Hoooowl if you’re having fun
The Wolf Way was fun from beginning to end: long sunny days, stunning scenery, wonderful cycling friends and, for some of us, a much needed opportunity to develop off-road skills.
Named after the wolf that guarded King Edmond’s head, thus enabling it to be buried along with his body (yes really), The Wolf Way is a Cycling UK ride that circumnavigates Suffolk.
Seven girls and a guy embraced the adventure over a long weekend in May and our thanks go to Daryl for allowing us to post this precis of his blog.
My journey started from home with a 70km ride to Peterborough station. Thankfully, Sophia and Wayne said they would ride some of the way with me, and it was nice to have along for company. I had a steady pootle through Bury, met up with Jane, Sally, Anne and Judith and we went for a wander a round town to see the start of the Wolf Way and a look at some of the sights.
Day one was from Bury to Ipswich, 100km with 1000m of climbing throughout the day. When we met for breakfast, the sun was out and despite a cool breeze, it was a totally different day to Thursday. Our sixth team member was Nav, who had arrived late Thursday evening was now loaded up and ready to go.
Once clear of Bury we were onto small country roads and a mix of bridleways and field edges. These were technical in places as they were deeply rutted and required your full concentration.
We stopped for a drink, and to peel off some layers of clothing in the beautiful town of Lavenham, or Godric’s Hollow, for any Harry Potter fans. We found a café at about 2pm in a perfect location where we sat in the sun with a steady breeze cooling us down, eating a cracking lunch.
A couple of hours of mainly small lanes or off-road tracks until dropped us into Ipswich Quay along good cycle paths. I didn’t know what to expect of Ipswich, but I was pleasantly surprised. The harbour was stunning, full of boats and the buildings around the quay were very impressive.
Day two and we were joined by Ali and Debbie, who had set off from Leicestershire around 06:00 Saturday morning to bring the team up to eight riders.
It took a good 10km to get free of Ipswich and its suburbs, passing through parks, one of which had an amazing BMX track, where a couple of lads showed us how it was done.
We cycled to the back of the Felixstowe docks, where the cranes tower over the huge cargo ships. More gentle rolling along the river took us into Felixstowe town centre where we enjoyed lunch in the sun on the seafront.
It wasn’t long until we were heading down to the ferry crossing on the River Deben over to Bawdsey. The bikes were all bundled into the small boat, and we clambered onboard and handed over £4 each for the five-minute ride.
On the other side of the River Deben, the fun began, as we rode along the forest tracks with a covering of sand which kept getting deeper, until it was over 80mm deep, making it impossible to ride through. We had to walk for about a kilometre
We eventually reached the road near Snape, where we crossed the River Alde, passed Snape Maltings, and made it to Aldeburgh on the coast, where we treated ourselves to ice cream before the final few miles up the coast to Thorpeness Golf Club and our second nights’ accommodation.
Day three and we lose Jane and Sally, who head home, and would be sadly missed. Meanwhile the remaining six of us get on the road, heading north past the existing Sizewell A&B power stations and through the site of the new Sizewell C power station, which seemed to go on forever. It’s going to have a huge footprint, and an impact on this beautiful area. I also fear it may also impact on this route.
At Minsmere Nature Reserve several deer were spotted whilst while listening to the constant chatter of the Chiffchaffs as we rode. The surface was a mix of gravel and sand, but thankfully this time there was a thin band of grass to the edge, which could be ridden, making life a little less hazardous.
This day was much flatter than the previous days, but seemed to have more off-road links, which keeps it interesting, but reduced the average speed. Just before we arrived at Stone Street, we popped out of a grass trail onto a small road, where we said goodbye to Ali and Debbie, who headed south to catch a train back to Ipswich, then on home ready for work on Monday.
Now down to four, we rolled over the final 20km to our evening stop in Harleston. We were staying in The Swan, so the first thing we did was find a bench outside the pub and get some cold drinks to cool us down. It’s hard to believe it’s only May, my Garmin was showing 27oC.
Day four, the final leg. We had some traffic to deal with initially, it being Monday morning, but we soon got across the A143 and headed south, and back onto the quiet lanes. Within an hour we were riding through the lovely town of Eye, heading west.
After this point we started to cover more and more field and forest tracks, some of which were rutted or very loose and I’m sure would have caused issues on Day 1 but were being taken with speed and confidence. However, with all off-road sections the average speed drops and time evaporates.
After nearly two hours of trails, we arrived at a small road section and stopped in the village of Hopton. Here, we nipped into the village store and grabbed a picnic lunch and loaded it onto the bikes. We then rolled down the road for a short while until we reached Knettishall Heath Nature Reserve, where we found a wooden bench in the shade of some trees and ate our lunch.
The remainder of our journey was only 30km, over a mixture of trails and cycle paths back into Bury. Once back in town, we found a shop called Giggling Squid, that sold ice creams, and it would have been rude not to!
In total over the four days, we had covered 350km, on a real mixture of roads, but most of all we got to know each other really well, had great fun and improved our off-road skills. Thanks to all the group for making me feel included.
I had only recently swap out the 700c wheels for the 650b and wider off-road tyres. I never got chance to do that in 2024, as last year was all about road work in preparation for Turkey. I had forgotten what a laugh the Bokeh was in this setup. It flew across to Peterborough on the road, skimmed across the off-road like it was asphalt. This bike never fails to impress and makes you just want to take it out and attack the countryside.
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