During the past year or so most of the path has been given the tarmac treatment so that it now resembles a country lane.  This "improvement" seems to have removed much of the character of the route, but it was nevertheless and enjoyable ride.  The newly opened section of the path near Bickleigh was definitely welcome, however, obviating the need to use roads at any point on the route.

From Clearbrook we road the short distance to Meavy in the hope of refreshments outside the village inn, but unfortunately it has changed hands since Michael last visited, offering only a very expensive luncheon menu on Sundays.

Andrew was keen to have a meal out, so we headed back to Clearbook with all speed.  Whilst retracing our route back to Plympton along the cycle path we met Freddie and his family heading the other way.  Freddie quickly jumped ships and joined our gang back to Plympton, from where we took the car to Pizza Hut at Plymouth for a very tasty pizza meal with Andrew's Mum.

The conclusion of the day's activities was a games social at Crofters, where Wolfie joined Freddie and Michael for some entertaining computer games.

The meal was excellent as usual, and whilst Michael had not managed to work out the junior attendance winner he was able to award the Devon DA trophy to the section for attending the most youth hostels during the year.

All except Charles and Heidi rode back to Buckfastleigh along the lane from Birchanger to Halsanger and on to Ashburton.  Making a good speed were were able to reach Buckfastleigh before dark.

Having parked in the gateway car park near Bullers Hill we first rode the Play Trail as a warm-up, offering interesting and mainly level paths around the nearby forest.  There were interesting play activities around almost every corner of the route, which of course Ashley and Olly just had to try out.  Next was the Family cycle trail, which was a little longer and slightly more hilly.  We then rode the few miles across Haldon's autumnal lanes to Mamhead Obelisk, which offered magnificent views to the Exe Estuary and beyond while we ate lunch on the comfortable seats.  This was a new location for all except Michael, and they were so impressed that they will undoubtedly return again.

A few spots of drizzle began to fall as Olly and Michael chased each other around the nearby undergrowth, so we headed back along the tracks near the Obelisk and arrived back at the Forest Park just as the rain seemed to become more settled.  We had seen a van selling hot pancakes earlier, so now was the time to sample them whilst giving the weather a chance to decide what it was going to do.

Freddie, who was also cycling around the park with his family, met us briefly, but the rain was definitely in for the afternoon and neither Charles nor the youngsters could be persuaded to do any more riding today.  We headed back to Buckfastleigh for some computer games, looking forward to returning to the park at a future date.

The day started with torrential rain which continued right through lunch.  We played computer games at Crofters while we waited for conditions to improve, but it was 4pm before the rain finally stopped.

An unmarked path across the moor led us to Buckland Beacon and the Ten Commandments Stone.  It was here in 1928 that a stonemason from Exeter was engaged to engrave the ten commandments into granite slabs by the Lord of Buckland Manor.  The work took six months, during which time the stonemason lived in a cow shed on the site and was supplied with a loaf of bread each day for his efforts!  Nobody except Michael had been here before so there was a race to find the stone first.  Sam won, but only by asking another visitor where it was!

When we had found the only letterbox on the tor we headed along a different moorland track to Cold East Cross, passing some rather lazy-looking black cows along the way.  It was getting rather close to lunchtime and nobody really fancied Michael's idea of climbing Rippon Tor (not even Michael himself), even if there were several letterboxes there.  We headed instead for Bonehill rocks which offered shelter for lunch and an abundance of letterboxes.  Ashley, whilst looking around for boxes, discovered a young australian man and his friend with full mountaineering gear trying to climb a big boulder that was only twice their height!

A steep downhill brought us quickly to Widecombe, where the Green cafe provided useful refreshments for those who had neglected to bring a packed lunch.  Freddie, always cautious here after the time he put handwash into Michael's water bottle, returned to the table to discover everyone looking at his own bottle that he had left there unattended.  Their looks alone were sufficient to convince him his bottle had been doctored, even though it hadn't been touched!

We headed back to Leusdon for the downhill to Spitchwick which everyone thoroughly enjoyed.  Charles and Heidi then took the left for Buckland and the car while the rest continued through Spitchwick Common itself which was pleasantly deserted today.  Hembury tracks provided a grand finale to the day's activities, with the usual computer games to follow.

There was a good turnout today for one of our most popular rides, including Reuben who hadn't been out with us for two years.  We parked the cars near Black Forest Lodge, unloaded the bikes (and youngsters) and set off for Starcross and Powderham.

