Mileage target. (Shambles Cafe Bar, North Walsham)

Shambles Café Bar,

North Walsham,

Open Tue-Sat 09:00-21:00, Sun 12-4.

Recommended

It was a day of high risk in the world of cycle cafe riding today. Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) had been told about a good cafe in North Walsham and as a well trained cycling guest thought we should check it out. On reviewing my recently updated Cake Crusader cafe location map (which now has 238 visited cafes on it) there was an obvious gap in the North Walsham area, so I agreed to the trip.

To add to the risk Andrew also said he would take charge of the route. I checked my "optimum ride length" table which showed that an Autumn ride should be between 30 and 40 miles so I requested the route to be in that range.

As soon as we left Hard to Please House in Aylsham it was clear that Andrew had not planned the route properly. He was allowing it to evolve dynamically as he didn't decide which way to go until we arrived at each junction. Clearly I did not approve of such a casual approach so to help him calibrate the ride distance I took to reporting into him on the completion of every 5 mile section.

As it was a lovely crisp Autumn day I didn't actually mind the prospect of additional miles if Andrew got a bit too gung ho with the route but obviously kept this to myself so as not to encourage him.

Lovely Autumn scene with a tractor and everything

Surprisingly as I announced the completion of our 20th mile we rolled into North Walsham where we found the Shambles Cafe Bar near a big church.

Standing in the outdoor continental style outdoor seating area outside the cafe

There was plenty of seating options including a continental style outdoor seating area, an outdoor courtyard area plus indoor seating which we opted for.

The virtual cake selection on the menu board was larger than the real thing but both the carrot cake and lemon drizzle looked excellent so we went for them to accompany my hot chocolate and Andrews Capuchino.

The actual cake selection available

Both our drinks were fairly standard examples and attracted fairly standard drink quality ratings. The cakes however were excellent and Andrew felt some of the finest he had had this year. 

Todays refreshments

My only concern was with the size of the cake fork as they had clearly been obtained for much bigger people or much bigger cake. As a clever way round this then Shambles had served the cake on saucers to make it look bigger although it wasn't fooling me.

Interesting plate and fork sizing approach in operation

Despite the mismatched sizing approach in operation it was a very pleasant stop and I would recommend a visit if you are in the area.

When it was time to head back I was looking forward to seeing where Andrew's route would end up in the agreed 30-40 mile criteria. It soon became clear that Andrew had bottled it and was taking a fairly direct route back to Aylsham. When it was apparent that we were going to undershoot the mileage requirement Andrew had to introduce a pointless loop and we just scraped in on 30.5 miles.

Although I admired Andrews free flowing routing approach the stress of not knowing if we be doing the right number of miles was too much and I required an extra long afternoon kip. I will be going back to pre planning all routes in future

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6	6	6.2	8.4	7.0	6.72

Route

Click here to download 30 mile Aylsham North Walsham loop gpx file for your gps

Wrong way round. (Marsh Larder, Harleston)

Marsh Larder,

Harleston,

Open Thur-Sun 09:00-16:00,

Highly Recommended

The last time I was out on a cafe cycle ride with Big George when Mrs Crusader phoned it was because the BBC were trying to get in touch as they wanted to do a feature on me for Look East (you can read all about what happened in my Cake Crusader book) so we were both pretty excited when I spotted a missed call from her a few miles into today's cycle.

As Big George got on to his agent I called Mrs Crusader back but disappointingly it was domestic admin and we wouldn't be on the telly tonight. (Note: If you work for the BBC or any major TV network then just to confirm me and Big George are always available as I have nothing better to do with my time, please contact Mrs Crusader for bookings).

With no pressing media engagement then we continued on our way down to Harleston and today's target destination, The Marsh Larder. Which we found it in a field by a farm. 

The Marsh Larder cafe

As it was half term it was heaving inside so we made use of the excellent outdoor seating area.

Part of the Marsh Larders outdoor seating area

The Cake selection was a very fine one, especially when I spotted one of my favourites, chocolate topped tiffin. I also took away some fruit scones for testing in my continuing search for fruit scone of the year #FSOFTY.

Excellent effective cake selection

Despite it being busy our refreshments soon arrived and I wasn't disappointed as my hot chocolate was a proper thick one and the tiffin was as good as it looked. As always Big George refused to have any cake and went for a bacon sandwich instead, he also thought his coffee only to be average but he is still in a mood as apparently Scotland lost to Japan in the Rugby world cup which he explained was a bad thing.

Today's excellent refreshments unless you are a scottish Rugby fan.

I thought the Marsh Larder was one of the best new (to me) cafes I have visited this year so highly recommend a visit. As Big George did not add much to my cafe rating input experience I plan to take some proper cake eating coffee drinking cyclists on a visit next Spring to get a proper second opinion. No hardship as far as I'm concerned.

Cycling guest cycling top tip no. 70. To add variety to your cycle rides try riding a familiar circular route the opposite way around as they often look quite different from the other direction.

I normal cycle this route in a clockwise direction but as a man who likes to live life on the edge then I decided to follow cycling guest cycling top tip 70 and go anti clockwise. As you can see from the photo the top tip was right as the route did indeed looked quite different and I will certainly follow this tip again.

