Day 2, Friday 2 September

Downham Market to Stiffkey

I woke to the strains of "Happy Birthday to you", balloons all over my bike and a Birthday Boy tag on my tent. Mike had colluded with Liz and brought a birthday card and other adornments. All very jolly.

We decided to cycle into Downham Market and pick up a hearty breakfast there. The clock is something of a local treasure. It was built in 1858 at a cost of £450 and restored in 2004. It is now grade II listed.

So, through Kings Lynn and Castle Rising, which unfortunately we didn’t stop to have a look at. The Sandringham Estate was close by, but again we passed by in blissful ignorance. At some point we must have grabbed lunch and although I can’t remember my best guess is Sedgford, at about 30 miles, where there are several eateries. By about four o’clock we’d reached Holkam, and stopped for a photogragh. I remember a family holiday nearby when we visited the Hall, but today we needed to push on passed Wells-next-the-Sea , and eventually got to Stiffkey and our next campsite.

The campsite was extensive with lots of caravans and very windy, so we pitched in the lee of an enormous warehouse with some small saplings to which we could string our washing. We walked back down the campsite lane and then about a quarter of a mile along the A149 (busy with no footpath) to the Stiffkey Red Lion, where we had super meal sitting in a pod at the side of the pub with a gas heater just about keeping us warm. We walked back perilously in the dark and hit the sack.