28 July 2019: Hatfield to Allens Green

I arrived at the start already wet from the rain, and waited to see how many intrepid people would brave the elements. As it turned out, three more brave souls appeared and we started off with the drizzle starting to get heavier.

We chose to take a different route, as we often use the road past the golf course, and went up to where cycle route 12 crosses cycle route 61, at the beginning to Welwyn Garden City. Here we turned onto route 61, which travels round the back routes near Panshanger and onto the Cole Green Way. As we travelled down towards Hertford, thankful that it wasn’t too muddy, I got a puncture and the four of us managed to keep the tyre off the ground and out of the mud and replace the inner tube, all the while sheltering from the heavy drizzle. Steve H and Richard doing a stalwart job in getting the tyre off.

We reached the cafe in Stanstead Abbotts with the rain easing off, the cafe had run out of ordinary coffee, so I had to make do with decaffeinated, but our food came fairly promptly so we discussed whether we should go on or turn back, the consensus being that it wasn’t heavy rain and we would go on.

As we left, it wasn’t raining, but that soon changed, and we cycled on through Harlow on cycle route 1, through Old Harlow, up to Lower Sheering and Sawbridgeworth to Allens Green our next stop.

Suitably fed and watered we left the pub and cycled around by Green Tye and Perry Green to Much Hadham and by the time we reached Ware it had stopped raining and the sun was threatening to show itself. We made our way back to Hertford, where we bade farewell to Ronnie and found our usual watering hole of the Rose Cafe, which is still going strong, even though the shops to its right have been demolished and there is no sign of anything being built any time soon.

Now the sun had come out, and was getting pleasantly warm, so at least the end of the ride was better than the start. All in all, not a bad ride but could have done without the “wet stuff.”

Sue 28/07/2019