We decided to get on our bikes again on Saturday and go for a ride out in the Chilterns. Well, you know how it is, Cath had a 2 1/2 hour training session to do, I was at a loose end, and I need to be fitter than I am, so pretty much case closed. We loaded our bikes on the train and headed out to Berkhamsted. Now, for those of you that haven’t known us for long, we bought our first house on Holliday Street in the picturesque town, birthplace of Graham Greene, William Cowper and Esther Ransen. It was also the birthplace of Thomas Stevenson, the first person to ever cycle around the world on a penny-farthing. So where better to start?

Now, Saturday afternoon was not a case of plus-fours, cravats and panniers full of picnics and binoculars. No, it was a training session. Once we got started, Cath told me that we should be averaging somewhere around 16-17mph for the whole 32 miles. MPH? Now she tells me, I thought it was km/h.

As you can imagine, it wasn’t long after leaving Berko that we hit Tring station (ok, for those that don’t know, it’s about 5 miles away)  on our way to Aldbury. Apparently a lot of chase scenes in The Avengers were filmed at Aldbury, and many’s the time that the same cars were seen racing around the same village pond near the stocks in different episodes. Tring was home to the incredibly rich Rothschild banking family who thought nothing of using a zebra and trap/carriage as his main form of local transport. From there we headed out towards Ivinghoe, a site of an iron age hill fort. I was thoroughly warmed up by now, though a bit snotty, but I knew what was to come: Ivinghoe Beacon. While we lived in Berko and then Tring I couldn’t cycle up that damn lump of chalk, because it was too steep and it went on for too long. This time around I didn’t even get into bottom gear! A steady 8/9mph and I was at the top before you could say herrrr, herrrr, herrrr, herrrr!

Anyway, the weather was kind in the end, and the winds were low. Through the old hunting forest at Ashridge, down through Hemel Hempstead, and into Kings Langley we flew. Well, I say flew, we were stuck in traffic for a while, but then we flew after we passed Sainsburys. Into KL, and Cath was off an running – another part of her madness, while I was standing in my rather fetching cycling gear smiling at West Highland Terriers and such like. They are cute little dogs, always seem to be in a good mood.

I digress, Cath managed to get back in one piece, so we jumped back on the bikes to try to get a train back to London. We knew they were about every thirty minutes, so you can imagine how chuffed (or is that chuff chuffed?) we were when the train rolled into the station as we got onto the platform! A quick and easy journey home and that was that.

Yesterday I developed a bit of a cold that Lesley had kindly left behind when she came down last week. And no, not man cold or man flu, a bit of a cold. Suffice to say Lesley could be looking for a different place to stay next time – like an isolation hospital. There used to be one just outside Skegness I can direct her to!

The Chilterns are a great area, and we got to see a lot of places we haven’t been to in years. I think in the end we took 2hours and 40 minutes to do about 35miles – and I was ready for that bath afterwards.

One last thing, Garners, Haywards or Branston?