Planes, Lanes and Saddle Pains, Hemel to Shephall

Fortunately the heatwave of the last week had finally ended so it was pleasant cycling to the start at Leverstock Green with a relatively cool breeze from the west keeping the temperature down. There were six of us at the start and we headed north through the Buncefield Lane cycle route then headed north to Gaddesden Row, before going down to Markyate and up to Caddington Common. We came across out first road closure in Woodside where we managed to use the pedestrian access to get through.

We arrived to find the golf-club building at Stockwood Park covered in scaffolding, but fortunately the cafe was open. Planes roared overhead after take-off forcing conversations to be frequently paused. A cherry tree was spotted by the extremely useful outside staircase so coffee was accompanied by fresh fruit – no need for a cherry picker here!

Afterwards there was a good downhill to the back gate of Luton Hoo before the Lea Valley cycleway took us to Copt Hall Road and the climb up to the back of Luton Airport. We stopped at the silhouette-style metal sculptures of Eric Morecambe and Capability Brown on the cycle path for a photo-shoot.

After another long descent to Kimpton we came across Kimpton Bottom road completely blocked and closed for water-main works. We climbed up the verge and bypassed the blockage and fortunately managed to ride for about  a mile alongside a deep trench before getting past the barrier at the other end near Kimpton Mill. It didn’t take long for us to go through Old Knebworth (where we picked up John who had made his own way there) and where we saw some deer in the park sheltering from the sun. We skirted the very edge of Stevenage to get to Shephall on a shady cycle path. Shephall was a hamlet swallowed up by Stevenage development in the sixties, so the Old Red Lion pub was indeed “old” and not an ugly estate pub. Amazing value for money here – I regret not taking a photo of the food. A roast dinner and a pint of lager for £10 made Wetherspoon look expensive!

After lunch we took a cycle path out of Stevenage then found a good route to climb up very gently to Rabley Heath before taking the usual route back via Codicote to Wheathampstead - where some of us had a coffee and/or ice-cream break at Marleys before the group went their separate ways back.

A super ride on a summer’s day – hope you like my AI title!

Carol B