Saturday 6 May 2017 - Southdown

Seven out on a rather grey and cold morning.  Teresa was leading today, Rona was backmarking and Angela was keeping the middle in good order.

Off we went up Woodstock Road and Homewood Road, down to Jersey Lane, now burgeoning green.  As we came into Sandridge we had an encounter with a car driver intent on a close pass.  Our backmarker subjected him to a short treatise on the Highway Code, our correct positioning on road and what the Highway Code has to say about overtaking cyclists.  The lecture was delivered at a decibel level that alerted everyone in the vicinity and might just have been detected at Police HQ. The miscreant submitted.  Disgraceful - either he does not know how to drive or he was deliberately planning to bully a group of road users.  Be it said, the other drivers sharing our road today were at least adequate or were positively courteous and skilled in their driving.

We opted for the multi-user path parallel to the B-road, for a bit of restorative traffic-free riding, although the very dry conditions meant the surface was loose and a bit tiring and tricky to ride.  Teresa had decided the group was capable of the longer route to Ayers End, and it turned out we were eminently capable of rolling across Nomansland with the gorse just coming into flower and ascending gracefully to Ayers End and on to East Common.
Jay's in Southdown had just enough room for our group and we enjoyed hot beverages and cake and of course sparkling conversation.

Our return route was via Cross Lane and Ayers End Lane and the Harpenden Road.  We enjoyed a small diversion in Childwickbury to admire the rhododendrons, which are just beginning to bloom.  As well as flora, we spotted birds: swallows, martins and  kites circling low.  We carried on through Childwickbury and down to Batchwood Drive via the bridleway.  At this point we began heading off in various directions for home.