Listened to heavy rain all night but sort of stopped long enough for us to get the tent down in the sort of dry and pack up the panniers. Finally found the bike repair shop on the outskirts of the town - the back wheel had two broken spokes - so left it to be mended and walked down to Tesco's in the drizzle for a brew - but didn't have a cafe rather amazingly. Finally left the town about 11.30 - a grey and miserable and wet sort of day - we were caught in a heavy downpour about lunch time - looking for shelter we found a renovated train station down a little lane- said it had a cafe that was open - but when we got there it was deserted - only open on Sundays. The good news though was that there were benches to sit on and had a covered area - so had our lunch there and brewed up on the stove. The station was called 'County School' - it was built in 1886 to service the school that is a bit further down the lane - now closed.
Managed to dry off a little while under the shelter of the station, and had stopped raining by the time we left. Don't be fooled into thinking Norfolk is flat - it ain't!!! Another undulating sort of a day,but none of the hills are that bad thank goodness - even Roger hasn't too many bad things to say about them. The last 15 miles to Norwich were down an old railway line- started off OK but the surface became very sticky with the rainy weather and quite slippy at times - also a slight up hill slope for the first 5 or 6 miles or so - so felt like very hard work. It felt as though the lights went out about 3 o'clock as we were cycling along in the trees along the railway - could hear the thunder in the distance- then a tremendous downpour, with the full works of thunder and lightening caught us about 1/ a mile from Drayton, which in turn is about 5 miles north of Norwich where we were heading. There was absolutely no shelter so got really drenched - there was a sign off the track at this point saying there was accommodation near by so went in search of it via a very busy road. The surface water was amazing following the downpour, and we realised just how mucky we were from cycling along the railway from the mud that had splashed up. Found a B and B - with electric gates etc but unfortunately no one was in - tried phoning them on the number on the sign but really no one in. So had to make our way back up to the railway track - the rain had stopped now, but the 5 miles into Norwich were more like cycling along a stream - the puddles were that large. Was getting on towards 5 as we cycling along - so lots of commuters cycling the opposite way, very fast to try and get home before they got soaked. Don't think they will have made it because, again, about 1/2 a mile before we arrived in the town centre of Norwich the thunderstorm caught up with us again and the heavens opened once again on us well and truly soaking us. The track brought us out right near the centre of the town - a very water logged spot with snarled up traffic and very wet people walking from work. We managed to find a Premier Inn close by which didn't turn up their noses at how wet we and our bikes were - but as it cost us £90 for the night, not including breakfast...... - I made good use of the bath!!! Actually went out for something to eat tonight - a pizza in a little Italian restaurant. Talking to a woman outside the hotel as she sheltered from the rain - she said this was the first time it had rained today here in Norwich - the rain must have been following us down as we made our slow way south today.
Am trying to get everything dry again overnight ready for tomorrow -but likely to get wet all over again unfortunately.
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