The Travelodge provides a boxed continental breakfast, which is not bad but not enough for a long day like today. We eat it then check out then head into the town centre to find a pharmacy as Rich needs some pseudoephedrine for his summer cold.
We pass the Dad's Army museum and the council offices. There is a slightly disheveled man sitting outside the entrance rolling a cigarette. He has a scuffed, purple suitcase secured with ties and a rucksack. Most likely, he has arrived early or slept rough overnight. If you are 'unintentionally' homeless, you have to report in person to the council to get housed. He has made sure he is first in line today.
Thetford is the ancient capital of East Anglia and a town full of history. It has been inhabited since at least the Iron Age, when a fort was built on Icknield Way; a site that became the castle in Norman times. The town centre is an eclectic mix of timber framed and flint houses interspersed with 1960s brutalist architecture. It has a particular reputation locally following the rehousing of Londoners there in the 1950s, who were said to bring criminal endeavours with them. The several police cars and sirens we heard overnight did nothing to dispel this view. It is still a beautiful and interesting town that, like Boston, deserves care and investment. We'll definitely be coming back.
We buy provisions at Roy's (Norfolk's finest all-purpose store), including slabs of frangipane that make a comforting thud as they hit the basket, then we cross the Nuns' Bridges to leave Thetford via the common. As yesterday, the paths on the ground bear little relation to the map. We're supposed to be joining the Icknield Way, but spend most of our morning avoiding it. The Icknield Way is said to be the oldest road in Britain, in use since prehistoric times. It links the Peddars Way with the Ridgeway.
We cross the A134 and actually join St Edmund's Way, which runs from Manningtree to Brandon. The section we're following is on the Norfolk-Suffolk border with another military area on our left. This one is a camp, so there is no gunfire at least. We then turn onto the Angles Way (allegedly Great Yarmouth to Thetford) and enter Suffolk. It has taken us over two days to leave Norfolk.
We cross a road and decide to take an early break, as both of us are feeling fatigued and peckish. We dismiss a nearby fly-tipped sofa and find a sheltered spot where we devour the frangipane. It tastes mostly of icing and the two slabs have distinctly different colours but both act like rocket fuel and we feel invigorated.
We now decide not to join the Icknield Way as its next section runs through forest. Trees can be quite oppressive and we had plenty of woodland yesterday. Instead we head out towards the open Breckland to arrive at a byway which is mercifully well marked and matching the map. En route, we spot a deer that leaps a four foot fence as if it wasn't there.
As we continue, the sand slowly gives way to chalk and the rough, eerie heathland of the Brecks fades into a more pastoral landscape. We pass the unimaginatively named Dead Man's Grave and arrive at the village of Icklingham, finally joining the Icknield Way. It has been a lonely but beautiful morning.
We pass through the village then stop for lunch on a U road that is clearly not at all (despite the national speed limit sign) and finally people start to appear. We cross the River Lark and enter Cavenham Heath, a national nature reserve (though we don't spot any nightjars). We pass through Tuddenham and stay on the route as it takes us under the main railway line and mercifully uses an underpass to negotiate the busy A14.
We climb a hill towards the village of Gazeley: this is now like chalk downland. A hare lollops along a bank and down the other side. We reach a road and two kestrels and a buzzard emerge from a hedge almost on top of us, the shrill calls of the kestrels suggesting that they are protecting their young.
The road descends steeply with glimpses of The Wash in the far distance and we arrive in picturesque Moulton and The Lawn House, our overnight stop.
Total distance: 57 miles
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