Part Four Thankful Villages Cycle Tour

Culpho Thankful Village and The Croft Campsite on another baking hot day

They’re definitely on the flight path into Luton. They’ve been going over every five or six minutes ever since I’ve been here. Actually, I don’t know if I mentioned the farmer came down. Really nice guy told me it’s going to be even hotter tomorrow. It’s getting up to 30 something apparently. So, few we’ll see. Anyway, I’ll say good night. See you on day five. But it’s coming up to 9:00 a.m. actually and I’m at the Riverside campsite next to the River Star. This is area is just famous and synonymous with John Constable. Today’s been really hot again. I tried to have an easier day which is why I haven’t done much filming. I just wanted to do a church crawling day. So I had a Greg’s breakfast and then some fruit in Saffron Warden Market Square. That was really nice actually. Market day. Then I just stopped at whichever churches I passed and fancied. And there was one church where the lady turned up just as I was about to pull away because it was locked. She said, “Oh, I’ll show you around and let you in.” Her husband was there with her. She told me the the tomb was in there of the person who discovered blood circulation. So that was really interesting. The other one had that lovely little parish room in the churchyard which is now a book barn, a book exchange. That was just really, really nice. I love that. And I stopped at a couple of others this afternoon. I was able to charge devices up, so I was happy to stay there an hour or two hours at a time. So, I’ll say good night now and I’ll see you in the morning and we’ll be back to Thankful Villages. See you in the morning on day six. Hello. Good morning. It’s just gone 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday, day six of my Thankful Villages soccer tour. See, it looks like it’s going to be another nice day. The sun’s risen. That’s the river star down there. And all those tables, if you can see them, that’s a pub garden. That’s heaving last night. Big group of lads in there last night playing with a cricket bat, balls, and just look like they’re having a good time. Did quite a bit of washing last night. And there’s my tent facing the sun. Start trying to get the washing facing over there in a minute actually to get it dry. From straight out of here, we take a minor road up and we get to I think it’s called Sudbury. And then just north of Sudbury, we’re back on the course and then I think it’s about 20 miles to Colo. So we’re going to skirt around the edge of Ipsswitch and then just north of Ipsswitch, that’s where Cold Fo is. And then the final Thankful Village is at the end of the track on part two. I’m not sure whether I’m going to aim for that tonight. I was looking on the picnic table last night and there’s a campsite that I got my eye on about a few miles short. So, I may visit one Thankful Village today, camp short of the second one and finish the Thankful Villages part of the road tomorrow before we head over the coast. We’ll see what happens. Anyway, first things first, some hot water on for a coffee. Think about packing and hopefully be gone by about 7 7:30 something like that. try and ride as much before it gets too hot because yesterday around about lunchtime, 1:00, it’s so hot. That’s why I was sitting in churches for hours. Okay, I’m in the busy market town of Sudbury. Find myself a Gregs. There’s a Lord’s bank over there in that West Nationwide. So, plenty of options for cash points. I’ll top up my cash. And I’m having a bacon sandwich and some fruit to go with it and a soft drink. This is how I’ve been navigating when I go off route. So, I’m there and I kind of make my way up there, but I got a pretty below average working memory. I just cannot remember place names. So, I just do screen grabs that gives you a rough idea. So, I can just keep referring to my my photos and then I can wipe them later on rather than have to keep get up the maps. So I’m heading through Chilton Great Warding Field and then that’s a more detailed route out of town up past the town hall or East Street and that take me in the right direction. So you see what I mean about it would be good to have that clamp on the stem on me handlebars to be able to navigate with Google Maps actually. But at the moment this is what I’m doing. So, a few miles and I’ll be up on the course there. 