14th May 2023 - Ride Out to Liberator Restaurant, Old Buckingham Airfield - Dave Cusdin

It’s the middle of May and it’s cold. Ten degrees to be precise. It’s also overcast and foggy, but still eight stalwarts turned up. Actually it was five at the beginning and seven at the end, but more of that later. We set off as a group of five and met up with Karen in Swaffham. A seventh member had strategically placed himself on the route to take some action pictures. Thank you, Mel. The pictures I saw were great. That made us a group of seven and Euan was going to meet us at our destination. From Swaffham we travelled through South Pickenham to Watton, where I noticed that we had dropped a couple of bikes. It turned out that Ian had suffered a rear tyre puncture. Fortunately Mel had a repair kit and with Ian’s tyre temporarily plugged, Ian decided to head home. We continued down the B1111 branching left down Watton road which leads all the way to Old Buckenham.

Old Buckenham, formerly known as RAF Old Buckenham is steeped in history and during the war hosted the 453rd bombardment group which flew B24 Liberators. Hollywood actor Jimmy Stewart was the first operations officer and Walter Matthau also served there. It’s an active airfield so is always worth a visit at any time. The restaurant, previously known as Jimmy’s cafe, has recently had new owners who have renamed it The Liberator Restaurant. The new hosts were very warm and friendly which was in sharp contrast to the chilly ride there. They also serve up a generous bacon bap at a reasonable price.

Old Buckenham also hosts a weekly bikers meet adjacent to the Ox and Plough pub, colloquially known as Two Wheel Tuesday. It is always well attended and well worth a visit.

After warming up and putting the world to rights, we took a route back encompassing Attleborough, Dereham, Gressenhall through to Litcham where members split up to make their individual way home.

You’ll be pleased to know that Ian made it home safe and sound and will be investing in a puncture repair kit pronto.

Until the next one ride safe.

Cheers Dave c