Raptor Alert. (The moorings, Blakeney)

The Moorings,

Blakeney,

Tues-Sun from 10:30,

Recommended 

It was time for another double header cafe cycle ride. I have taken to combining my search for sausage roll of the year #SROTY with a new cafe review. In this way I'm hoping to get round all the recommended sausage roll cafes suggested to me. On this occasion I was going to sausage roll at the Walsingham Cafe before trying out the Moorings in Blakeney. I knew that The Walsingham cafe is famous for it's pies and as a sausage roll is basically a rolled up meat pie I expected they would be good too.

I met up with Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) at Hard to Please House in Aylsham for the start of our ride.

Much to his disgust I had planned the route myself rather than let him take control. This was to make sure it was of a reasonable length and we didn't end up in Holt, again. Andrew tends to make the route up as we go along which often adds many miles to his estimated distance. He wasn't happy to have me telling him which way to go while on 'his cycling manor' so there was much tutting and disagreement as to the best way to go as we reached each junction.

It was a windy day and we were struggling as we headed directly into it. On one long stretch Andrew sarcastically pointed out I had selected the 'best' road to cycle down if the wind is from the West as we met the full force of it head on for several miles.

When we arrived at the Walsingham Cafe I popped in to get some sausage rolls while Andrew continued to sulk in the car park. 

Collecting sausage rolls from the Walsingham cafe

Note: The sausage rolls were tested back in my secret underground bicycle workshop back at Crusader Towers and they were as good as they looked so went into my current top ten sausage rolls for the end of year sausage roll off.

Fabulous sausage rolls

On the next part of the ride we came across a curious sign saying this was a Raptor viewing point. As the only Raptors I was aware of were dinosaurs I assumed Norfolk was now at the centre of some Jurassic Park style experiment so I excitedly suggested we stop in the hope of seeing a T-rex or the like.

I though I would be seeing some proper dinosaurs

Andrew told me that raptor was in fact the correct term for birds of prey and is derived from the Latin word rapere, meaning to take by force, as that is the way the grab their prey. (Everyday's a school day when you read this blog.)

Disappointed by the lack of dinosaur action we set off again to the coast where we found The Moorings on Blakeney High Street.

The moorings at Blakeney

There is no outdoor seating area so we went inside and checked out the cakes. The Moorings does lunches and evening meals as well as coffee and cake (but sadly not sausage rolls). The cake selection looked good, although not large in number, the key cake bases were covered and all looked tempting. It was therefore a very effective selection attracting a good effective cake selection (ECS) mark.

Good looking cakes in selection

I went for Coffee and Walnut while Andrew had carrot cake on the condition we swapped some of each so we could try both.

As it was lunchtime I also had a sausage sandwich whilst Andrew (who is not only notoriously hard to please but a vegetarian too) had avocado on toast. As we waited for our stuff to arrive I was subjected to a long rant about how it wasn't right that his avocado on toast cost more than my sausage sandwich as avocados are cheaper than sausages. I reminded him that we were on the North Norfolk coast where people expect to pay more for posh nosh such as avocado, so it was just the natural order of things.


We then got down to business as we rated our drinks and cakes. My hot chocolate was nice but Andrew thought his cappuccino needed to be a bit stronger. 

Hot chocolate rated higher than the coffee

The cakes were both excellent and some of the best so far this year. Strangely I prefered his carrot cake and Andrew my coffee and walnut one.

Some of the best cakes this year

Overall the Moorings was a very enjoyable stop and I would recommend a visit if you our out that way, especially if you like good cake.

On the way back we now had the wind behind and the Sun came out. We also saw a herd of raptors as apparently there were five buzzards flying above us. This was an impressive site but I would have rather seen a real dinosaur. 

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.85	5.5	7.00	8.40	7.25	7.00

Route

Click here to download 38 mile Alysham Blakeney loop gpx file for your gps