22nd February 2026 - Ride to Shepherds Baa - Ian Cain

At last, the weather was dry with a bit of sunshine for our rideout on the 22nd Feb. Seven riders turned out for a scenic ride to the Shepherd's Baa coffee hut at Lynford Arboretum near Mundford. The weather may have been better, but the roads were very wet from the previous day's rain, with puddles verging on ponds in some places. It's disconcerting on a bike to be leaning into a corner to see water covering half the road. Thank goodness for modern tyres. The other worry was what the water was concealing, given the state of the roads these days. Nonetheless, we all arrived safely with no tales of incidents; maybe that's what makes us advanced riders.

Shepherd's Baa is on the edge of Thetford Forest, surrounded by trees and mud. It's a popular walking spot and has a car park, but even so, motorists insist on parking on the edge of the approach road, turning the verges into mud, which gets dragged onto the road, making a real mess. The Baa serves really good drinks and spectacular cakes, although I didn't see any of our group partaking. Too health-conscious! It's not just walkers and bikers who visit the area. While we were there, two ladies turned up on horseback for a coffee. We chatted to them, and Roly even held one of the horses while the rider fetched the coffees. Very brave of him, given that he's recovering from a broken femur, although he says he's quite stable! Ho, ho.

After our coffee break, we set off for home in various directions for an afternoon of bike cleaning (in my case, anyway).

When we met at the start of the ride, one of our chaps turned up with yellow perspex covers on his bike headlights. This caused much amusement, especially from those of us who remember compulsory yellow headlights when driving in France years ago. But he maintained that this made him more visible when riding in traffic with daytime running lights. And he was right; his lights did stand out. Very surprising.

Ian Cain