Tuesday 5th of November 2024

One of my main motivations in learning to ride a motorbike is the idea that I can go places, touring on it to far flung parts of the world. I’ve always wanted to travel, but never really had the opportunity, either because I couldn’t afford it, or because the options available for actually getting around didn’t appeal to me.

sign attached to a railing that says no parking at any time

But a motorbike, to me, is freedom: the ability to pack some supplies, and maybe some camping equipment, and just go wherever I want. This is of course possible with a car, but I have a wife and daughter, and depriving them of our only car for a couple of days, or a week, isn’t realistic. Plus, finding somewhere to park a car is more hassle, and driving, while sometimes more convenient, isn’t as fun as riding a motorbike.

old milestone showing 9 miles to Bungay and 10 miles to Norwich

This urge to travel and explore naturally combines with my love of photography – part of my wanting to go places is to come away with photographs that I just can’t get at home. Some of that is me craving novelty, but some is wanting to revisit places I haven’t seen in years or even decades – the island of Arran comes most readily to mind: I went there for a week during college on a geology field trip 25 years ago, and have wanted to go back there ever since. Then there’s other, more predictable, destinations: The Scottish north coast, the Peak District, Snowdonia, the Lake District, Dartmoor, and so on – places that exemplify this country’s best landscapes.

a junction at one end of Toad Lane

Starting small

I can’t realistically do any of that yet, though. I still only have my little 125cc Yamaha that weighs 129kg and makes all of 10 horsepower; it’s really not up to carting the weight of me and my luggage around the country. So for now, the best I can do is bimbling around the closer parts of Norfolk and Suffolk, which is exactly what I’ve been doing for the past few weeks, enough that I’ve racked up just over 1,000 miles on the bike so far.

my bike parked in a layby

I recently had a whole day to myself along with some dry weather, so I went on a mini excursion, with no real destination in mind. I ended up spending about 3 hours out and about, and since I wasn’t in a rush to be anywhere, I was more inclined to stop and take pictures whenever the opportunity presented itself. Interesting-looking side road? Sure, why not take detour and see what’s there? It felt great, so freeing.

a sign pointing to the probably delightful village of Seething

As it happens, on the way back home I passed through a place where I’d seen a potential photograph many times, and as it happens the weather and light were just right.

view from the bridge in St Olaves, overlooking the River Waveney and the railway line to Norwich and

another view from the St Olaves bridge, looking to the left a little at a small stream in a field

St Olaves marina, viewed from the bridge

I look forward to more of this sort of ‘planned serendipity’ on future rides.