Another spectacular day dawned when we opened our eyes at
7am. Not a cloud in the sky and even at this early hour, you could tell that it
was going to be a hot one. We had planned on leaving around 9am, but with some phone calls to make
and e-mails to receive, that was never going to be the case.
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| We said goodbye to our haven for three days |
Julia rang to book our train tickets from
Liverpool to London, which was a bit of a hassle and cost us more than we
expected and we also have to pick up those from Euston to Heathrow, at
Liverpool. Received a reply from Steve
and he’s going to take some time off and get together with us in London, along
with Gary. So, that’s all the friends contacted and all arranged to meet
up…just need the locations for some of them.
Met Kirsty, who is a home help to Mary and Bryan. She is
very nice and we chatted to her as she potted around getting things done. At
11.30am, we were ready to leave….right at the hottest time of the day. We’ve had a great time here and I’m pretty
sure Mary and Bryan did too. Bade farewell and promised Bryan that when we come
back again, we’ll come and see them.
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| Huntingfield Church |
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| An incredible nine months of work by a very determined and inspired woman. |
Took the lanes to Huntingfield, where we visited St. Mary’s
church. This is a very old church with a painted ceiling. It was done by the
rector’s wife in the 19th century. She spent most of the time laying
on her back to do it and even with all the amazing structures we have seen on
this trip, we still found this to be a beautiful work of art.
These are not the
massive buildings we have seen all over Europe, but small stone places of
worship, hundreds of years old, mostly cared for by the local communities and
some funding, if you’re lucky. The graveyards are also not the manicured types
found on the continent, but instead they fit in with the wilder, more natural,
unkempt, but in the nicest way, English countryside.
It was along these lanes we rode until 3.30pm, when we
reached the larger town of Diss. This had a much greater population than the
small villages we had been passing and in fact some villages comprised only of
a solitary house. It was in Diss that we
found a Tesco supermarket and shopped for lunch and tea. Just up the road we sat in the shade at a
bench with seats and ate a very late lunch.
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| Our lunch spot at Diss |
There were teenagers sitting around all over the place and it brought
back memories of the friends I’m going to catch up with on the Wirral…how
quickly those thirty five years have flown..!
Leaving Diss, we got directions from a cyclist to Fersfield.
He told us to take the A road, which we did until it got too busy. Jumped off
but found ourselves covering a lot of unnecessary ground and although the
countryside was lovely, we wanted to reach our campground. At 5.30pm we rode into Dower House, to find
reception shut, the bar not open on a Monday and the cost when we did find
someone…fifteen pounds. As it had been sweltering all day, we went in for a
dip in the pool. Disappointingly it was as warm as
bath water, but we still stayed in for a half hour before venturing in our
swimwear down the campground to set up our tent. It was here that we met Dave
and Deb and their four girls from Watford. He is a real comedian and we had a
great chat and laugh whilst we set up. He even brought a beer over and later a
wine for us to enjoy. They don’t just have the four girls, but two boys at
home.
We ignored the campowner’s instructions about where to set
the tent up as there was no shade there and set up on a pitch meant for
caravans as there were plenty of spare places.
It was a good decision as the sun was sweltering up until it disappeared
about 9.30pm, but we were quite comfortable in the tent, sitting in the
shade. After eating a delicious dinner
of chicken tikka masala in a can from Tesco’s with pasta and green beans (doesn’t
sound great, but it was!), we wandered over to have a chat to Dave and Deb and
Tamara, Gemma, Leanne and Joanne. Dave
really is funny and it was only the mosquitoes that drove us back to our tent
about 10pm.
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