Saturday 5 June 2010

The long way to Long Melford

The British Summer, being what it is, needs to be used up when it eventually arrives so I reluctantly(*) put a days holiday in for Thursday and arranged with BikerFrank to have a ride out.

(*) Not reluctantly at all.

The 25 miles to his house warmed the bike up nicely and with the temperature being in the high 20's it didn't cool down much as we had a quick drink while planning where to go.

The route started with a filling of the tanks at Chez Tesco in Saffron Walden before heading off to Steeple Bumpstead (no sniggering at the back please). From there it's country roads all the way through the Clares (Clare and Stoke-by), Cavendish, and finally in to Long Melford itself. BikerFrank was much quicker through the corners taking the lead but my FZ6 "makes good progress" out of them quickly catching him up. All the little villages on the way were really quant (think Midsomer Murders type places, villages greens a plenty and corner shops). The roads are nice and twisty all the way there but there are a couple of patches of potholes to watch out for.

Eventually we rolled into Long Melford and parked the bikes up, catching our breath.


And... relax.

Long Melford, as it's name suggests, is, well, long. It's a long street with ye olde worlde shops on both sides, and as luck would have it, no lack of pubs eager to serve us sustenance. The Cock and Bell did us a couple of top Ciabattas and drinks, and the barmaid forced us to order clotted cream icecream for afters. No really. She did :p . I'm pretty sure clotted cream is a vegetable so that counted as one of the five a day, as did the salad I left at the side of my plate (you don't eat that do you?)

BikerFrank enjoys his pud.

We rode back again the same way with a little detour through Wimbish for me to play scarecrows.

Worzel-Hux has his biking head on





View Long Melford in a larger map

After a refreshing cuppa and a choccy biccie at BikerFranks it was off home, arriving with 103 miles on the clock since I left in the morning and a nice tinging sound coming from the engine. Brum Brum :)

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