212 miles. I think Kofo is 222. So, you can see I’m going to be getting there mid morning. It’s not even 8:00 a.m. yet. So, within 6.14 miles, can you see the black line is what I’ve done and the cursor is where I am. And then that gray line is the proposed route. So, can you see I’m coming up. I’m going to join it and do a right hand turn that way for these short diversions if I’m going to start using campsites. I’m going to have to navigate on my phone. Actually, as I said, I’ve got a probably a below average working memory. I think of it like a black world, but not very good one. It’s where you sort of store temporary information and then dispose of it. I just cannot remember lots of place names, which is why I tend not to ask for too many directions because people mean well, but quite often they just baffle me with too much information. I try and figure it out yourself. You’ve seen what I’ve been doing by looking at the map, taking screen grabs, and then just embedding arrows on so when I do need to stop, I can identify the place name straight away. This is Lavendham, by the way. So, I knew I was heading for that, but I needed to remind myself a couple of times. Just as I was hoping, we’ve turned right back on course, and we’re now on some really nice, quiet Suffukk lanes. Sudbury was actually quite good because I got a Greg’s breakfast there. I got my lunch. I stopped at convenience store and got tea for tonight. And I got a cash point, so I’ve got plenty of cash for me for campsites. Since I’ve got back on my proposed route, my GPS track, it’s been absolutely fantastic. Just lovely Suffukk countryside agricultural. Lots of poppies in the field. This is fantastic along here. I’m really enjoying this. This is like a lot of yesterday was. I chose not to film it too much. I just wanted it as a kind of me day really. Really nice waking up this morning again before 4:00. The dawn chorus woke me up. I was up making coffee by 5. I was on the road by 7. I think shortly afterwards [Music] that made me jump. A couple of workmen there just fired up a chainsaw. That really made me jump. It’s just really, really nice. You can see there’s a nice little bit of tree canopy shade as well and a bit of a breeze. Cycl doesn’t get much better than this. It’s fairly flat around here. Just get these little minor undulations every now and again. Your momentum gets you up. Most of them drop down and you get pushed up most of the other side. See a bird song everywhere. Cuz I didn’t film much yesterday. I’m trying to make up for it today. Just look at this. This is absolutely beautiful. I just passed my first two cycle tourists going the other way. Actually gave me a nice waving and smile. Something nice about seeing other cycle tourists all laden up. As I said, this is signposted as South Suffukk cycle route A. This is really, really nice. A lot of yesterday was like this. minute I got into SUFFK, you can really see why people like John Kunel or you know down in Dorsy at Thomas Hardy, people who were inspire people who loved and were inspired by their environment and could express it in their various ways. You can you can just see why, can’t you? I can’t begin to do this justice. All I could do is point my camera at it and just tell you how much I’m loving this. Bird song everywhere. Talking of Thomas Hardy actually having a connection to his environment. I didn’t realize until I visited Max Gate, the house he built for himself on the outskirts of Dorchester. He actually had a bike room he designed because he was a trained architect before he became a famous writer and he built a bike room in there because he was a keen cyclist and I also read somewhere I can’t remember the source but if I do I’ll put it in description below he was a keen psycho tourist and he actually fell off and hurt himself in between Bath and Bristol. So that’s how far he came up. He became friends with Te Lawrence cuz he lived nearby and Lawrence was Lawrence of Arabia and Lawrence was a a cyclist as well as well as being a motorcyclist. So they told us on the tour either at his birthplace or Max Gate house he built I can’t remember which. I’ve visited them both. Well worth a visit that when he died he was so famous in his day his pawbearers included the prime minister and the leader of the opposition of the day. Can you imagine that these days I’m absolutely loving this just this lovely rolling agricultural landscape. It’s why I like coming over to the east so much. There’s so many place names there I just don’t recognize. Obviously Ipsswitch at the bottom on the right hand side I do but you got Elmset Watfield Hadley Burto Hintles saw some great names yesterday I think it’s because I used to be a postman and you had to have a really good working knowledge of the local area so and also with my cycling interest I just know all the local villages I just do it comes naturally to me easy so I think it’s kind of novelty seeking really and also feeling like I’m away from work on holiday. I just love seeing signpost but I don’t recognize one name just having a breather at the top of Church Hill right outside Burst Church. Thought I’d have a check my progress cuz be honest I’ve just been letting me mind wander around there. So Burst I’ve seen is 225 miles into my route and Calfo is 233. So what’s that? Five and three that’s eight 8 miles. See? Well, as you can see I’m passing into the boundary of Ipsswitch. We