19 Sept 2021: St Albans to Maple Cross

 We met at the usual start point and after having a brief chat with a young Harley Davidson owner we left the town via Bedmond, where we bumped into Peter S on his way to meet West Herts CTC at Smallford, and down to Kings Langley. Unusually for us, we stayed on the road past the old Ovaltine factory, which still looks a tremendous Art Deco building even though it has been converted into apartments. Ovaltine (a powdered drink added to milk, for those not old enough to remember it) was one of the original examples of food provenance as nearby they had a dairy farm, an egg farm and a barley farm to provide the main ingredients.

Ovaltine apartments

We went through Hunton Bridge then down and up House Lane before heading to Sarrett. As we all had fairly fat tyres we descended to Sarrett Bottom then went along the concrete track to cross the River Chess and used Holloway Lane to climb up to Chenies. We spotted a new outdoor café (Crestyl café) at the Watercress farm by the Chess bridge which is open Friday to Sunday 10am-4pm.

Holloway Lane

Holloway Lane is tarmacked but rather narrow as you can see in the photo above. We dropped down into Chorleywood and climbed to Heronsgate, where we decided to shortcut to Maple Cross by going down past the Land of Liberty, Peace and Plenty pub, then riding down the dual carriageway slip-road of the M25 to approach the cafe using a brand-new cycle-path that delivered us to the door.

Liver dinner

After Steve and I ordered our bacon rolls, a svelte Gary shocked us by ordering a low-carb liver dinner, substituting mushrooms for chips. We were also surprised at the enormous bottle of ketchup. It was labelled as 1.3kg and my photo doesn't do it justice

1.3 Kg tomato ketchup

Afterwards we returned via the edge of Rickmansworth and Chorleywood bottom where we encountered traffic hold-ups caused by huge cars being too wide for a narrow lane. An easy run through Chandlers Cross and Abbotts Langley saw us back in St Albans before 2pm after 36 miles. We didn't see any rain really, just a few spots here and there.

Carol

12 Sept 2021: St Albans to Tring

 Nine of us set off from the War Memorial on a dull but warm morning, including four riders new to the group. We rode up the A5183 on the last day before the ten-week southbound road closure for water-mains works. At Redbourn, Richard paused to assess reaction to his proposal to use a track to exit the village, but after receiving the thumbs-down from those with narrow tyres, decided to head north-west along Gaddesden Row.

Descent to Briden's Camp

Turning left to descend past Briden’s Camp to Water End we crossed the Gade valley to ascend west, passing Frithsden, Ashridge College and Ringshall to descend Tom’s Hill into Aldbury where sadly the Valiant Trooper is no longer trading. Here Carol’s front-mudguard stay came adrift from the frame after losing its bolt, so after waving the others onward, I fixed it by borrowing a bolt from an unused rack fixing. I then received a phone call from Philip to say that our destination, Cog Café , was closed but they had gone on to the nearby Black Goo. When I caught up with them there, the riders were outside it, muttering about the mega-queue, so I suggested the nearby Costa Coffee. To our amazement, they insisted we had a table to sit at before letting us order. As there were no tables available anyway, we then tried the museum café, but this was also closed!

Interesting old sign to museum

Aza and Philip were keen to then try Berkhamsted, as this was on the return journey anyway, so we headed south east along the old A41 which unfortunately seemed extremely busy for  a Sunday mid-day, passing the Tring brewery, where we already knew the café, which we had used regularly in the past, was closed for good. After entering Berko and ignoring Caffè Nero and other enticing candidates for a stop, the two new self-appointed leaders headed straight into the Crown, the JD Wetherspoon establishment. Sitting at outside tables in the warmth, we ordered coffees (or in two cases, beers) and snacks, and in one case a fish-and-chips. I reflected that my coffee was the same price (99p) as a half-pint of the oatmeal stout that some others were drinking.

Patio garden at the Crown

After what became a brunch, we set off down the old A41 again, but I got a rear-wheel puncture at the southern edge of the town.

Puncture repairing

Again waving the others on, I quickly found the cause: not a flint or thorn, but unusually a small glass shard. Remounting, Carol & I  followed the usual route into Hemel and headed towards Bedmond, stopping on the ascent up Hyde Lane to pick a bagful of luscious-looking blackberries. We returned back in St Albans rather late at 2.30pm after about 41miles.

Tring is now off our destination list!

Steve

5 Sept 2021: Colney Heath to Cheshunt

Five of us met in  Colney Heath, at the entrance to the football club car park on a hot sunny morning, and set off down a familiar route through Welham Green, Little Berkhamstead and Newgate Street , where we noticed the A-board outside The Crown proclaiming 20% off over-65's lunches, We then went through Goffs Oak on an unusual route which allowed Carol to thoroughly test her new navigation tool ( an Elemnt Bolt v2) then took the superb cycle-path over the A10 to get to Cedars Park in Cheshunt. The park used to be the grounds of Theobalds Palace built in the times of Henry VIII, and the cafe occupies a former orangery, but we sat outside after grabbing the only remaining unoccupied picnic table. 

Cedars café

The food and drinks were surprisingly cheap and came very quickly. The gluttons among us ordered full breakfasts, which came in polystyrene boxes with plastic cutlery, the others had rolls which were delivered paper bags with plastic windows, and the hot drinks were in paper cups with plastic tops, so no points were awarded for sustainability.

Theobalds Palace model

After leaving the cafe we headed north via Cheshunt High Street where we noticed that the King James JD Wetherspoon pub had been closed down. 

Bayford junction

We continued on our return journey via Brickendon where we encountered a half-mile queue of cars attempting to get onto the common which was hosting a well-attended fete, and then another half-mile queue trying to do the same thing from the opposite direction (from Bayford). Although we felt very smug cycling past the static cars in the queues, again nil points could be awarded for sustainability (or air quality.)

At Bayford we said good-bye to Ronny, hopefully not for the last time, as he will be moving from Stevenage to south west Cambridgeshire. Four of us continued,  crossing our outward route near Epping Green and travelling along Grubb's Lane where our leader, Philip, an avid reader of The Sun 40 years ago (and maybe still) paused outside the cottage Samantha Fox owns, to sadly contemplate what might have been. Afterwards,  he silently led us back via the longabout and the Alban Way.

Steve B