Suffolk Spring Sportive day 2. (Earsham Street Cafe, Bungay)

Earsham Street Cafe,

Bungay,

Opening times Mon-Sun 10:00-16:00,

Highly Recommended 

I was slightly worried that my cycling guests wouldn't be up bright and early for day two of the Cake Crusader Cycling Adventure (CCCA). I needn't have worried as I was met at Breakfast by a series of smiling faces and then, soon after, by a row of cyclists eager to go and right on schedule. Little did I know that the smiling happy faces would be turned upside down when we had a cafe bombshell later in the day.

Eager for day 2 to begin only delayed by me tweeting the photo

The wind that had helped us for most of yesterday had amazingly turned round overnight and now planned to push us all the way home as well. This is unheard of wind behaviour and I knew nothing could now go wrong as luck was clearly on our side. However I had forgotten my physics that says we must have balance in our universe so if you have a huge amount of wind based luck then there must be an equal amount of cafe cycling bad luck or we will be swallowed up by a crack in the fabric of space and luck time. 

To avoid a crack in the fabric of space and luck time we were first delayed by back to back punctures from Jodie and Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please). Not for the first time, as I stood by the road side photographing Andrew at work, he commented on how he really must get some new tyres as his were getting a bit worn. No shit Sherlock.

Andrew examining his thread bare tyres

Now running behind me meticulously planned schedule we set off again to our first cafe stop in Eye. On arrival we were met by a sign that said the target cafe wasn't open on the 1st or 3rd Sunday of the month. As luck, that was no longer on our side, would have it today was the 1st Sunday of the month so no cafe here or anywhere in the local vicinity. Damn you Ying and Yang.

Cafe sign bombshell

I was reluctantly persuaded to go to the nearby pub so a plan b could be formulated. In protest I ordered a glass of water as a pub isn't a cafe nor does it sell cake. The happy smiling faces of this morning were now sad and morale was very low as sugar levels continued to fall.

Unhappy punters

I never carry a plan b or give my cycling guests options as they might start to get ideas and become difficult to control, so I told them to drink up, get some sweeties from the local shop and we would press on to stop two which, after all, was Earsham Street Cafe in Bungay my current number 1 rated cafe. Secretly I was worried that with luck now against us Earsham Street cafe may not live up to it's billing but I needn't have worried.

On route to Bungay

With everyone eager for proper refreshments and the wind speed picking up we raced to Bungay in record time and headed straight for Earsham Street. Things started very well with a friendly welcome and my cycling guests being impressed that we could wheel our bikes through the indoor area to the cycle storage facility at the back, which we quickly filled up

filling up the Earsham street cafe cycle storage facility

Despite me telling them that I have never had a bad visit to Earsham Street Cafe my cycling guests insisted on performing a full audit to make sure they were happy it really should be my number 1 rated cafe.

Sitting outside in the sunshine knowing that our bikes were safe and with exceptionally friendly service many of my cycling guests wanted to give a 10 for Atmosphere and Ambiance (AAA) so we were off to a good start.

As always the cake selection wasn't the biggest but everyone of them was tempting making it extremely effective and therefore a good effective cake selection (ECS) rating. I was also pleased to see flapjack on offer so I could test it as part of my search for flapjack of the year 2016.

Very effective cake selection

Despite 3 people ordering Egyptian mint tea (you could tell it was Egyptian as the tea bags were pyramid shaped) the drink and cake quality was also up to it's usual high standard.

Excellent drinks (with mini flapjack)

Great cakes

At the end of the cycling guest's audit they had rated the cafe even higher than me and thus confirmed it's place as my number one cafe. Morale was restored and I was relived that not only were the cycling guests now happy and ready for the final push home but my credentials as the self appointed number one cycle cafe reviewer (in the Norfolk area) were in tact.
.

Once again we sped along incident free until returning to Norwich where we went past Dr Hans and Frau Dr Hans's house where I insisted they finished their ride rather than return to Crusader Towers. This was not because of an uncharacteristic act of kindness from me but if they had done the extra bit to the end they would have done more miles than me which would have forced me to cycle back to their house with them before returning home as I can never be in mileage deficit to cycling guests.

All in all the first CCCA was seen as a success with plans already afoot for next year although I'm not sure if I can ever pull off the wind behind both ways (WBBW) trick again.

Scores based on last 3 visits

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
8.33	8.33	8.17	9.00	8.50	8.47

Route

Click here to down load 64 mile Ipswich to Norwich route gpx file for your gps