Cycling holiday -- day 5

The rain that had been promised arrived just after I got back to the hotel last night, after a postprandial stroll to the martello tower and back. The few drops of rainwater remaining on the bag I'd put over the saddle reassured me that that had been a sensible thing to do.

Flax

So, the way was forced to start, and going into a chill headwind, but soon the cloud that had bubbled up began to clear, leaving just some high-level fluff, and more worrying weather low in the west.

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It would be too early at Orford for lunch so I bypassed it -- I thought about heading to the ferry at Bawdsey and coming up on Woodbridge from the south. The route was clear -- and where there were shady bits, it was clear that there had been a fair amount of rain. That said, it wasn't stopping all the sprinklers that either drifted spray over the roads, or outright covered it in their arcs.

The Tunstall to Butley road looked very minor on the map, but the first thing that greeted me as I turned onto it was a high speed Chelsea tractor coming the other way. And later a convoy of harvesters and tractors with trucks.

On the track past the prison near Hollesley, more irrigation meant streams of runoff, so another spot of barefoot pushing, before the last leg to the coast -- where there seemed to be zero ferry-like activity despite a sign claiming that it was running. So, back up the peninsula, taking the restricted by-way the last leg into Shottisham (very sandy, so nice for more barefoot, apart from the pinecones).

Lunch at the Sorrel Horse, a brie and bacon bap, with a pint of bitter drawn direct from the cask, and then loop around to Woodbridge. The sky had clouded over, and was rather stifling, but it was still early, so I did an extra loop before checking in.

They have the cheek to expect you to pay for wi-fi at the Crown, so more deferred blogging. And Spice, where I'd hoped to eat, is holding a private do. So over to Prezzo for minestrone, crayfish and pea risotto, and apple crumble, and an early night.