The Powderham road was closed to motor vehicles to protect runners who were taking part in a charity event.  When we passed the Powderham estate we were rewarded with the sight of hundreds of deer racing across the grounds.  Perhaps they had been frightened by the runners or perhaps they just felt frisky in the morning sunshine, but they provided Olly with an ideal opportunity to use his camcorder.

Fred, being Fred, led two others straight past the track turnoff.  When they eventually returned we crossed the railway line and headed with good speed along the narrow path that runs along the edge of the Exe estuary.  Everyone loved the track, and there were plenty more after we reached the beginning of the canal at Turf Lock.  The canal seemed to be full of wildlife, including swans and even a heron that blocked our path at close range.

Hunger was beginning to bite, but the youngsters still found time to watch some mini motorbike riders on a piece of rough ground near the centre of Exeter before we covered the last mile or so to Pizza Hut.

Our last two visits to Pizza Hut have been excellent, but today things were very different.  When we arrived at 1pm we asked for a table for 9.  The waitress looked at the sea of empty tables near the window and announced that they wouldn't have a table for our size of group for around 15 minutes.  Apparently the empty tables were closed off because they were short-staffed!  We thought about suggesting that we had one of those large tables and that they closed off two smaller tables in the used area to keep the total number of tables the same, but we decided this would be too complicated for them and contented ourselves with asking whether they could moved two tables together for us.  She looked around vaguely and said she would see what she could do.  Meanwhile we asked if we could order in advance of sitting down.  The answer once again was no, because they were short staffed!

Thirty minutes later we had checked out the menus and decided what to order but were still waiting by the door.  Several twos and fours had been allocated to tables, and some of those had left again 15 minutes later because nobody had taken their order!  We asked again about placing our orders before sitting down, but were again told no.

It was nearly 2pm when we finally got a table.  We had been determined to get the waitress who took us to our table to take our order before she left us, but again we were foiled: she was not a waitress, she was just clearing tables!   At 2.12 we had our order taken, and the food finally arrived at 2.35.  Unfortunately one of the orders was wrong, but we had enough food to be going along with.  We asked whether we could speak to the manager and were told that the chef was off too so the manager was cooking the pizzas!

Then we got to the part the youngsters had been waiting for: desserts.  They all wanted ice cream factories, but once again it took a while to get a waitress.  She eventually came and took our order, but didn't make any attempt to clear our table.  And after the first two servings the ice cream machine turned out liquid ice-cream - apparently it needs a rest after every serving!

It was 3.45 when we finally got away from Pizza Hut.  We negotiated free drinks on our order which provided some compensation for our troubles, but now we had precious little time to complete the ride as we had planned.   Our excursion of the park started with the trampoline which provided endless entertainment for the youngsters.  Maybe they should get one put in at Buckfastleigh?!   We checked out the bridges and then paused briefly to admire the young skateboarders showing off their undoubted skills in the skate park.

As we headed back along the canal for home a huge group of youngsters merged with our group, all riding Giant Rock bikes.  We found out that they were a group from Millfield School at Taunton, out for a ride on hire bikes, but Zac happened to have exactly the same bike and he was mistaken for a member of the school group on two occasions!  We rode with them past the busy quayside shops and came across a few Exeter youngsters on bikes who seemed to want nothing more than to demonstrate that they were better cyclists than Millfield!  Because Zac was with us we had to deny that we were part of the Millfield group!

Our rather belated return to the cars at Black Forest Lodge was punctuated by a toilet stop at Turf Lock and some repairs to Freddie's saddle at Starcross.  We didn't get back to Buckfastleigh until nearly 7pm but the youngsters insisted on at least half an hour of computer games to round off what had been an adventurous and enjoyable ride.

Julian, back in Devon for a week's holiday, joined Michael for a speedy ride to Marley Head, returning via Rattery to ensure we got back before dark as Julian didn't have lights.

The steep climb towards Holne was followed by the descent past Shuttaford farm and then the lower Hembury track - much more enjoyable today in the downhill direction.

By the time we reached Buckfastleigh everyone was filthy, but that didn't stop them returning to Crofters for a few computer games before heading homewards.

We'd like to remind everyone that working lights must be brought on all further evening rides this season.

Ashley joined us for the afternoon social at Crofters, but Harry was so keen he wanted to go out for another ride!  Sadly he's moving away from the area next week, but he hopes to return from time to time for more biking fun.