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

Winters on its way. (Buoy Coffee House, Blakeney)

Buoy Coffee House,

Blakeney,

Opening times Every day 09:00-16:00

Recommended 

Today (May 2021) I visited the Buoy Coffee House thinking it was a new venue I had not been to only to discover it was in fact the Grey Seal Coffee House but with a new name. I then discovered I also visited it in Jan 2019 thinking it was a new cafe. I expected I’ll be visiting it again in 2023 and make the same mistake again. Apart from the name little had changed, apart from a slightly larger cake selection, so as I reminder here is what I said on the previous visit.

(November 2016.) It has been a couple of weeks since I have been able to get out on a cafe cycle ride and in that time the weather has really changed. From mild Autumn days it is now looking very wet and windy. Therefore yesterday the time had come to change to winter clothes and bikes. With reduced daylight as well then rides would also have to be a bit shorter.

I meet up with today's cycling guest, Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please), at Hard to Please House in Alysham. He too had dusted down his steel winter steed and would be out on in for the first time since he put it away last Spring.

I had put Andrew in charge of route and destination but in order to keep the ride within acceptable boundaries I had given him a choice of 3 cafes and strict instructions to keep the distance between 30 and 40 miles. He had chosen my Blakeney cafe option on the North Norfolk coast as he felt it looked like the poshest one and he is not only hard to please but a bit of a snob. 

With mud, water and wet leaves making the roads rather slippery then some care was needed as we set off towards the coast. It was therefore no surprise when we had to stop for a puncture although it was the first one I had had for several months (my cycling data spreadsheet says 17th July) so I couldn't complain.

My first puncture since July

I don't mind getting a puncture as when I return home I get to hang up the inner tube on my 'tubes to be repaired hook' (TTBRH). On Christmas Eve, like many others, I will sit down with my pile of punctured tubes, a bowl of lukewarm water, glue, patches and mince pies. Then, while listening to Christmas songs and carols, I will start to repair them all. After all nothing says Christmas more than a full set of mending punctures and a tidy inner tube shelf, except perhaps foxes on a trampoline (for those who remember the 2016 John Lewis christmas ad). 7

There were no further incidents and we soon arrived at our target cafe. However despite both me and Andrew checking the details on the cafe website, with no mention of the fact that it was closed for the winter, we found that it was closed for the winter.

Fortunately I knew of a second untried cafe in Blakeney so using the gift of Google maps we found our way to the Grey Seal cafe (now Buoy Coffee House). It was quite hard to find as there was no big signage and it was next to the fishmongers which is unusual for a coffee shop.

Grey Seal Cafe next to fish mongers

Grey Seal is also a coffee roaster supplying several cafes in the area, so it sells ground coffee to the public as well. As a result there were not many tables and chairs supplied for cafe customers (I counted 3) but at this time of year there were not many people about either and we were the only ones currently there making it rather too quiet. This may surprise regular readers who have heard me complain when cafes are too noisy, especially with mothers and toddlers, but remember the customer is always right. 

Rather empty inside the cafe today

With reduced winter trade it wasn't a surprise that the cake selection was rather small with only pastries and custard tarts on display although on further questioning I discovered that there was carrot cake and brownies available too, which upped the effective cake selection (ECS) score a bit.

The part of the cake selection on display

As it was a proper coffee cafe they had some extra choices so Andrew went for a Cortado (which is a milky espresso popular in Spain, apparently) and a tart, which although not a pretentious one seemed an appropriate choice for him. I went for a more down to earth Hot chocolate and carrot cake.

When our cakes and drinks arrived I was disappointed to see a partial cake serviette covering but I was able to rescue enough of it for latter crumb wiping use. Remember #keepcakesoffserviettes, even partial ones.  (This was not the case on my 2019 visit)

Part of serviette covered by the cake!!!!!!

Andrew thought his Cortado was very good and scored well whereas my hot chocolate was good but a bit weak. Tarts and cakes were both excellent so scored well making the Grey Seal cafe a nice, if slightly quiet, stop.

Excellent cakes and drinks

We set off again and after a while we were overtaken by man on an electric bike. As cycling fans this brought back memories of this summer's Rio Olympics velodrome events. I decided it was too good an opportunity and we decided to reenact the Keirin final (the one where they chase the motorbike), which we did for several miles until the derny bike rider eventually managed to shake us off.

Andrew taking on the role of Jason Kenny whilst reenacting the 2016 Olympic Keirin final

After another successful day of cycle cafe reviewing I returned home where I hung the punctured inner tube on my TTBRH which is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Scores based on two visits

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.675	8.0	5.5	8.125	6.0	6.86

Route

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