really are on the very outskirts skirting around. Once we get past it, a few miles north eastish I think is going to be Ko lunchtop, thankful village. Well, it’s 11:16 and I’ve skirted my way around Ipsswitch to start with. It was just housing estates, quite quiet roads, then through some industrial estates underneath the main road, underneath the railway. Then all of a sudden my art sunk a little bit. It was just green signs everywhere. a roads pointing towards the town center. Then very next traffic lights turned left and came out of town and here we are Kulo 1116. So this will be the fifth of the six thankful villages without looking at Google maps. I’m just going to go and see if I can find the church or look for the obvious location of village green, that sort of thing. If I struggle to find it, I’ll do what I did the other day, just get Google Maps up and see if that can help me. Soon after I spoke to you within a couple of hundred yards came along saw a church tower. I thought that’s probably what I’m looking for and it sent bolt off at KFU and then I saw that the boundary 500 badge that’s similar to what I’m doing with poppies. They seem to be leaving those stickers. And look at this wonderful bit of wood workmanship on the gate. seat there for lunch. And the church is open. It’s got an outer gate. Keep the birds out and me. And what a wonderful place. Look at this. lime water morted walls, lots of cracks. And that’s what I’m looking for. The culifo, should I say? Caulifo, I think that’s how you pronounce it. Slate plaque. Caulifo 1914 to 2014. A thankful village marking the centinery of the outbreak of the first world war. There’s a visitor’s book which I’ll sign. There a little booklet there which I’m going to take outside and read with my reading glasses. There’s electric plug sockets there. So, everything I need bar some water. I do need to get a tap before long. I had a quick look outside. I couldn’t see anything. Oh, there’s bottled water there. And may take a bottle of water and leave a donation for that. But look at this. I’m seeing this a lot in the churches. You get like the pebble dash mixed with brick. I noticed on the now that must be it there. I noticed cuz I went around the outside. I did an orbit to see if there was a tap. And I thought, oh, there used to be a north door, possibly a north porch which has been sealed. It’s stone on the outside but brick on the inside. Again, gives you an idea the timeline. That lovely feathering where the stonework goes into the brick work. As I said, I’ve been seeing that a lot. Wow, that is really nice. Seems to shrink a little bit from the side as you go into the chancel up the stairs to the tile floor. Is that a pina over there? They poured the water or the wine down after communion. When was the last person to visit? The 11th. And today is the 18th, I believe. I’ll need to check that. I’ve just had to check the date. It is. It’s the 18th. So I’ve put Andy seed bath sunset the poppy man visiting thankful villages and leaving a knitted poppy at each in remembrance. And here’s the plaque. The slate plaque. These are lovely, aren’t they? They really, really are nice. Some of the outside ones I’ve seen as now starting to weather and fade. And one of them had a big split down it. Whether that was just through being out in the elements or somebody had kicked it, I I just don’t know. But that was a bit sad to see. But this is almost in pristine condition. It just feels so nice. It must have cost them a lot of money to have all these made up and engraved. And there is my red lifted poppy at Kung Fu 1914 to 2014. A thankful village. Just loop. I’m going to top my water bottles up with that and leave a donation. Just before I have my lunch, I just noticed it. It’s a bit of an unusual design. You’ve got the nave and the chancaw, but the porch is actually the bell tower as well. So, it’s got a south facing porch bell tower. Okay, time for lunch and then will leave a fiverr here actually as a donation cuz I’ve opened a big bottle of their water topping mine up. I’ll have a big drink of it before I go and then return what I don’t use. Plus the fact I’m going to get one of their booklets and read it over lunch, but I can’t really take it with me. And also I’m charging my devices, so I feel I’ve taken a lot from here. So I’ll give a fiver. I’ll put a5 pound in. That way I I’m giving something back. I’m not just taking taking St. Bolto Coro. Time for lunch. So, two nights so far I’ve camped right next to a pub and I haven’t fancied going down there at all or even buying alcohol. It’s just been so hot. I don’t want to risk dehydration. I’m getting quite thirsty as it is. Anyway, I’ve actually found making up orange squash at the end of the day was really nice. But my orange squash has run out. And now I’m on this mini apple and black currant. But you you have to use a lot more of this to get it drinkable