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squiz Member Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3071 |
18th August 2016 Mt. Biking: Viking Trail, Tunstall Forest Wind Direction: Wind Stength: Surf / Sea State: Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny Max Speed: Distance Covered: 10 miles (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Thursday 18th August – Bike ***** Viking Trail, Tunstall Forest (day) – sunny After three great afternoons windsurfing, I have pulled a muscle in my back and am a bit windsurfed out. Also haven’t seen much of Mag this week and have a sail to pick up from Suffolk Sails in Woodbridge after a repair. I woke up having the brainwave to take the van out to Tunstall Forest to do the Viking Mountain bike Trail :) We quickly packed the van and headed off towards Woodbridge, I was not sure where the track was as the map on the internet was a little vague! We ended up at Snape Maltings having missed the start car park. Mag asked at the information centre and they had never heard of it, which is odd as it’s only a couple of miles up the road! The grumpy lady in the info office did find the map on line and printed it up for us and we then found it quickly – it was nice to get away from Snape as it was heaving :( The car park, called Sangalls, had a few cars and a horse box in it but we found a lovely secluded corner to park. We had a relaxing lunch and a read in the warm sunshine:) Mag was a little nervous of the track as the mountain bikers who turned up to do the 10 mile track through the trees told us it was classed as a Red run! but then we read the notice board which said – ‘ The Viking Trail is red graded due to its width, rather than it’s severity’ which made her feel better! We set off at 2 on the recommended 90 min trail. The first section of about a mile was a wide track past Blaxhall link heath where the purple heather was in full bloom, then we found the first marker leading you to the start proper into the woods. We had the most fantastic time following the windy narrow path through the trees which were very close together at times. Even though it was a pine forest there was very varied plants from ankle scratching brambles to beautiful high bracken and the smell was amazing:) There was a couple of dip pits which we wisely bypassed. We soon had no idea where we were as the path snaked back and forth with fast straight sections with lots of bumps to tight banked bends and as usual I stopped along the way to take pics. About three quarters around we came across a real surprise, a replica village in the woods of thatched dwellings including a Saxon round house. We stopped to explore as there was no one about. Apart from the two main thatched houses there were two compost toilets with various covered areas with ovens for cooking and making pottery etc, We discovered this was called The Tunstall 12 a lottery funded area for educating kids and what fun they must have here! We arrived back at the van after two hours and haven’t laughed so much for ages, we recommend anyone in the area to give it a try – it’s fantastic fun! Then we had a welcome cuppa and cake and again enjoyed the warm afternoon sunshine as a steady stream of bikers turned up to do the trail:) Walk **** We found our second wind and decided to go on a walk before tea and ended up being out over an hour covering at least three miles! We started off going through the Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s Blaxhall Link, a heathland area full of rabbits and ending up in sandy soiled farmland covered in round straw bales and fields full of onions, we even spotted a Muntjack deer. Back at the van we had to wash before tea as we were black! Bike ***** Viking trail, Tunstall Forest (night) – full moon We were having a relaxing evening in our lovely little VW camper in our top overnight spot when at 8:30, just before it got dark, nine cars suddenly appeared in the carpark and the mountain bikes were being taken out, fitted with mega bright lights and the biker’s helmet’s were going on as they prepared to head off on the Viking Trail in the dark!!!! It was too good an opportunity to resist! I had my ordinary bike light in the van so put my bike gear on, fitted my woefully inadequate light and waited for the nine riders to head off. I caught up with the fast moving train of bright light and asked them if they minded if I tagged along. They said that would be fine and they would stop at regular intervals to make sure everyone was OK! It was just as well they did keep stopping because they were flying! It was hard for me as my light was nowhere near bright enough and even if it was, my poor old legs were definitely not! But oh what fun I had doing most of the track all by myself trying to avoid crashing into the trees and keeping on the path! I even did one of the steep pit drops which I chickened out of in daylight and survived. I did have a few near misses biking off the path but missed all the trees. It was good that the 9 including several old timers like me waited, giving them and me a breather. I even got offered a jelly baby by one of them! I asked about one of the rider’s mega bright bike light and he said it cost £100! I made it back to Mag who had locked herself in the van after 1hr 37mins! What a top sport night riding is, perhaps Mag and I will have to treat ourselves to some decent lights! I took some pics of the full moon and had a cuppa before falling into bed tired but on a real high after a fantastic day:) Photo Gallery here |
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