20 June 2021: St Albans to Chesham

The forecast wasn't very good for a late June Sunday and waterproof jackets were in evidence at the start. Mark K (our leader for the day)  took a call from Mark S who was in Hatfield outside Asda wondering where everyone was. We decided to wait for him to sprint back to the correct start point and, after a later departure than planned, we shortened the route slightly by going along the main road to Hemel and using Bunkers Lane to access Nash Mills. We passed the "Elevenses coffee" sign at Beechtree Lane, which appears every weekend now, and wondered where the mysterious coffee supplier actually is. I do wonder why people don't put themselves in the feet of strangers and put something like "20 yards" or "half a mile" to indicate the actual location of their business.

Mark S had a puncture on Bunkers Lane and decided it was the last straw and to head back. The rest of us took a fairly direct route into Chesham cycling through what seemed like low cloud rather than drizzle and had good-quality inexpensive, quick food delivered in Poppin's cafe (where we said hello to some members of South Bucks CTC).

Steve's lost a foot

After a photo opportunity outside the clock tower we took the Chess-valley road towards Chenies where there is a new 40mph speed limit all the way along, but which is widely ignored.

Picturesque Chesham

A gradual climb from the Chess river to near Flaunden was followed by a downhill through Belsize, then a direct route back through Chipperfield and Bedmond. The newly surfaced Bedmond Lane was a joy to use. Mark K and Philip left us at Potters Crouch to call in at a pub, so it was only Eamonn, Steve and I returning to St Albans by about 1:45 after 33 miles.

Carol B