Reckless. (Tickety Boo Garden cafe, Thurston)

Tickety Boo Garden Cafe,

Thurston,

Tue-Fri 9:30-4:00, Sat 10:00-4:00

Highly Recommended

Despite it being a mild winter it has been a bad one in the world of cafe cycle riding. I have had a number of rides postponed this year as rain, wind, ice and snow have corresponded with my plans. It has meant that I have only managed to visit two new cafes in the first 6 weeks of the year. So when I woke up this morning to the sound of howling winds I thought that another trip had bitten the dust.

However today's cycling guest, Big George, was also frustrated by the lack of recent pedalling action so despite a forecast promising 50 mph gusting winds we decided to be reckless and go on our ride.

With well over 250 cafes and tearooms visited in the region I had pretty much run out of new venues to visit that could be cycled to from home. This has meant now driving away from Norwich to start my rides. Today we drove to Knettishall country park car park to cycle in the Breckland area.

On arrival I realised that this was an opportunity for a new feature (and spreadsheet) as I would start my search for the top ten free car parks to cycle from. Knettishall country park car park scored 7.3 and goes straight to number one.

Knettishall Country park car park.
My current number 1 rated free car park to start a cycle ride from

The first few miles were with the wind so we flew along but then we turned south and were hit by strong cross winds. The real danger came whenever there was a gap in the hedge as the wind would try and lift you off the road and pop you into the nearest hedge. We both rode at a 45 degree angle as we battle this section and safely made it to the next wind based challenge.

When we turned West we were now straight into the wind and progress almost ground to a halt. You know you are in trouble when you are pedalling really hard in your easiest gear when going down hill.

We had only done 18 miles but were completely shattered when we reached today's venue , Tickety Boo Garden Cafe in the village of Thurston.

Outside Tickety Boo's trying to stay upright in the wind

Much to our surprise we were not the only cyclists stupid enough to go riding today as we had been beaten there by a group of riders from Diss CC.

Big George had not been happy when I had told him the name of today's cafe as he felt it would be far too twee for his hard man Scottish image. However he was quite impressed with the venue as there were fried things on the menu and sausage rolls on the counter. For me they had an excellent cake selection plus fruit scones which I immediately entered into my fruit scone of the year competition #FSOTY.

A very fine effective cake selection

I went for ginger cake and dark hot chocolate (always good sign when you are given a choice between milk and dark) and Big George an americano and sausage roll (which is still not cake).

Today's drinks and cakes

Our drinks were both excellent and scored highly although Big George would have liked his coffee a bit hotter. My cake was very nice although I could have taken a bit more ginger. Although not part of my rating system Big George said it was the best sausage roll he had had since we had made rare breed pigs even rarer with our rare pig sausage rolls at Itteringham post office several years ago (see Black Friday).

We both thought Tickety Boo was an excellent, and cycle friendly, stop and I would highly recommend a visit.

It was still windy on the way back but at least we had it behind for the last few miles (just after I had been blown into a ditch, which was nice).

Just before we got back to the car park I saw a sign saying we were leaving the Brecks, I thought a catchy name for this would be a Brexit but I had a feeling I had heard that term somewhere before although I couldn't remember when.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7.8	7	8.65	7.5	7.8	7.75

Route

Click here to download 37.5 mile Thetford Bury St Edmunds loop gpx file on your gps

What no Hall! (The Coffee House, Bury St Edmunds)

The Coffee House,

Bury St Edmunds,

Mon-Fri 7:30-5:00, Sat 8:30-4:00,

Sun 09:00-2:00

Recommended

You may recall that earlier this year Myself and Mrs Crusader cycled across India to see if I could find a cup of tea worth more than 7 out of 10 (See My special rides page). On the trip we met some new friends (Cliff and Sharon) who foolishly gave me there contact details. As a result, then yesterday, we met up for a reunion ride where they joined Mrs Crusader as my cycling guests.

We met up at Knettishall Heath near Thetford which was roughly equal distance between our homes. From here the plan was to cycle down to a Coffee shop on the outskirts of Bury St Edmunds at Moreton Hall.

As I have visited about 200 cafes in Norfolk I have been running out of new places to go to so in the morning I put an appeal out for some new cafe suggestions on my Facebook page and Twitter feed. I was grateful for a lot of new ideas although they will take me sometime to work through (however don't let this put you off sending me more recommendations). One of these was the Coffee House at Morton Hall in Bury St Edmunds. As luck would have it that was where I had planned to go on this ride so I was pleased to have one ticked off already.

It was a bit windy as we left Knettishall Heath car park and headed south. Apparently the wind made it difficult to hear me recount how I got up the Tourmalet first on my trip across the Pyrenees in the summer on another of this years special rides.  

On the way to Bury St Edmunds where the wind made it hard to hear the conversations

After telling the story for the 3rd or 4th time we found The Coffee House through an underpass. Mrs Crusader was very disappointed that it wasn't in the courtyard of a stately home as it turned out that Moreton Hall was a district of Bury as the Moreton Hall Housing estate had been built on the original land and the Hall was now a school.

Outside the Coffee Shop

Despite this there was a nice warm and friendly welcome inside giving a high Atmosphere and Ambiance (AAA) mark. The cake selection was presented in an impressive cake display case and had a good range of cakes and slices so I awarded a good ECS mark.

Cake selection in a cake selection display case

I went for chocolate and caramel cake while Mrs Crusader choose carrot and walnut to have with her americano. Cliff and Sharon both had flapjack with their americanos.

The cakes and drinks turned up in record time. 

Cake and drinks

My hot chocolate was a good one but the americanos were felt to be a bit weak. This reminded me of  a cycling guest cycling top tip passed on to me by the Old Rock Shop cafe in Cromer.

Cycling guest cycling top tip no 68. To avoid having to moan to your cycling host about weak coffee ask the barista for an extra shot to make sure it's strong enough.

When Cliff decided he wanted a second cup he followed cycling guests cycling top tip no 68 and was far more impressed with his next drink upping the guest hot drink quality (GHDQ) rating.

The cakes all tasted nice but were a little on the dry side to score top marks.

Despite the lack of an actual Hall and courtyard, the Coffee House had performed well and I recommend a visit.

The ride back was much swifter as the wind was now in our favour so I was able to make sure everyone could now clearly here my Pyrenees tales. By the time I had finished we were back at the car with no time to hear about Cliff and Sharon's ride through Germany. I suggested we join up for another ride next Spring but Cliff said they were busy all next year and probably the year after but promised to give me a ring when they were next free, which I'm looking forward to already as I'm sure to have some more stories to tell them by then.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7	6	7.3	7.2	7.7	7.04

Route


Click here to download 37.5 mile Thetford Bury St Edmunds loop gpx file on your gps