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Thankshallots
Took the PDF bike on an eerie ride in Breckland, following the Peddars way from Kings Lynn to Thetford. Whole route was sticky with the decayed feeling of late summer. Blackberries all burned up amongst overflowing nests of brambles, crab apples rotting in verges. We hardly saw anyone outside villages and even the villages seemed deserted of foot traffic, just a few thin lipped SUV drivers picking their way around whole flocks of road killed grouse. On the trails the insectoid shapes of fallen trees peeked out from the forest shadow and the trees that were still standing all seemed to be prematurely losing their leaves. Every farm looked abandoned, even the new, clean ones just looked like they had been abandoned more recently. Swaffham, our resupply point is somewhere I've travelled through before, always with a feeling of unease. To put it simply, I don't find the locals very friendly and on this visit they were true to form. But we made good progress and when dusk fell we were picking our way through heavily canopied single track next to a pig farm. There's nothing to kid yourself with about a pig farm. They don't lay eggs or grow wool or even produce milk. There's really only one reason for a pig to be farmed and from the way they stood around barely moving, it felt like the pigs themselves knew it. Around then we must have disturbed a roost of jackdaws, because although the canopy blocked our view of the sky all of a sudden the air was filled with their creaking song, getting louder and louder as we scurried to get away. By the time we arrived in Thetford and our phones began shutting off one after another, we both began to feel more than slightly harrowed. The kebab shop had never heard of falafel, only accepted cash and sold shit chips which we ate, grudgingly on the train home. A good ride, but not one I'm in a rush to do again.
On a technical level, I packed 1.75L of water, which was probably overkill given the resupply points. Tyre pressure was 22psi, which seemed about right. I've dropped to 19 before but there wasn't much bumpy terrain on this route. The bike has a creak which seems to sound when I press down on the non drive side pedal. I swapped the saddle from the aesthetic C17 to a selle italia sport gel, which looks rank and has a stupid name, but seems to be more comfortable to me. Feels like this goes in the face of ideas about padded saddles, but maybe it's because I don't wear padded shorts when I ride. I need to find a 27.5 tube to bring as a spare on longer rides like this.