St George's Day turned out to have a reasonable weather forecast and eight people gathered around the war memorial outside the Blacksmiths Arms in St Albans. Steve had a bulging tyre so the departure was delayed for ten minutes while he refitted it. As the morning cafe stop was 22 miles away we took a fairly direct route via Hogg End Lane to the edge of Hemel, then down the old small road that is now a cycle path to Piccott's End. We merged into a throng of cyclists doing the Hemel Hillbuster ride and followed their route to Little Gaddesden where they peeled off to go down to Hudnall and we carried on to Ivinghoe Beacon. This was a great route today as the bluebells were at their prime.
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| Bluebells near Ashridge |
In Ivinghoe village several Verulam cyclists went by and fortunately told us they were heading for Pitstone cafe rather than Jackie's cafe between Cheddington and Marsworth. At the cafe Steve and I opted for the scrumptious looking bread and butter pudding which tasted as good as it looked at the very reasonable price of £1.50 per portion.
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| Bread and butter pudding! |
After the 11s stop only Sue, Steve and I carried on to Winslow via an undulating route west of Leighton Buzzard to the excellent Bell Hotel where Steve H joined us for lunch (by car due to a dodgy knee). The others had decided to go back from coffee as they had things to do.
After lunch we headed to Wilstone for a tea stop via a route that took in Cublington Hill where Sue and I got a few cheers as it was the end point of a Ladies' cycle race and we were 20 minutes ahead of the pack! Wilstone farm cafe was a good place to stop after 20 or so miles and Steve who is an ex-tractor fan enjoyed sitting on the old Massey Ferguson.
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| Farmer Steve |
We covered about 70 miles on this route
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