Variant on the Heart of Suffolk Route which takes in Dunwich.

Cycled over one and a half beautiful days, starting and ending in Debenham, where we left the car in a side street. Gentle and beautiful country lanes to Framlingham, down to Snape. Added a spur to Orford and back for lunch outside at the Kings Head in bright sunshine, soaking up the lime and soda and filling up with Adnam’s-battered cod. Then up towards Leiston, missed the turning at Knodishall, but rejoined the route towards Minsmere and the splendidly named Eels Foot pub. Round the reserve at Minsmere (route goes straight, but the track looked like a spoke breaker), and then to The Ship at Dunwich for some TrawlerBoy in the afternoon sun, and a quick detour to the beach for the view. Camped near Darsham, ate at the Crown at Westleton. Startled a stag heading back to the campsite in the dusk, brilliant to parallel him along the lane as he broke for the trees, antlers showing over the corn.

Second day up towards Wenhaston on a quiet Sunday morning, roused a whole field of crows near Blythburgh, quite a Hitchcockian moment against a lowering early sky. Skirted Halesworth to the east and tracked across country as the clouds cleared. Started a hawk who rose lazily from a lamp-post; onwards via quiet lanes to Bungay, which was sadly still sleeping, the excellent Earsham St Café does not open early on a Sunday so it was cookies from the Co-Op! Turned west above the Waveney on the quiet old road on the south side of the valley, dipping and rising across the tributaries with some good leg stretchers. Down One Eyed Lane which is disappearing under grass encroaching from both sides, and to Hoxne, where the Hoxne Deli and Tea Rooms has a nice garden out back, lovely staff, and a good line in cakes and coffee. Thence to Eye, where the fair was just starting (slipped through the closing roads just in time as the mayor was lining up). Fast on the B117 for a mile or so (belated realization how poor some of the other tarmac was), then down to Thorndon, where a deer crossed our path at ten yards, and to Debenham for a seriously good posh ploughman’s at the River Green Café and Deli, more lovely staff, and great place to end the trip.

Lovely, quiet country lanes, beautiful villages, nice pubs, great cafes. Barely a main road at all, and more wildlife than I thought was left in southern England. An easy weekend from London (couple of stations quite close to the loop) and a bit of a gem.