The final day on our cycle traverse of the east coast of England, and what a day to finish on! Crisp blue skies, a distinctly wintery feel and a dramatic high tide was what greeted us after leaving ‘Howard’s Place’ in Lowestoft.

The waves turned out to be quite a bit of fun and we had to time our ride along the promenade in order to ensure safe passage. We could have had a real cold soaking if we’d got it wrong!

Luckily it was easy to see where and when the waves would crash up the sea defences and with the sun in our eyes, we blasted along as fast as we could between the sets.

And if we didn’t think we would make it, we could stop and wait by the tell-tale wet ground ahead…

A super fun surprise start to the day!…

The final section of the cycle track went right down to sea level and we considered lifting the bike over a barrier onto the road as the view ahead (photo below) was covered by sea water. As the waves drained away, we calculated there was just enough time to get across without getting wet. Pumping our legs as the tide sucked outwards and with one eye on the sea and the other on the far end, we dashed safely across the final obstacle with our feet still dry.

Laughing, we made it through unscathed and turned inland, where traffic provided the next moving targets to dodge!

We would have had a stop by the lifeboat memorial, but it was too cold to hang around, so kept peddling, having turned inland towards Beccles.

Our route took us along the side of a few main roads on cycle paths, which were noisy, but safe at least, then onto some more quiet lanes…

Then finally, we got a short tour through the housing estates of Beccles, which felt a little like a life sized model village with perfect front gardens, paved driveways, well kept lawns and no one around.

Then, shortly after 11am, we reached basecamp – the van – safely still occupying her spot in Morrison’s car park. Superb!

Later that afternoon, we arrived at Fort Martin in time to join Tracey and the boys for the final rounds of Grandad Taylor’s classic pin-ball ‘machine’ in this year’s World Championship…