On a rather dull but warm morning, six of us met amidst the debris of Saturday night’s revelries outside the Blacksmith’s Arms.
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| Gossiping at the start |
As St Peter’s Street appeared fully occupied with a junk (whoops! antiques) market I led them down Catherine Street, up Bluehouse Hill and along Bedmond Lane where at the tin church, Phil and Sue joined us in a pre-arranged rendez-vous for their first Sunday ride with us. We went hurtling down Harthall Lane then through the wood in King’s Langley and along Barnes Lane, which I was pleasantly surprised find to be devoid of the usual fly-tips, to join Rucklers Lane. We continued through Flaunden and its Green Dragon pub, which has just won CAMRA’s Refurbishment Award. After passing through Latimer we climbed Bell Lane and turned right along the shared-use pavement along the busy A404 turning off at the railway bridge to take a quiet route into Amersham and the Masterchef cafe. The outside tables looked tempting in the full sunshine, so we deposited ourselves there but had to order coffees and snacks inside.
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| Café culture in Amersham |
Here we were surprised to encounter concrete evidence that the cashless society is not yet here: it was cash only, which sent two of the riders scurrying to nearby hole-in-the-wall machines.
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| Ready for departure |
Departing from here, I led them through the up-market Chesham Bois down the hill and to Latimer Bottom, After passing the sewage works we turned up the very narrow Blackwell Hall Lane. I had just explained to Phil that we were unlikely to encounter any motor traffic here when we dutifully pulled in to a passing place to let a car behind through. Then 3 more cars came towards us, one of them driven at excessive speed. After turning off right there was a shout from Sue who had a puncture in her rear tyre. We were by the entrance to a large house which was a convenient place to deal with this. Sue had fortunately thought about this before coming out and had brought here husband along for this very purpose.
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| Sue's first puncture |
While Phil almost instantly found the cause, a large flint, and impressively quickly replaced the inner tube and inflated it, Philip took the opportunity to prostrate himself in the front garden for a quick nap, which turned out to be shorter than he had hoped.
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| Philip napping and trespassing! |
I then led them back to Flaunden Bottom and after climbing the hill and passing the Green Dragon again( which now had many customers), I then went straight on the the cross-roads to get to Belsize and then Chipperfield. Leaving this village I was behind Sue who slowly came to a stop complaining that her rear tyre was spongy. I confirmed that it was indeed, but Phil had also stopped only a few yards ahead so we managed to join him on the verge where I delivered the news that his marital duties were again required. The others were no longer in sight, so I leapt at Phil’s suggestion that I carry on as they were only 4 miles from home, recalling the club motto (every man for himself) and caught up with 4 of the others at the top of the hill in King’s Langley; the other two had gone on to St Albans. We then climbed up Tom’s Lane to Bedmond and took Sergehill Lane to Chiswell Green and then back to St Albans. I subsequently found out that Sue's 2nd puncture was another large flint.
A round trip of about 36 miles using the route below
Steve
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