The ride started from St Albans, going via the grey suburban wastelands of Kings Langley, erstwhile home of Ovaltine. I was never an Ovaltiney myself, more of a hot choccy man, but I did enjoy going to the country & western club there on a Sunday night. We continued on and up and the route was a tauntingly hilly, winding affair of pleasant autumnal
lanes, with a hint of the winter before us. Reaching Little Chalfont we repaired to Ozzy’s café for a much needed cuppa after climbing the steep hill out of Latimer. Richard appeared for his breakfast, having risen late, to join us for the best bit of the ride.
Hodgemoor Woods
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No wonder cars don't come down here
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I wouldn't do it that way.
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Flaunden dragon
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Revitalised, with the sun shining brightly, we ascended the first of many jolly little hills out of Chalfont St Giles up to Hodgemoor Woods, and then on through Penn Street and down the gated lane to Little Missenden. This was a fantastic little lane that would’ve sent some of our other riders into
fits (don't you love GPS gadgets?). Muddy, slippery, leaf strewn with a huge chunk of rock that Neil discovered on the descent. Then in glorious sunshine, all of us were dancing gaily on our pedals up and down the hills to Chartridge. Here, Richard, clearly upset that there were no more hills to climb, decided to have a puncture, before the downhill cruise to Chesham and a picnic lunch inside the pleasant Pheasant. This is lovely local pub for
local people and mad cyclists who like to have a winter's picnic. Yes, this pub
doesn’t do food but they don’t mind if you bring your own - in fact they make you
feel very welcome. Carol joined us for
lunch as she was off the bike due to an injury to her hand,
hope she gets better soon.
From here it was back up to Flaunden, where the Green Dragon was having a good laugh at our hill climbing efforts, before finishing our 50-mile circuit in St Albans as the sun was going down.
Steve H 8/12/2013
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