really and make it thirst quenching. The orange would take a couple squirts. This takes about four or five. So it’s not going to last as long if you if you don’t put enough in. It just looks like dental mouthwash and tastes a bit like it as well actually. So, I think I’m going to get through this one quickly. If I see a co-op, I think that’s where I get them. I’ll pop in and see if I can pick up another cup of oranges. That has been better than alcohol in this trip. It really has at the end of the at the end of a long day when I’m sat of my meal. It’s so nice to have orange squash or tonight it’s going to be apple and black currant. Okay, I’ll sort of tell you my plans. We’re at Colo here, 167 12 miles. And there’s a campsite I was looking at last night. Begins with F. There we are. Frammlingham. That’s say 80 probably by the time I find it. So I think that’s what I may aim for. And there’s the end of the route. St. Michael, South Elmahham. I think I may leave that for tomorrow. I’m going to set out on the seat and think about that. Actually, I just really fancy staying here for a long time. Actually, just really saving the moment, having a sort of shorter day a bit like I did yesterday. Then that would mean finishing the Thankful Villages section. That would mean finishing the Thankful Villages part of this ride tomorrow, Thursday. And that would give me Friday, Saturday, and Sunday just to head over to the coast, make my way up to Great Yamas. So, I think I am going to have an easy day and go for family campsite. Now, I’ve had lunch. I’m having a wander around the church. And this is an old church. And you can see it’s showing signs of wear and tear. Been a bit of a medial stone work done there. edging of the bar tower. But this has caught my eye. That discoloring there above the gravel trench. There’s some sort of damp coming up because the cracks in the wall. Pretty significant crack there as well that been filled. Oh gosh. Cracks along there. I noticed this actually. Wonder if that used to be a sundar. Seems to be loads of lines going off at angles. And then around this side. That is a bad bit of cracking, isn’t it? Sometimes find I saw a vest recently somewhere where you could see it’s literally pulling away from the church. In fact, they boarded all the windows up. I imagine it’s locked and it’s unsafe. But that was where the water was coming down and it just probably off the hills and it probably just never fully drains. Of course, they didn’t build churches on reinforced concrete foundations in those days. So, I expect this is gradually sinking and pulling itself apart. But yeah, you can see it’s had some reinforcing work done. And even that’s being ripped out, isn’t it? Blime me. This is going to need some serious money spent on it before long. So, I’m seeing lots of cyclist. There’s one just went by. I just passed four going that way in the opposite direction. It’s cuz we’re on Suffukk coastal route number one. That’s the thing. When I plan routes on Ride with GPS, especially in areas I don’t know, I just let the computer work out where it’s taking me. I know where I’m starting. I know where I want to finish. And maybe there’s a few little points of interest along the way. I drag and drop the route to, and then I just let the computer do the rest of it. And it’s using algorithms, isn’t it? It’s using previous rides, and it’s just picking up the most popular routes. Earlier on I was going along just in a word in me own really just glancing down at the G every now and again. All of a sudden I got that alarm for going off course. It’s like a little purse like a just lets you know that you’ve gone wrong and I looked down and I thought there’s a right hand turn. There’s no right turning there. When I turn around to go back there was just a little gap like a footway in between some houses that just took me down. Cut off a big corner. Then I got onto one of these quiet lanes. It’s just so nice around here. I’m really really enjoying it. Just looking at the signpost. So you can see it’s the Suffukk coastal route. We’ll have to research that and see where it starts and finishes. But I was just looking at the circle at the top. It says who. So that must be like the local district. I don’t know. I was I was going to camp at Frammlingham tonight. It’s when I stopped for that long lunch at Ko Church. I did the usual. I let the camping app just locate where I was that pinged it to search for local campsites. And that’s one of the ones that came up. I thought great. It’s actually on route. Don’t have to detour. But then I thought when I read up about it, it’s quite limited and it says members only. So I could get there and there won’t be room and they maybe won’t welcome me if it’s members only. So I’m going to press on to another one a few miles on that’s typical of me. I cannot remember the name of it, but I’ve done all the screen grabs on my