At the beginning of July, whilst the UK was still in the middle of a spell of super hot weather, a few of us packed up from petrichor projects HQ and headed out to the Norfolk coast for the perfect overnight micro adventure.
An easy start to our weekend saw us cycle loaded bikes the short distance from south London, across the river to Liverpool street station and from there, jumping on a train to Norwich.
The start of the route and the beginning of the Marriott’s way was within easy reach from the city and provided smooth surfaces and plenty of dappled shade from the sun. This was a fast flowing route, which speedily led us out of town and into the wilderness.
Along the way we spotted Muntjac Deer and Jays and stopped to take a look at the art sculptures, of which there is one marking every mile, and found a delicious cafe stop along the first part of our route.
Much cake was bought and stashed away, to fuel us through the second part of our ride and on to where we were camping that night.
Excitement levels increased as we wound our way along the coast and hit the slightly more rough surfaces of the Weavers way and eventually the open terrain and sand dunes of the coast. With less than 20k to go we stopped at Horsey windmill to enjoy the low evening sun, before we made the last leg of the journey to stock up with supplies for the evening and on to our campsite.
We stayed at a simple site situated just off the Norfolk broads with long views over the broads and a sea of boats bobbing in the dusk.
After showers and putting our tents up, we quickly dived into dinner and snacks and were soon ready to sleep.
We woke to a clear and much cooler start to the day. Breakfast consisted of fruit and the remains of the cake we bought the day before.
While we ate we hatched a plan to head to the beach for a swim. With the coast only minutes from our campsite. With our bikes stashed, we enjoyed a swim in the warm waters of the choppy sea and even saw a seal doing the same.
As we spotted the incoming rainstorm and hunger levels were increasing we rushed back to our campsite, packed down and cycled to a nearby pub for lunch and just about avoided the rain. By this time we were ravenous, so we consumed a vast quantity of food.
We sleepily pulled ourselves away from the lunch table and back on our bikes and continued our journey. Our route back to Norwich took us partly through the rough terrain of the broads and as we got closer to the city back on the smooth roads. We boarded our train with plenty of time to spare, and snoozed all the way back into London.
This trip was the perfect overnighter and micro adventure from the city and we can’t wait to do more of these.