Arctic expedition (White House Stores, Neatishead)

White House Store,

Neatishead,

Opening times Mon-Sat 08:30-17:00,

Sun 8:30-13:00

Due to the recent bad weather, poorly cycling guests and a trip to Gran Canaria (to run a marathon) it has meant that cafe cycle riding has been rather thin on the ground so far this year. Worse still the hunt for sausage roll of the year has got off to a very slow start.

Things were not looking good when I awoke this morning to see a frost on the ground and a freezing fog in the air. Fortunately I knew that I had got today's cycling guest, Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please), well trained as to not call off a ride and sure enough he turned up right on time. As expected there was much whinging about how cold it was and how far I had planned for us to ride. At these times I find it best to resort to the gift of the lie by telling him that we would take a short cut (we didn't) and that the weather forecast said it was due to warm up (it wasn't) so he agreed that the ride could go ahead.

As predicted, by the real weather forecast, the fog and cold air stayed with us for the whole ride so it was not a surprise that within a few minutes, despite double socking and gloving, we could not feel any of our extremities. This combination made our mid-ride comfort break almost impossible to undertake successfully. 

Fog and dark skies were with us all ride

To make matters worse the poor weather led to some slow cautious riding meaning that by the time we eventually got to our planned cafe stop at the Neatishead White House Store (community village shop and coffee house) we felt less like Tour de France cyclists and more like arctic explorers, but without the sled, huskies and Igloos.

Andrew reluctantly took the requisite cafe photo as this meant removing his gloves increasing the imminent threat of finger frost bite amputation further. With picture captured we dashed inside, past the outdoor seating patio area, hoping to warm up.

Outside the White House Stores

We were greeted by two extremely friendly volunteer shop assistants eager to make us some hot drinks, chocolate for me and cappuccino for Andrew. 

Our very welcome hot drinks

They explained that cake and sandwiches were in short supply in the middle of January as only complete idiots would cycle into the middle of Broadland at the this time of year but if we could wait to the Spring there would be a much bigger choice. As we couldn't wait that long Andrew opted for the last bit of chocolate and orange cake and me a blueberry muffin.

Rather sparse cake selection as we visited in the middle of winter

It was better news on the sausage roll front as they had plenty of them and more than happy to heat one up for me. 

Second sausage roll of the year

The hot drinks were just what we needed with my hot chocolate tasting particularly good. The chocolate orange cake was extremely nice and got very high cake taste quality marks. 

Today's cakes

Neatishead community shop and coffee stop was just what we needed and worth a visit although I suggest you go during the summer season.

Now warm again we returned to our bikes and started the process of getting really cold again we which, like Captain Oats but without the dying bit, we successfully achieved before arriving home. 

Finally must give a big thanks to the inventors of the hot water bottle and blanket without whom I would still not have warmed up several hours later.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7.0	5.0	4.0	8.0	7.0	6.20

Route

Click here to download 41 mile Norwich Horning loop GPX file to your GPS