NORTH NORFOLK
Hunstanton – Fakenham – Great Yarmouth – Aylsham – Cromer – Hunstanton
If you like your rides mostly flat, then the Norfolk Fens are for you! This route here though takes in a great many different roads, including a long coastal jaunt. Not all of them are fast, and there are restrictions in many places, but it’s still one to enjoy and the bonus is, there are many other roads near and off this route which should be able to sate whatever riding desires you may have.
Starting off at the seaside town of Hunstanton, itself already a popular destination for bikers, head south on the A149 for a brief stint, before making a left on to the B1454 towards Docking, go through there and carry on until you hit the A148, turning left for Fakenham. Stick on the 148 north of Fakenham, but keep eyes peeled for the A1067 on the right and turn on to it.
Then you stick to that route until you hit Norwich’s ring-road, better known as the A1042, and skirt Norwich’s north side until you find yourself on the A47 heading east to Great Yarmouth. When you see the sea in front of you, hang a left (if you can resist stopping for an ice cream on the beach) until you meet the A149 and stay on that towards NorthWalsham, through there and onwards back to the seaside at Cromer.
You could, if you so wished, stick to the coastal route all the way from GY to Cromer, but this includes a few faster stretches in between the villages and towns.
The A140 then bears left, following the coast all the way back to your starting point at Hunstanton. Now, expect a few speed restricted zones along your coastal ride, and probably a caravan or twenty, but great places to stop and eat, plus lots of gorgeous scenery should make up for some of that.
James Peter English rides to Hunstanton quite a bit, and it seems that “Hunstanton is a ride out destination for lots of bikes – all park by the pier. Lots of good pubs along the north Norfolk coast, too, a really nice part of world.”
Stuart Young, meanwhile, reiterates our warnings on the seaside part of the route: “The coastal route has a lot of 30mph limits, plus there can be caravans and motorhomes on them,” which takes us back to the enjoying the scenery part again, or the pubs as James said!
Graham Mvff also adds to our earlier suggestion (because we can’t do everything for you!) of finding other routes off or near this one: “Better to go south from Norwich via Beccles, then down past Henham Park to the A12 and out past Snape Maltings to Orford Ness. Lovely open roads and scenery,” although he also sent us some snaps of Wells Harbour from our coastal route, and concurred with James that the pubs around there are fantastic – bit of a pub theme developing here in Norfolk, and we didn’t even mention Alan Partridge! Apart from right then!