Part one: Introduction

In spite of the bizarre summer weather, we decided, optimistically, to give the airports and railway stations a miss this year. My wife, Barbara's nephew invited us to a christening party in our home town of Redcar in North Yorkshire, to be held on 26th August. For our tour this year, we decided to make this our destination. Departing from the garden gate, without aiming directly for Tees-side, or setting a firm itinerary, I suggested we take in some of East Anglia, that is, the part of Eastern England that juts out into the North Sea. We would have enough time to turn back south via the Yorkshire Dales and the Peak District and if necessary, take a train home from somewhere in the Midlands. Unfortunately, the un-seasonal summer weather and some minor misfortune took a hand. Our intentions took a corresponding twist.

Barbara, when I suggested we might try camping for the first time in more than 30 years, gave me very short shrift. We would be staying in hotels, pubs or B&Bs.

As usual, we both rode MTBs adapted for touring. We used the OS [Ordnance Survey] 1:250,000 regional maps. They're hard to read but they cover everything. As far as possible we rode on minor unclassified roads. Occasionally we were forced to use busy arterial roads for short distances. This is not in anyway recommended, but unavoidable from time to time.

As to finding our way around, we used the Ordnance Survey 1:250,000 scale, regional route planning maps. All the minor roads are marked, but in a country as populous as ours, the small scale makes them hard to read. An alternative is to rip the relevant pages out of a road atlas. The Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 maps are excellent, but you'd need too many for a long tour, so it would cost you in both extra weight and cash.

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