RNLI Fundraising trip
Round the Coastline of Britain

Day 3 - 14th May 2005
Aldeburgh, Suffolk to Beverly, East Ridings (321 miles)
Visited 12 RNLI Stations

After a late start at Fausto's, Chris and I headed back towards the coast and the first stop of the day at Southwold RNLI Station. From there we hopped up the coast via Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth, Happisburgh, Cromer, Sherringham, Wells on Sea and Hunstanton.

At Wells on Sea, we found that the RNLI station was acually on the beach, about 200yds from the nearest path. After a seconds thought, we both gave the thumbs up and scooted down the bath onto some extremely soft and deep sand. Watching Chris fishtail his bike infront of me made me very cautious and rather than taking the direct line, I went stright down the slope and onto the firmer sand before turning towards the station.

We got our pictures and jumped back on the bikes. Before I knew it Chris had dropped his as he negotiated the soft angled sand. I jumped off to pull the bike off him and then took the obligatory photo's while a family who were eating the sarnies looked on with much amusement. After pushing each other out the soft stuff and back onto the path, we dusted off the sand and were on our way without and damage to body or bike.

The minor coast roads were great fun, with little traffic, some good straight bits and plenty of corners. This was the first day when I felt we had really found the roads I had wanted to be travelling on.

After Hunstanton, we hooked onto the A17 to play leapfrog with the queues of cars that were travelling North. The road was wide and had good visibility. There were loads of speed camera marking on the road, but we only passed 2 actual camera's (I hope).

Skegness on a sunny Saturday afternoon turned out to be my concept of hell. Loads of overweight families eating chips and shouting to each other at the top of their voices from opposide sides of the road. I even had the misfortune to see a really fat bird mooning at her friends. Eeuch. The run up to Grimsby put a smile back on my face as we started cutting through the traffic again and slinging the bikes round the bends. Then we approached the 40mph limits of Hull. Lovely wide roads (often dual carriageway) and they all seemed to have 40 limits on them. We were good boys and stuck to the speed limits, but I cannot remember seeing more than two speed camera's in the whole city. What did cheer me up was the sight of packs of lads gunning their scooters through the traffic and clowning around with their friends. The next generation learning the ropes.

By now the temperature was dropping and we hustled onto Withersea RNLI for the last photo of the day. By now we were both feeling tired and cold, but forced ourselves to ride back through Hull and up to Beverley where we stayed in Beverley Friary, one of the prettiest YHA's of our trip. The sun was just setting on Beverley Minster, so we rushed out to get some pictures before the light failed. Then we walked into town, asked some passersby where to eat and were recommended to try Ali's Spice, 9-10 Wednesday Market, Beverley.

They managed to squeeze us into a spare table despite being booked to capacity and we had a great meal. A place I can highly recommend if you are ever in the area. At the end of the meal, Ali talked to us, and realising that we were on a charity ride started pressing us with drinks. As we had another early start, a couple of Cokes were all we could accept. Top bloke and definitely a top meal.