phone. So, as I start getting a little bit closer, I can then just quickly refer to the screen grabs and find out where it is, what it’s called, etc. I think it’s called Croft Camping. It sounds really, really nice actually. It’s called the Croft Campsite. Tents, showers, everything. No caps. And again a very very pleasant scenic route up over agricultural land. Just turn right onto Hailssworth Lane. And here we are. Look the Croft campsite 50 m. That’s the first one I’ve seen actually signposted advertising leading up to it. So that that just feels welcoming. Let’s just hope we can get in. It’s only 20 4. So if we can’t I’ve got options. And look at that. 9.3 to the end of this part two. That will be our final thankful village tomorrow morning. St. Michael at St. Elmhham. I think that’s how you pronounce it. Pulled into like a grally car park. As I said, there was a sign outside. Look very welcoming. It said please book in at reception. Told you what you had to do. Went into like a little lean to press the buzzer for attention. Lovely lady came out ever so friendly. checked me in, told me where everything was. Pretty much said I can have the run of the place. There’s one camper van and there’s somebody else camping on the far side. There’s about four fields here. Choose wherever you want to go. Showers, toilets, everything. Just everything. I wanted to know where I’d come from. And sort of said her sister lives in Bristol, so she knew where Bath was. Cuz sometimes when I say Bath, people aren’t sure where it is. You know, the further away you get. As you can see, I’ve got stuff drying. Most of it was dry at lunchtime at that church. I’m just finishing it off. So, the towel I’ve been drying every day. Tea towel. Just I’m wearing these thin tops. I don’t dress up like a tour to France rider. I’m not a tour to France rider. Why would I want to dress up like one? I just wear these thin very lightweight t-shirts, high visibility. I get them from Mountain I think £10 each. Do invest in quite good cycling shorts. Endure Endura. I think they’re called just cheap ankle socks. They’re almost like fishnet tights actually. They’re so ventilated actually. And I did wash some casual clothes last night cuz they were starting to feel a bit damp and sweaty. So, underpants and a shirt just giving me tent a really good air out. And then I think I’ll put my tent up about there. I do fancy a little bit of shade. But if I put the tent there, I can sit in the shade until it cools down a little bit. It’s 8:00 now on Wednesday. I spent a nice pleasant hour just lying there as the sun goes down behind the trees. Just put my long sleeve fleece on just to take a little bit of the coolness off of me. I’m going to go and lie back there actually until the sun goes right down. Then I think I won’t be long before I go to bed. I can feel myself yawning already. It was so hot when I got here. I actually washed some more clothes and they’re almost dry already. They’ll definitely get dry tomorrow, but they’re almost dry this evening. That’s how hot it still was. As well as offering me tea, squash or coffee, which had to decline to be honest because I don’t drink tea and coffee after midday is just I just never drink it. Very, very rarely do I have coffee after midday. So, I had to decline that. But she said, “If you want any phones, power packs, anything like that, charging devices, just bring them over.” And I thought, “Yeah, maybe I will actually.” And then I checked actually. And everything’s pretty much charged from lunchtime at Coleford Church actually. So there’s no need really. So I’m just going to lie down there really on that sleep mat and my pillow just until it’s too cold to stay out here any longer. And then I’ll probably be in bed by about 9:00. I can feel myself drifting off already. The plan tomorrow is it’s about less than 10 miles to the final village, St. Michael, South Elmahham, I think it’s called. That’ll be the sixth and the final thankful village on this trip. It’s less than 10 miles away. And I’m only slightly off the route. So, I should get on that first thing in the morning, go there, take my time, enjoy it, and then I’m heading slightly southeastish down to the coast at Southworld. And I just really want to have a good look around there. I passed through it a few years ago on my pillbox tour of East Anglia. And I felt then I didn’t have enough time to really appreciate it. So, I want to go and spend the afternoon down there, get some ice cream, even some fish and chips maybe, I don’t know. And then I’ve just noticed there’s a campsite about six miles north of it. So I think that’s the plan for tomorrow. Anyway, for the time being, I’ll say good night from day six of the Thankful Villages tour. The Thankful Villages part will finish tomorrow and then it’s beach and ice cream time all the way to Great Yarmouth. Anyway, good night. See you tomorrow, day seven.