To Brandon and Thetford Forest

Today, Chris figured out a great trip to Brandon and Thetford Forest (above see her by a mausoleum built by one of the estate owners. He's not buried there any more). We started late in the morning, and only needed to take 20 minutes by train. The forest itself is bisected (kind of) by one B road (B1106), which separates the Brandon Country Park from the forest proper. I just tried to upload the PDF map, but it didn't work. For some reason I can't get a link to work either. Just try Thetford Forest bicycle map, if you're interested.

Anyhow, we took the green and blue trails around the perimeter of the High Forest Lodge section, and the Brandon Country Park section. It was all good double-track, not too muddy. Judging from the mountain bikers we saw (we were on hybrid bikes), there are some really muddy spots. Chris saw one red deer, and we read that this used to be heath grassland that they actually warrened rabbits on part of. In the early 1800's, the land was enclosed and planted with pines. The picture below lets you know what the forest was like. The ferns in the undergrowth were almost shoulder-height.


















This is the home of flint, since mesolithic times, and for a time was the gunflint capital of Britain (they made flints for flintlock pistols and rifles). Maybe that's why there are so many gun ranges around this part of the country (called the Brecks). This is me, on the right, two feet into the danger zone.

The other interesting thing--the weather. The weather was slated to be cloudy today, with intermittent rain, but nobody said we'd be sleeted on in the middle of July. But it was all good; we had our rain jackets. Then it was sunny. Then it rained a little more. As we crossed through a mountain bike racecourse, it rained hard again. When we got to tea at the Brandon Country Park pavilion at 3, it was sunny. I had my sunglasses out and back in maybe 20 times. A great ride. Brandon (the town) was quiet on a Sunday afternoon, so we waited for the train, and got back to Cambridge in 20 minutes. It took us almost as long to buy groceries for tonight and tomorrow and pedal back to the flat as it did to take the train back from Brandon.

As I began to write this entry, a sudden torrential downpour drenched Cambridge. Lucky it didn't happen 45 minutes earlier.