Page 127 - 2022-08-01 RiDE

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Erosion means
Happisburgh gets
Triumph Tiger Sport 660 on the prom in front of the café,
smaller every year
to the excitement of local ladies out early for a chit-chat.
Down the road, though a heat haze, Great Yarmouth Pier
juts into to the sea; Jim Davidson’s mug sneers out from
the posters – I was in this self-same spot in 1995 and he
was in town then too; probably still playing to the same
crowd. Hey, it’s a career.
The Tiger 660 spins us off along the road out of town,
away from arcades and shops selling deckchairs and
paddle boards, past the Venetian Waterways on the right
and endless rows of domestic B&Bs on the left, then
around the Caistor bypass and through Hemsby. Can’t
see the sea from the road, so at Winterton-on-sea, just
up the coast, we dive off towards the beach, pull up at
the broad car park for a wander into the dunes. It’s been
resurfaced with chippings. At the hut at the entrance, a
young lad breaks the bad news: “Sorry, no bikes in the
car park.” Eh? Why not? “They’ve fallen over before and
we’ve had insurance claims, so they’re banned.” There’s
nowhere else to park. “I have a puck for wedging under
the stand – the bike won’t fall over,” I say, but a shrug
says it’s either above his pay grade or capacity for logic.
Defeated, we retreat back down towards the main road
Windmill still and scatter on towards Waxham, under a broad blue
standing against ceiling with the waterways of Hickling Broad to the left,
time and tide
past the windmill at Horsey tea rooms – the old water
pump has a chequered past; built in 1912, it was flooded
for six months in 1938, struck by lightning in 1943,
Cromer Pier: star
of Alan Partridge: damaged in the gales of 1987, and has been through a
Alpha Papa number of restorations in between making it possibly
the most rebuilt windmill in England.
We flick along the narrow back lanes, loaded with
sand and gravel, crowded with trees and deceptive
bends challenging road reading skills towards Sea
Palling, where we stop for a bag of hot doughnuts and a
coffee. Sea Palling is small village on the coast, and the
scene of more flooding in 1953, when an 18ft North Sea
storm surge breached sea defences for 100 yards,
wrecked the village and killed seven people. Today the
beach is protected by sand dunes, a concrete sea wall

FACT FILE

Route From the Beach Hut in Great Length 75 miles
Yarmouth, head north through Sea Roads Mostly unclassified until
Palling, Happisburgh, Mundesley and picking up the B1159 near Walcott,
Cromer, then on through Blakeney, unclassified roads out of Cromer, then
Wells-next-the-Sea to Hunstanton the A149 for the rest of the ride
Best corner The section from Cley to
Salthouse on the A149 is lots of fun
Best place for a selfie Sunny Hunny
seafront, Cromer Pier, or the beach at
Mundesley
Best place for a cuppa Friendly folk
at the Beach Hut in Great Yarmouth to
start your ride, or a doughnut at Kay’s
at Sunny Hunny

BRITAIN’S BEST-RIDE OUTS | 19