16 Apr 2017: Hatfield to Matching Tye

As we met at Hatfield for this week’s Sunday ride, the weather forecast was predicting rain and some had come prepared for that. The route I had planned was quick and easy in an attempt to beat the rain. We shot off through Welham Green and over to Bell Bar, then headed down the very familiar route of Tylers Causeway - White Stubbs lane. Going through the wooded areas was lovely and we had quite a wind behind us. I spied quite a few of those mauve blue bell things making the scenery look very nice indeed.

Bikes waiting patiently outside the cafe

We took a small detour around to Wormley Westend. We hadn’t been down this road since the pub had changed hands and become a restaurant; it made for a nice change. Soon we were heading through Nazeing and seeking out the towpath that led us to Dobb’s Weir and tea break. It has to be said that this café has found its place; the service was quick and efficient.

After tea several members had to turn back to attend family duties, while the rest of us pushed on forward. Through Roydon Hamlet, Broadly Common, Parndon Wood and out towards Hastingwood, remarkably the wind had kept up with us, but the rain was nowhere to be seen. Going along Essex roads is quite fun as nothing is straight, almost as if they were made by drunken Romans, and we made our wiggly way to High Laver then on to Matching Green, eventually reaching Matching Tye.

The Fox was unexpectedly quiet. Being a bank holiday, I thought this place would be rammed, but no, we had plenty of space and had a rather leisurely lunch.

The way back consisted of going through Sheering and then over the M11, where we took a crafty right-handed turn to go into Lower Sheering. This road brought a new meaning to posh; I could’ve sworn someone was hoovering the hedgerow. We passed a certain pop star’s house and took note of his 5-a-side footie pitch complete with dugouts.

Once we had passed these delights we headed to Sawbridgeworth and then on to Allens Green. The next part was quite a familiar hack back towards Ware. At Widford we decided to go via Little Amwell - I do like the water feature there. As we came through little Amwell, Carol copped a puncture and very luckily found the culprit straight away. Then it started to rain; we decided to decamp to Ware and have a break in Esem’s and as we did the rain sort of petered out. We took to the river path to get to Hertford and then it was a copy of the home leg from Saturday and we were back in Hatfield. A good day’s cycling.

Neil 16/04/2016