It was an inauspicious begin. Having cycled no various metres, from the steps of the Angel lodge into the grounds of St Edmundsbury Cathedral, I fell off my bike.
I blamed the wolf: in dismounting to take its picture, I had kicked my very own pannier and despatched myself sprawling. The great passersby of Bury St Edmunds got here to my (embarrassed) help. Saint Edmund himself, sculpted in bronze, standing beside the wolf statue, appeared the opposite manner.
I may hardly complain about grazed knees in such firm. After refusing to surrender his Christianity to Viking raiders in AD869, Edmund – then king of East Anglia – was shot filled with arrows and beheaded. In accordance with legend, his head was later discovered being guarded by a wolf, and when reunited together with his physique, miraculously fused again on.
Thus the wolf is a crucial image in Suffolk, which is why a newly launched 400km (248 miles) biking path has been referred to as the Wolf Approach. Utilizing bridleways, byways, gravel tracks, cycle paths and quiet backroads, the route weaves across the highlights and hidden corners of this largely flat however diverse county. It was impressed by Norfolk’s Insurrection Approach, opened in 2022. However whereas Insurrection was developed by Biking UK with funding from the European Regional Growth Fund Expertise challenge, native couple Sharon Calton and Chris Bower put the Wolf along with nowt however their very own legwork and enthusiasm.
“We got here up with an overview of the route in a day, and took a 12 months to fine-tune it,” Sharon instructed me at their cottage simply exterior Bury. “We would have liked to check it, experience the roads, discover the most effective choices – recce-ing has been time-consuming however enjoyable.”
Uncover Suffolk has given recommendation, making certain the Wolf Approach sticks to permitted rights of manner, however in any other case this challenge is the results of two cycle-passionate amateurs searching for solely to encourage extra folks to discover this under-pedalled county.
The result’s a satisfying loop, roughly a 3rd off-road, that rides into the lesser-visited reaches of Dedham Vale, down the River Orwell, by the Suffolk & Essex Coast & Heaths nationwide panorama (the designation that has changed “space of excellent pure magnificence”) and into the splendidly bizarre Brecks, taking in every part from neolithic settlements to misplaced seaside cities, medieval wool cities, UFO websites and the village of Hoxne (the place Edmund allegedly misplaced his head). Chris has created a wonderful digital StoryMap to accompany the route, which flags up locations of curiosity alongside the best way, with helpful internet hyperlinks, whereas the Wolf Approach Fb group is an effective place to choose up ideas from different riders.
There are additionally variants, together with a 100km (62-mile) Wolf Cub route, a Winter Wolf suggestion, which avoids the seasonal Bawdsey ferry, and a beginner-friendly 13km (8-mile) Wolverine choice. An 80km (50-mile) choice might be added too.
I’d come to pattern a piece of the unique Wolf Approach, ranging from Bury and biking to Ipswich (roughly 97km/60 miles). On the plus aspect, this meant spending time within the good-looking market city, with its in depth abbey ruins and what have to be the nation’s most spectacular Wetherspoon’s, housed within the previous neoclassical Corn Change. On the draw back I had, mentioned Sharon, picked the route’s hilliest bit.
Regardless of, it was hardly mountainous – this was nonetheless Suffolk in spite of everything – and I used to be in no rush. I’d borrowed a mountain bike from Sharon – a hybrid or gravel bike would even be high quality – although Maglia Rosso, just a few miles exterior Bury by bus, hires out bicycles. Leaving Bury by way of well-marked cycle paths, I used to be quickly out within the countryside, tootling alongside lanes lined with just-budding fields. I met a hare, preening on the street, whereas kestrels and buzzards gave low flybys. Then a grassy off-road path supplied a extra sobering encounter: a plaque marking the location the place a USA air power B-17 crashed, with the lack of all 10 crew, on 27 March 1944; the trigger was by no means formally established, however there have been rumours of sabotage by German spies.
East Anglia was dotted with USAAF bases throughout the second world struggle. There was one simply exterior Lavenham, the place I cycled to subsequent. Again then the village was flooded with American troops. Now it’s filled with Harry Potter followers, in search of the wizard’s birthplace, which was performed within the films by timber-framed De Vere Home – simply considered one of greater than 320 listed buildings in what is taken into account to be England’s best-preserved medieval village.
Lavenham was terribly cute, however I made a decision to miss its tearooms and pushed on to little Brent Eleigh as an alternative. In addition to a church concealing among the earliest and most interesting medieval wall work in Britain, the village is residence to Cafe Como. Run by Miranda Elgar, in a cool outbuilding in her farmyard, it’s precisely the type of unbiased enterprise the Wolf Approach hopes to help. “About 80% of my clients are cyclists,” Miranda instructed me, handing over a do-it-yourself sausage roll and a very good espresso. “I lived in Italy for a few years, and wished to deliver a little bit of it again to Suffolk.”
This was good gas for the following stiff-ish climb, and a skiddy experience on a piece of messy single-track. Suffolk is ordinarily one of many nation’s driest counties, and most different sections of the Wolf Approach, which traverses areas of quick-draining sandy soil, stay remarkably agency year-round. Alas, I’d chosen the wettest little bit of the route after Suffolk’s wettest winter on report. After I rolled into Lengthy Melford, having coated 28 miles, I used to be splattered in mud however genuinely having a ball.
I quickly cleaned myself up on the cosy Black Lion, residence for the night time. And I had sufficient vitality left to wander the independent-lined excessive avenue – which is, because the village’s identify suggests, very, very lengthy – and pop into the massive, light-flooded church. The medieval stained glass right here is extraordinary; a surprisingly great amount survived the Reformation, and is within the technique of being restored.
After a great, lazy breakfast, I set off late, ready for winter solar to chase off the rain; my intention was Ipswich, 30-odd miles away. The route crosses briefly into Essex, selecting up a part of the previous Nice Japanese Railway line, now a strolling and biking path resulting in Sudbury, Gainsborough’s birthplace. Certainly, with low gentle glinting off low hills, the River Stour reducing by, and every part nicely watered and inexperienced, it appeared like considered one of his panorama work.
From right here, climbs and floods added challenges. Ipswich was nonetheless a way off, however I received distracted in Bures. Exterior this beautiful county-border village, up Cuckoo Hill and so hidden down a farm monitor I puzzled if I’d gone awry, lies the lonely thatched chapel of St Stephen. It was consecrated on Boxing Day, 1218. Nevertheless, in accordance with legend, it stands on the location the place Edmund was topped King of the East Angles on Christmas Day 855, aged simply 14.
One other native folks story tells of “an evil dragon of extreme size” plaguing the realm round right here within the early fifteenth century. To mark the Queen’s diamond jubilee, the massive beast was marked out on the slopes reverse, utilizing tonnes of chalk. The sector behind the chapel supplied the proper dragon view.
No wolf, then, however a experience into so many alternative Suffolk tales.
For Wolf Approach route data and GPX recordsdata, go to cyclinguk.org. Additionally see the wonderful Wolf Approach StoryMap and Fb group. Lodging was supplied by the Black Lion, Lengthy Melford (doubles from £89 B&B), and the Angel lodge, Bury St Edmunds (doubles from £149 B&B). Higher Anglia serves stations together with Bury, Sudbury and Ipswich. Most trains don’t require bike reservations, however verify earlier than journey; greateranglia.co.uk. Additionally see discoversuffolk.org.uk and visit-burystedmunds.co.uk