30 Sep 2018: Hertford to Stansted Mountfitchet

Hot summer coming to an end and autumn beginning: although sun was forecast it was pretty cold at the start. Despite this, eight of us met at the start in Hertford. After a short delay whilst Richard mended a puncture prior to actually starting we made good time through countryside to the south of Hertford. Then via Rye house and Roydon it was on to Harlow and navigating the cycle path through the new town to end up at the cafe in Old Harlow. Unfortunately Carol's rather unflattering photo makes it look more like "new Harlow".

Old Harlow

Since we were for once ahead of schedule we abandoned the short route I had planned to the lunch stop in Stansted Mountfichet. Instead we took a longer route going to the east around Stansted airport, up to Elsenham (once famous for its jam) and then directly to the ‘Dog and Duck’ in Stansted M. The restaurant section was full so we ended up at a nice scrubbed wooden table in the public bar, so a proper pub type feel. What is more other than pukka Sunday lunches, the pub only does baguettes but because it was a Sunday these came complete with roast potatoes!

Roast beef & roasties

( Carol's note: While looking for a picture of the picturesque Stansted M village I found this photo which seemed very relevant to our lunch location. Story about this dog and ducks here )

Another dog and ducks!

So, well fed we left Stansted M. It is a pretty place with old buildings, its only flaw probably being it is too close to the airport. So we headed due west on very quiet lanes past Farnham and Upwick Green before heading south through the Hadhams. We were a bit early for the planned tea stop so went on to Ware. Our usual cafe had no cakes and said they couldn’t do tea either, seems to have turned itself more into a kebab shop. Tried another cafe which was too slow and ended up in a third, Cafe Frappe. The friendly owner showed us he had a back garden to park bikes in, accessed from the adjacent car park.

After this it was a quick dash back to the start in Hertford. For those of us finishing there we had done about 50 miles. Some had further to go, cycling back to St Albans and WGC.  

peteR