I'm a double cancer survivor, cyclist and walker who does various challenges for different charities, mainly cancer-related.

In 2016 I climbed every single 'Birkett' in the Lake District - all 542 fells over 1,000' within the National Park, including all 214 Wainwrights. I've also done a three-week cycle tour of Tasmania in February 2015 and amongst other things, I've cycled from Land's End to John o'Groats (2003), Rotterdam to Lemvig (Denmark) (2005), walked the Pennine Way (2008) completed (my first) ascent of all 214 'Wainwrights' in the Lake District in only 55 days (2009), cycled 4,500 miles around the coast of Great Britain (2011), cycled all 42 of the accessible Western Isles of Scotland in under a month (2012), twice abseiled 230 ft from the top of The Big One in Blackpool, cycled the WWI Western Front from London to Compiegne via Ypres and Arras (2014), cycled 750 miles in the Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton (2014), done a bit of sky-diving and cycled Australia's Great Ocean Road - just before lockdown in 2020.

Altogether I've raised over £120,000 for my charities including The Christie, Cancer Research UK, the Rosemere Cancer Foundation, and ABF (The Soldiers' Charity) and I was mightily chuffed to receive the British Empire Medal in the 2014 New Year's Honours List.

I'm a Rotarian and give illustrated talks about my adventures in exchange for a donation to charity, so if you're looking for a speaker leave me a message. I am also Event Organiser for the Ribble Valley Ride Cycle Sportive, to be held this year on Sunday 5 September 2021 - more details at www.ribblevalleyride.org

You can also follow me on Twitter - @CancerBikeMan and on Facebook - just search for Bill Honeywell

Cancer Research UK is the world's leading charity dedicated to beating cancer through research, whilst The Rosemere does fantastic work for patients in Lancashire and South Cumbria.

Sunday 19 June 2011

Day 38 – Great Yarmouth to Leiston (Sizewell)

43 miles – total 2,488 miles

If you were wondering why I keep having fairly short days of around 40 miles it’s because originally I planned on doing around 70 – 80 miles a day, with a day off every four days or so. But then I decided I’d just be bored on days off, so I converted them to two consecutive short days of around 30 – 40 days.  The net result is the same but I think it works better – certainly I feel well enough rested.

For a complete change, yesterday evening we went out to a pub for something to eat – scampi and chips at The Avenue, Great Yarmouth, which was fine except that the waitress insisted on asking us if everything was alright – every two minutes!  The caravan site is ON the racecourse (you have to drive or cycle across it to get there) but I don’t know whether you have to pay extra on race days.


















Today is Father’s Day so I started off with a card from daughter Catherine, who also sent some of her home-made chocolate brownies which are DELICIOUS – let me know if you want the recipe and I’ll get it for you in exchange for a £5 donation to Cancer Research UK!
































There are plenty of offshore wind turbines at Great Yarmouth, but I won’t tell you what I think about those.  I lost my sense of direction going through the town, then headed out through Gorleston and followed the directions of Alison, whose caravan site we stayed on at Muasdale in West Kintyre: she was brought up in this area and sent me along a rough track by the golf course where there were signs advising “DANGER OF FATAL INJURY FROM FLYING GOLF BALLS”.

































Alison’s sister Pat and her husband were waiting to greet me in nearby Hopton: they had heard about me via Twitter and it was a pleasure to meet them – what’s more, Pat gave me a donation for Cancer Research UK! The church in Hopton is derelict, strangely; the one at Corton also seems to have some bits of roof missing, but is in use, and is also where Alison was married.

I've been to the most westerly point - Ardnamurchan Point - and the most northern - Dunnet Head - and now I visited Ness Point at Lowestoft, the most easterly point in Britain. That's three out of the four (only Lizard Point left). It's a fair bet that Ness Point is the least exciting!


















Ness Point, Lowestoft



















Southwold is the home of Adnam’s brewery – their tipple is available at home in Lancashire and most acceptable as I recall.  Soon afterwards I crossed the River Blyth at Blythburgh and then headed to the pretty village of Westleton, turning left towards Minsmere RSPB reserve.































Westleton

I’ve been a member of the RSPB most of the time since I was about eleven years old and never been to Minsmere, so I made a brief diversion to the visitor centre and told the ladies there what I was doing. They nearly told me off for not having visited before, so I explained that I was from ‘oop north’, and Leighton Moss was my local marshland.  Pity I didn’t have my binoculars.


















Minsmere Visitor Centre

On the way back I met a group of four cyclists from Sheffield on a 10-day tour of East Anglia. At first they seemed to be wary of the fact that I was from Lancashire and therefore ‘one of the opposition’ – I explained, on the contrary, that in this part of the world I considered a Yorkshireman to be the next-best thing to a Lancastrian. All very tongue-in-cheek, don’t write in!! (Although two previous encounters with (presumably) local cyclists today had resulted in a very unfriendly response – i.e. no response whatsoever – each time!

The countryside is much more wooded than I expected; it soon opened out though, then past an oddly-sited Household Waste Disposal Site and Sizewell nuclear power station was in view.  Tonight’s caravan site – Cliff House – is close by, and I arrived here in good time to find new crew Simon and Tony looking very pleased as the place has a very acceptable-looking bar. With draught Adnams. So having cleaned and serviced the bikes, I’d better get this blog posted before I’m dragged over there for a couple!

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