Three orchards and two ponds

Six riders today, half of them sporting hi-viz pannier covers as issued by the Community Safety Partnership last year - see pink panel picture.

We set off east along the Albans Way, then turned off at Hixberry Lane to get to Highfield Park.  Our first orchard was part of Hill End Hospital.  The season has been early this year, so there were some windfalls to be gathered, but not very many compared to the same ride last year.  Lots of sweet chestnuts though, as we rode west to the former Cell Barnes Hospital orchard, and stopped to study the information board.

Which led us to look for the pond mentioned thereon.  Highfield Park is brilliant if you are interested in trees, orchards and history. We then put in a loop, down Nightingale Lane, along the A414 and back up Highfield Lane, then we headed along to London Road and down to Ayletts for coffee.  Five miles covered so far.

To our delight, we found that Ayletts was running an apple festival over the weekend, with interesting varieties to taste and purchase, also apple juice and apple crisps.

We decided there was time to fit in yet another orchard, so we went round by Napsbury Lane and New Barnes Mill to the east end of the Alban Way.  You get a good view of the Watercress Local Nature Reserve from the Alban Way. It is tucked in between the Ver, the Alban Way and Riverside Road.

We took the little path from the Alban Way down to the end of Riverside Road and went for a wander around, thus gaining pond number two ('the mere') and orchard number three for our ride. The spring-fed mere was once watercress beds. The whole site had become a dump and was restored by local people.  The reserve is very well managed by the Watercress Wildlife Association. Visitors are encouraged to arrive by foot or pedal power - there is cycle parking. It is a wonderful, tranquil place to get close