Saturday 10 June 2017 - Fabulous 10th Birthday

10th birthdays are very enjoyable!  The sun shone on ours, and we had a numerically delightful 10 riders out, including two of the original trio who launched Five Miles to Fabulous in 2007.  The third original still rides with us, but was not free today.
In breezy sunshine Rona decided we should go flying, which meant along the Alban Way to Ellenbrook Fields, the country park created from the de Havilland aerodrome.  The park runners had nearly all departed, the tidy-up crew gave us a cheerful greeting.
We went a little loop around and found a nice spot for the group photo.

From here we enjoyed a mixture of surfaces - more of the sub-base track that you see pictures, then grass, then the concrete taxi-way, some rough track and then grass again - Ellenbrook Fields is best enjoyed in dry weather.  Link to lots of information about Ellenbrook Fields, including the map and the heritage boards, click here.
Our re-fuelling point was Notcutts garden centre, to get there we negotiated a little rough track through the woodland boundary strip and a kissing gate.  By the time the tenth rider tackled the gate we had established the best technique - reverse in, pirouette on the back wheel, flip the gate and emerge.
We piled into the cafe and set about depleting the enormous pile of scones.  What a lovely surprise, a tenth birthday cake was presented to Rona, with small cakes for everyone else. The photo shows the ten-year-olds admiring the cakes.

A straightforward run back to St Albans along the Alban Way.  What a FABULOUS morning.

Here is a map of our route of slightly over 8 miles.