Good to unexpectedly see you yesterday Tomsk. It was indeed somewhat wetter than forecast. At least it stopped before it came to sunset. I was descending the hill when I called out the usual passing greeting when suddenly realised it was Tomsk. So brakes on and we stopped for a chat. It was actually the hill up to Lilley, the last war memorial location I’d been, then you descend (after Lilley) to Hexton going Tomsk’s way. Once Tomsk and I agreed we’d both cooled enough, we were off on our separate ways.
I was out on an audax 200 DIY visiting war memorials in Hertfordshire. Whitwell was the next one on my list when I met Tomsk, then Peters Green etc. I’d identified the locations of 45 war memorials but when working out a route between them had to restrict myself to 35. Unless I wanted to be significantly over distance. Route took me as far east as Ashwell and as far west as Berkhampstead and as far south as St Albans. Traversed a few towns to collect war memorials, Baldock, Letchworth, Hitchin, Harpenden, Berkhampstead, Hemel Hempstead, St Albans, Hatfield, Hertford. Towns were slow going with Christmas traffic, but drivers well behaved, so all good. Had some comedy off road in the Chilterns. A steep and muddy hill to climb. At the least the downhill was rideable if a little gingerly.
Discovered Inns of Court Officers Training Corps Memorial a First World War memorial above Berkhamsted marks a training site and that 600m of trenches still exist there. Thanks to a local “expert” I talked to, at the memorial. A visit to look at the trenches will be on my list on a future trip.
Saw some pretty amazing Christmas light displays on my DIY as well. Will have to see if any of my photos have come out.
Took me longer than recent 200s as I stopped at each memorial to take photos and read the inscriptions. I didn’t actually include the war memorial in my own town. But then I can visit that one any time. But all good and back well within audax time limits.