Todays cycle route looked quite different in an anti clockwise direction

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
8.3	5.5	8.6	8.1	7.8	7.66

Map of route

Click here to down load 43 mile Norwich Harleston loop GPX file for your GPS

Moved. (Rainbow Deli, Fakenham)

Rainbow Deli,

Fakenham,

Open Mon-Sat 09:00-16:00,

Recommended

There are a number of entries on my 'cafes to visit' list that have been there sometime and I need to get to. One such was the Rainbow stores and deli in East Rudham. With Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) available again as a cycling guest then today seemed the ideal opportunity to check it out. It is a 56 mile round trip from Hard to Please House in Aylsham but with the promise of an increasing wind from the west then we would be at least blown back like all cyclist want to. 

All looked good until I did a quick check of opening times. This revealed that the Rainbow stores had recently moved from East Rudham to Fakenham.I was not to be defeated before I had even set out and showing just how flexible and dynamic I am a full replanning was undertaken and Fakenham was now our new destination with a reduced distance of just 44 miles.

It was obviously hard work on the way out into the wind and things were not helped by the number of flooded roads left over from the weekends downpours. Sadly, despite several such sections Andrew failed to fall in any super sized puddles.

Sadly Andrew stayed on his bike again

We found the Rainbow Deli in a quiet side street in Fakenham town centre. As it was mainly a deli there was limited seating with only a couple of tables inside plus a couple more in a continental style outdoor seating area.

Outside the Rainbow deli

The cake selection was excellent with some fancy cakes, a vegan coffee and walnut plus brownies, scones etc.

The fancy part of the cake selection

I went for a posh italian cherry and mascarpone cake while Andrew had a more traditional bakewell slice to accompany his capuchino.

Our drinks and cakes soon arrived but what was this! It was clear that my work had not yet reached Fakenham as, for the first time in ages, both cakes came on their napkins rendering them useless. Remember #Keepcakeoffserviettes.

Bakewell slice clearly served on its serviette!

On the drinks front I thought my hot chocolate was good as it was nice and strong but Andrew felt his coffee was too weak for his liking. Despite the serviette incident the cakes were rather good and I would recommend a visit.

Todays refreshment selection

It was a nice fast ride back but we did notice there seemed to be more traffic on the road than normal maybe they were all looking for recently moved tea rooms or cafes as well.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7	5.8	7.8	8.2	7	7.16

Route

Click here to download 43 mile Aylsham Fakenham loop GPX file to your GPS

Rabbit News (The Orangery Tea room, Ketteringham)

The Orangery Tearoom,

Ketteringham,

Open Wed-Fri 10:00-16:00, Sat-Sun 10:00-17:00,

Highly Recommended

After returning from my latest, and rather unsuccessful, trip to the Alps in search of the best mountain top cafes, it was time to continue my winter project of getting my cafe data upto date through a full cafe cycle audit. Today's task was to go to Ketteringham Hall to check out the Orangery tea room which has replaced the Piano tearoom that used to be there.

For this particular trip I took Big George as my cycling guest. He had also been on a cycling trip last week but had stuck to the short and steep terrain of Derbyshire and South Yorkshire. As a result we were both in tip top condition (at least for old blokes) and spent most of the ride testing each other out so it was a tiring affair.

For our route I had chosen a 40 mile loop out towards Dereham before returning via Wymondham and finishing at the cafe. After we had both shared, and not listened too, each others cycling trip highlights then Big George had some sad news as one of his rabbits had  recently died. He had read that single rabbits can get lonely so had decided to get another one.

Apparently this isn't as straightforward as you think as you have to bond rabbits before they can live together. To do this the rabbits need to go to a rabbit bonder which seems to be a rabbit based residential team building course. I assume they have to undertake tasks like getting a bag of carrots across a river using only barrels, ropes and logs. 

Flopsy preparing to practice raft building

Anyway if his current rabbit (Flopsy) and new one pass the course then as a reward they get to live with Big George.

There is a long waiting list for rabbit bonders so Big George is busy teaching flopsy all he knows about making friends and influencing rabbits. Hopefully he will have two happy rabbits again soon.

With rabbit chat complete we found ourselves at Ketteringham Hall where we found the Orangery tearoom. Apart from the sign it looked very like the old Piano tearoom, which isn't a bad thing, as the outside seating area was still in action offering lovely views across the lake. The theme is still aimed at the afternoon tea brigade meaning the flowery wallpaper wasn't to Big Georges liking, maybe a more bunny theme would have been more to his liking.

Outside the Orangery Tea Room

The cake selection wasn't huge but covered all my favourites so I still gave a good effective cake selection score as I selected Bananoff cake plus fruit scones to test later in my search for fruit scone of the year (note it was a very good one and has made it into my current finalist list).

Very effective cake selection

My Hot chocolate was very hot and got better the more it cooled down. Big George thought it was a very good coffee so with the cake being a particularly good one it was high marks for the refreshments.

Todays cake and drinks

The Orangery has picked up from where the Piano tea rooms left off and therefore remains a Cake Crusader favourite and I highly recommend a visit.

From here it was just a short ride back to Crusader Towers where an afternoon kip was beckoning while Big George went home to pack Flopsy's suitcase ready for the forthcoming bonding trip.

Scores based on 2 visits

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7.4	7.0	7.1	8.5	8.5	7.7

Route

Click here to download 42 mile Norwich Mattishall loop gpx file to your gps