Hypothermia. (Scooters Cafe, Acle)

Scooters Cafe,

Acle,

Opening times Tue-Fri 08:00-16:00,

 Sat 08:30-15:00,

Recommended 

I had recently been studying my cafe locations map and realised that there are two key gaps that needed addressing. The first is out towards Great Yarmouth and the second is pretty much anywhere in Great Britain outside Norfolk. After some deliberation I decided to tackle the East Norfolk issue first.

I came up with a reconnaissance plan to do a 50 mile twisty turny style route out to Great Yarmouth to identify some good looking future stops in the area. Obviously I would also be doing a full cafe cycle review at one of them, which I would decide en route. For this type of ride I selected experienced cafe cycle reviewer Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) to be my cycling guest.

Despite what appeared like an excellent plan on paper in reality it was a near total failure. The weather forecast was for rain and sleet all day and a much colder temperature than we had been used to recently. I don't like to back out of a cafe cycle ride once it is organised but I did have to have a pitch inspection before we set off. At this point it wasn't actually raining and fortunately Andrew hadn't seen the weather forecast so he was easily convinced to start.

Although I had double socked and gloved it didn't take long until I had lost all feeling in each of my extremities. Andrew confirmed he was in a similar position. It had also started to rain and as we approached the first cafe to check, Scooters in Acle, it had started to come down really hard. We therefore decided to stop there to do the full cafe cycle review before potentially checking out the rest of my cafe list or just catching the train home.

Scooters Cafe in the rain

Scooters had a small continental pavement style outdoor seating area which not surprisingly was unoccupied today but inside the cafe was still packed. Scooters has a traditional cafe interior but despite it nearly being lunchtime all the tables were occupied by people having a full English late breakfast.

With the lack of any other cake eating going on I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the cake selection which had a nice range so I awarded a good effective cake selection (ECS) score.

Good cake selection

As there were no tables left we were invited to join some full English late breakfaster eaters on the corner of their table. This was good as we were able to dry off and warm up while our new friends gave us today's helpful cycling top tip.

Full English late breakfast eaters cycling top tip No 40. Avoid getting so cold and wet by not cycling in the rain.

I had opted for a very large piece of ginger cake, which turned out to be nice but not gingery enough for my liking, and, as it is the year of the flapjack, some of that as well. Andrew also had some flapjack so was able to join in it's rating against the three T's of flapjack; taste, texture and topology, to see if it will qualify for the end of year flapjack off (see Thing of the year 2016). 

Very large ginger cake plus flapjack entry for flapjack year 2016

On the drinks front both my Hot chocolate and Andrew's Cappuccino were nice and hot with Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) particularly complementary of his drink. 

Hot Chocolate and Cappuccino ready to warm us up 

Overall Scooters was just what we needed to recover from the cold and wet start to our ride and Andrew said he really liked the cafe, although this was probably as he had eventually warmed enough to say something, so I gave it a recommended status.

Andrew was keen to opt for the straight back to Norwich on the train option but as it had stopped raining I was again able to trick him in continuing our ride rather than heading straight to Acle station. After a few minutes even I realised this was a mistake as I once again had lost all feeling and the rain, with added sleet, had returned. We decided to abandon any detours to look at cafes and skip a large section of the ride to head straight to Great Yarmouth station, although this was still 15 miles away.

As we arrived at Great Yarmouth the rain had stopped so I was surprised by the lack of holiday makers on the beach or in the sea making the most of the break in the weather. We, on the other hand, headed straight for the station. 

Great Yarmouth beach deserted despite the lack of rain

Unfortunately we had just missed the train and the next one was nearly an hour away. I did get the chance to check out the station cafe but as it had no home-made cake then, as per cafe cycle reviewing regulations, it didn't qualify for reviewing although we still had a warming cup of tea.

Unfortunately Frankies cafe doesn't have homemade cake so can't be reviewed.

Sadly little progress had been made on knowing how to fill in my East Norfolk cafe gap so we agreed we would try the rid again in a few weeks time when the chance of frost bite and hypothermia had passed.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.00	7.00	6.50	6.00	7.00	6.50

Route would have taken if it hadn't been so cold

Click here to download 50 mile Norwich to Great Yarmouth GPX file for your gps