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

Norfolk cycle parkrun challenge stage 9. (Tall Orders, Thetford)

Tall Orders,

Thetford,

Mon-Sat 8:30-4:30, Sun 9-4,

Recommended

Hopefully you have been following my attempt (as suggested by my co conspirator Mark) to cycle from our local parkrun in Norwich to all 13 parkruns in Norfolk. Wherever possible I have also taken the opportunity to combine it with an appropriate cycle cafe review. The plan had been to do the majority of the rides over the summer months but due to holidays and other commitments we only managed to do two in that period meaning that as of today we still had five left. 

It was therefore dark when the alarm went off and still dark when I arrived at Eaton Park bandstand for le Grande Depart at 6.15. As always there were no big crowds, or in fact anyone, to see us off. Worse still there wasn't even Mark. When he did turn up he explained that his bike was stuck on the big front cog and he couldn't shift it. Using my limited bike maintenance skills (which usually consist of hitting the broken bit) I was unable to help having left all my hammers at home.

We decided he would just have to ride in the big cog and to show solidarity I said I would as well (and I did).

About to set off from our normal start point

The ride down was into a strong headwind and with the delay at the start we were soon behind the clock. Mark suggested we got into our now well tuned cycle train formation and offered to take first go at the front to shield me from the wind. After half a mile I felt it was my turn to take the next pull. I did, for about 4 miles, until Mark kindly did a second half mile stint leaving me to be the wind break for the rest of the 32 mile trip to Thetford.

Thanks to Mark's two half mile efforts we were able to arrive at Thetford in plenty of time. When we got there I was greeted by a chap asking if I was the Cake Crusader (which I am) and was somewhat taken aback by his knowledge. He explained the race director had seen my tweet saying I was coming and had let everyone know that a Z rated local celebrity (which I'm not) was coming today. It was a very warm welcome and we also got a special cheer when introduced on the start line as the two people from Norwich who had cycled there.

Start of Thetford parkrun where we got a special mention

The course is the most complex and varied todate with two laps of three different coloured zones (red, green and blue) although they are only coloured on the map and not, as I had hoped, in real life. It was a very enjoyable run and thanks to the inspiring start line applause I managed to finish in 3rd place, although as we know parkrun is a run not a race so that's not important (and if you believe that....). 

When Mark finally turned up the race director kindly took our end of race run photo and we set off for the target cafe impressed by what a nice and friendly parkrun Thetford was.

End of race photo. Mark has clearly not tried hard enough as he is able to smile

Today's target cafe was Tall Orders in the Thetford continental style pedestrianised area. This is the second cafe in the Norfolk area with this name (they are not connected) which is a strange coincidence.

Outside Tall orders

We decided to make use of the outdoor seating area so as not to have to lock our bikes. Inside the cake selection had the widest range of diary, gluten free and vegan cakes I had ever seen so got a reasonable effective cake selection (ECS) score. However I am a fan of gluten and diary so opted for the 'normal' lemon meringue cake while Mark went for a cheese scone with his americano.

Today's cake selection

I also bought two vegan brownies to take away as part of my search for Brownie of the year #BOTY (note: they were very impressive but slightly cakier than you standard brownie so just out of the running).

First ever Vegan brownie

Mark has now become an experienced cycle cafe reviewer so knew that his cheese scone should be warmed. He also knew that you must not request it to be, so there was some tension as we waited for our well earned refreshments to arrive.

Waiting for refreshments in the continental style outdoor seating area

Sadly it turned up cold (remember cheese scone hot, fruit scone not) although it was still a good one with plenty of cheese. My cake was fine but not spectacular as was my hot chocolate although Mark thought his coffee was excellent being nice and strong.

Refreshment selection

Tall Orders was a very pleasant cafe stop and I recommend a visit especially if you have any sort of food intolerance as they seemed to have it all covered.

With the wind behind Mark offered to take the lead at the front on the way home which was pointless in the conditions and he didn't even last very long before normal service was resumed. Hopefully he will have his bike fixed in time for our trip to Swaffham in 3 weeks.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.4	7.8	6.7	6.5	7.6	7.00

Route

Click here to download 63 mile Norwich Thetford Loop gpx file for your gps