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Friday 22nd June 2007
Downham Market to Wymondham
Not so far to go today over fairly flat countryside. Our enquiries the previous evening at the tourist information centre in Downham Market, as to what there was to see in the area, had not come up with any great ideas - places were either closed for the day or too far from our intended route. The route out of Downham involved several major roads - so when we saw a cycle route sign, which seemed to be leading us in the right direction, we immediately opted for the quieter route. 
This led us out into a village which turned out to be Denver according to the Church notice board, and from there we had to turn onto the main A10 Downham Market bypass. Fortunately we had only about 500m to go along this very busy main road before turning off on to the side roads towards the villages of West Dereham, Boughton and Oxborough.
Just past West Dereham we turned off the road into the grounds of St Mary's Abbey. Not a lot to see here now as the abbey has long since gone. It was founded in 1188 by Hubert Walter, dean of York as West Dereham was his birthplace. He afterwards became bishop of Salisbury and Archbishop of Canterbury. The farm in the grounds now has a horse stud and there were three beautiful horses in the field.
The next stop was Oxborough. The hall here belongs to the National Trust - but today it was closed to the public. The church however was very interesting with it's 16th century terracotta tiles decorating one of the walls and a side chapel (again unfortunately closed). We managed to get a photo through the window.
Not long after leaving Oxborough it started to rain again. We sheltered for a while on the side of a wood, but after a while the rain started to drip down on us through the trees making it just as wet here as if we were cycling. So we mounted up and continued through to the village of Hilborough where fortunately we found a pub which had just opened in the previous five minutes. 
Tea was served! Another few miles of cycling and another pub loomed into sight - we hadn't at this time found any shops to purchase bread and cake - so as the weather was still changeable we parked up and took light sustenance here on the outskirts of Watton.
By early afternoon we had reached Wymondham with it's magnificent abbey and remains of a priory. A funeral service was taking place so we wandered round the grounds taking photos and ate up our few remaining emergency rations. No need for these tomorrow as Carole (Tony's wife) and Christine were coming today to meet us in preparation for the trip home tomorrow. They arrived at the Abbey a little later.
And so on to the B&B and a lovely evening meal at the 'Bird in the Hand' pub on the outskirts of Wreningham.
The mileage for today was 43.4 miles making a total of 324.3 miles.