afternoon, causing us to ride with cold fingers, our big jackets on and less of an urge to stop and explore.

At the southern end of town, nearer the port things felt a bit more ‘gritty’, especially as we rounded the old gas works.

Some interesting shaped boats added some colour to the river mouth though.

We came to rest at a little B&B north of Lowestoft. We’re holed up in a comfy garage conversion where we’ve been able to warm up and have a good feed – tonight we are well supplied, with no need to venture out to find food and drink. In fact, the owner (Howard) had left us a couple of beers in the fridge for our arrival! Nice touch! Before it got dark, we walked a few minutes out to the coast to catch the last of the light.

Total Ride: 57.1km