FOR little Cole Honeywood it was a big adventure as he pedalled his heart out for five miles across Lowestoft.

FOR little Cole Honeywood it was a big adventure as he pedalled his heart out for five miles across Lowestoft.

However, the four-year-old was oblivious to the fact he had sparked a major police search after riding away from his family home without his mum's knowledge.

The intrepid boy crossed two busy roads during rush hour while journeying to all his favourite places - including the hairdressers.

Meanwhile, his frantic mum Hayley, of Walmer Road, Pakefield, endured the longest 45 minutes of her life as a police helicopter, 10 patrol cars and officers on foot scoured the area for any sign of the youngster.

Cole was eventually found safe and well by the entrance of Nicholas Everitt Park, in Oulton Broad, and seemed surprised that his antics on Monday morning and caused such a fuss.

Hayley, 30, said she was first alerted to the disappearance while she was helping her other son Kodi to get dressed and called out for Cole, but got no reply. She then noticed that his bike had gone from the porch.

Hayley added: “At first I only slightly panicked because I never would have thought my son would have gone out of the front door or even out of the garden on his own because he knows he mustn't.

“But when I went back upstairs, looked in his wardrobe and saw his shoes were gone, I ran outside calling him.

“I looked up the lane by the side of our house, but all I could see were lots of children on bikes because they were going to school. I just started shouting hysterically.”

After alerting her husband Carl, who was at work, the police were called and Hayley began telephoning everyone she knew asking them if they had seen Cole. Family and friends also joined in with the search.

Cole's cycling expedition began around 8.15am when he decided to cycle across the A12 to Short Street, knocking on the door of family friend Mark Turrell.

When he didn't get an answer, he made his way to Stradbroke Road to visit his mum's friend Michelle Lansdale, who by that time was at his house supporting Hayley.

He then biked back to London Road South and turned into Walmer Road where he whizzed past his house and in to Blackheath Road.

Here he saw the alarmed grandmother of a schoolfriend who tried to stop him, but undeterred,he continued on to the busy Lowestoft Southern Relief Road with the aim of visiting his father at work on Riverside Road, using the pedestrian crossing on the way.With no answer, he cycled down Waveney Drive, Victoria Road, through Oulton Broad and on to Bridge Road, where he stopped at the hairdressers Bloww to see if he could see his barber inside.

Ambling down to the Wherry Hotel, he biked across the footbridge and propped his cycle up outside the Spar shop in Oulton Broad village, where he asked behind the counter if he could pat the dog tied up outside.

Luckily police were alerted and shortly after a police officer found him.

Hayley said: “When I heard, I remember I just went and sat on the back doorstep and I cried and cried. I think when he came home and saw all the commotion going on he was quite surprised.

“Who knows what goes on inside a four-year-old's head? Some people mistake him for a six-year-old because he's quite tall and he's a confident boy. He's quite forward for his age and definitely switched on - and thankfully so.

“I asked him later how he had crossed the roads. He just said he had listened to what mummy had told him and waited for the green man.”

Hayley thanked her family, friends and Suffolk police for their support, especially the officer who located Cole and Insp Sarsfield Donohue who lead the search.