Weather on the Sunday wasn't too nice, but three fearless cyclists met in St Albans to head out into the grey weather. Among us was newcomer Solomos, who, after doing spinning for a while, wanted to get out of the gym. We crossed the northeast of Hemel Hempstead and followed the ridge along Gaddesden Row. I wanted to go on a road I've not used before and so we crossed the valley of the River Gade in Great Gaddesden. This added another hill to our tour, as we had to go up and down to reach Nettleden (afterwards I knew, why we didn't use the road before). From Nettleden we first quickly and then slowly climbed our way up to Beacon Hill, the northern end of the Chiltern Hills, from where we could enjoy a nice down-ride into Ivinghoe. Shortly after we reached our morning stop Jackie's Café, which unfortunately was closed. So we went back to the Waterside Café.
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| Marina at Waterside Cafe |
From there we continued north, facing some headwind towards Wing and Stewkley. For me the landscape of South Buckinghamshire felt a bit depressing with the wind-chill, the grey sky, the leafless trees, and the large fields. In Hertfordshire more variation between small woods, fields and meadows happens. However, once the road made a 90-degree turn to the west, things felt suddenly better and cycling became so much easier. The wind pushed us into Winslow where we had lunch at the Bell Hotel.
After food and rest we headed back out through the landscape of Buckinghamshire. The clouds became a bit thinner, but the sun didn't make it through. Two short, but steep hills had to be climbed, but once reaching Cublington we gradually made our way downwards to the Aylesbury arm of the Grand Union Canal. A few drops were falling when reaching our last stop, the Wilstone Farm Café. The place was warm and with the wood in the old barn quite cosy, however, we had to make a few more miles before home. We headed through Tring and then followed the often-used path through Berkhamsted and south Hemel Hempstead. Bunkers Lane was the last hill (where the GPS logging stopped) and after 120 km we were back in St Albans. We were lucky with the weather, only on the last few kilometres it was drizzling a bit.
Ronny 07/04/2019
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