Undeterred by the torrential rain at the start in Uxbridge, 4 riders joined me on my journey to Berkhamsted. John Owen, John MacMillan, Alan Potter & Bob Morgan.
The rain which had been falling since at least 6AM was starting to ease off as we made our way out of Uxbridge towards Northwood. By the time we reached Croxley Moor common there were patches of blue sky and the sun was taking a peek out from behind the clouds. I decided to take the group for our first section of 'off road' across the common which was not too soggy.
We took a break at the Croxley Cafe where I divested myself of a few layers of clothing and changed into the shorts that I had packed in a moment of optimism that morning and which turned out to be a wise decision.
Heading off towards Chipperfield and Felden the weather was warming up and the descent down past Sheephanger common provided beautiful vistas of the Hertfordshire countryside.
We arrived in Berkhamsted after weaving around the Grand Union Canal on minor roads and finally a short section on the tow path.
We arrived at Berkhamsted's finest Wetherspoons pub The Crown. We were joined here by our friend and Berkhamsted local Ken Organ who suggested that the next time we visited his town we should drop by his house.
Having enjoyed an excellent and very reasonably priced lunch we took our leave of Ken and set off on the return journey.
My original plan was to return via Ashley Green past Ken's house but I felt that we had not really done enough hills to fulfill my description of 'a bit hilly' on the comments on the website. I, therefore took the group up Chesham lane and Whelpley Hill. We went on through Flaunden, Sarratt then remembering my commitment of doing a bit of 'off road' I took the group down the Chess Valley route into Rickmansworth.
Coffee and cakes consumed we set off home John Macmillan departed at this point and Alan left shortly after when we reached Harefield. This just left Me, John & Bob to proceed to Ruslip where we went our separate ways.
The rain had just started up again after a great and mostly sunny day.