Brilliant sunshine and a near perfect weekend forecast greeted us as we gathered at Newton Abbot station for the start of our Easter tour to Somerset.  With nine in the group we had to split over two trains: the Acland family had already passed through Newton Abbot on their way from Totnes.  Zac, being Zac, managed to get a special tannoy announcement for riding his bike along the station platform!

The Aclands were waiting for us at Taunton, and once everyone had assembled panniers and manoeuvered off the station we rode the short distance to Morrisons supermarket to stock up with food for lunch and supper.  The Aclands had the clever idea of buying several £1 ready meals, hoping that Street hostel's kitchen would be equipped with a microwave.  Alex, who needed a spoon, ended up buying a pack of fifty!

Heidi found Alex's rhythmic squeak rather annoying as we rode through the quiet lanes to North Curry, but with gritty determination she managed to remain smiling!

Next stop was the Willows and Wetlands visitor centre at Stoke Gregory, which explains how the wetlands are drained of water and demonstrates how the locally-grown willow - which thrives in wetland soil - can be used to make a wide variety of useful items.  Ashley tested most of them, including a hanging seat and a coffin!  There was time for a visit to the cafe before we set off once more.

Burrow Mump is the only high ground in a large area of flat land, so it seemed like an excellent spot for lunch.  The youngsters, led by Ashley, had great fun rolling down the gentle grassy slopes, but Matt discovered the painful way that he was just too large for such games.

Next followed an excursion around Earlake Moor, which started by following the east bank of the river Parrott and incorporated several tracks.  The peaty soil had been baked into solid ruts and ridges by the recent dry weather, making the track a little too rough for some, but the scenery made it all worthwhile.  We even found some very unusual super-rushes with gigantic woolly heads!

The youngsters only realised the loop-back nature of the excursion when they saw Burrow Mump looming up ahead.  As we approached the road the track became indistinct and led us through a farmyard where Zac, being last, caught the sharp tongue of the farmer.

The heat of the sun was now up to mid-June levels so sunscreen was applied at Othery before we searched in vain for a shop selling drinks.  In the end we made do with warm milk from Michael's pannier while Charles kindly went back to fetch Matt's sunglasses!

The route to the hostel took us past Beer Wall sluice system, through a network of very flat and straight lanes, past a clay pigeon shoot and up Ivy Thorn hill to the wooded paths of Walton Hill.  A path then took us straight to the hostel, a wooden chalet surrounded by grassy verges and open countryside.

The Aclands had a family dorm on the first floor while the rest of the group were allocated to our usual dorm on the top floor.  Wooden balconies and staircases connected all the dorms, which of course allowed the youngsters plenty of fun.

When the youngsters had made the most of the early evening sunshine by playing football on the grass with some other lads who were staying at the hostel, we set about preparing meals.  The presence of microwaves was a relief to the Aclands, whose ready meals were the envy of the group.  Matt got into trouble when he left his dishes for Heidi to wash up, but then he'd never been hostelling before and didn't know that he was responsible for his own washing up!

The next part of the evening was spent fixing punctures and walking the mile to the local shop for milk and other provisions - the footpath through the fields provided plenty of entertainment on the dark return journey.  Finally, Michael produced a laptop computer and five controllers from his pannier, so everyone spent the remainder of the evening playing Bomberman and watching Pink Panther cartoons from a DVD.

Michael was awoken early by the sound of Olly creeping up the wooden balcony staircase from the floor below.  The Aclands like to get up early, but since nobody seemed to be awake in the attic dorm he decided to return the way he had come.

When everyone was ready to leave at 9.30, Ashley won the award for best-made bed, and his reward was the privilege of carrying the group's milk!  We headed down the hill to Street for our first stop of the day, at Clark's Village.  The Adidas and Cadburys shops seemed to be the most popular with our youngsters, although the baby goats, cows and sheep in a mini-farm also proved irresistible.

A short journey along flat lanes brought us quickly to Glastonbury tor, at the top of which a weird ceremony was being performed in the ruined tower.  An emotional woman dressed in a shawl was performing some ritual amongst scented candles, apparently in memory of one of her distant forefathers who was beheaded on the site.  The many tourists looked on in bewilderment.

The youngsters rolled and stumbled their way down the hill to the car park, at which point Alex realised he no longer had his wallet containing £38: apparently he had put it in the front pocket of his fleece thinking it was safer to take it with him than leave it on the bike!  He retraced his steps all the way to the top of the tor and back down again, but sadly he was unable to find it.  We had a busy day ahead so sadly we had to make the decision to move on.

The main road brought us quickly to Wells where we bought lunch in the ancient shopping area and ate it on the huge lawns in front of Wells cathedral.  Michael persuaded several people to walk to the side of the cathedral at 2pm to see the clock, promising exciting battle action, then remembered at the last minute that the best action took place inside the cathedral!  He slipped in by a side door and took a video, but everyone else had to be content with the rather mundane sight of some figures hitting a bell!

Next stop was Wookey Hole, just a few miles out of Wells.  Entry was not cheap at £9 per head.  The price had increased substantially since our last visit three years ago, justified it seems by the addition of new coloured lights and stories on the cave tour, a fairy grotto, the dinosaur valley and the ball shooting range.  Nevertheless we were well entertained for an hour and half with the caves, paper-making factory, antique penny arcades and hall of mirrors.

During the cave tour Charles amused us all by managing to flash his camera twice in direct contravention of the rules designed to safeguard the resident bats!  Ashley and then Zac volunteered to make hand-made paper in the paper factory.  Later, in the hall of mirrors, Olly managed to walk into a mirror just seconds after commenting on how obvious the mirrors were!

Zac seemed thrilled when an old-fashioned palm-reading machine went wrong and dispensed 20 cards, but a member of staff overheard him bragging about his good fortune and promptly relieved him of all but one of the cards.  After failing to convince Michael that he should demand their return, he went back to the machine and was delighted to find that it was still giving out multiple cards!

At 4.45 it was definitely time to leave.  Everyone coped surprisingly well with the big climb to Priddy, but quite why the youngsters all turned monkey at the top and decided to hang out in a tree we're not quite sure!  They maintained they were just waiting for Michael to finish a phone call.

After the climb came the downhill through Cheddar Gorge, and from all accounts it was the best downhill most of the group had ever ridden.  It kept us moving for well over 20 minutes and offered spectacular views of the impressive gorge along the way.

It was 7.05 when we finally arrived at the hostel.  Zac rushed in to watch most of Doctor Who while the rest got on with showers and food.  As usual the evening was concluded with a trip to the nearby shop, Bomberman in the large dorm and some episodes of Pink Panther.

Sunday was always going to be our hardest day, so we set off early at 9.45.  Charles tried to pretend he'd been ready for ages when Michael finally got his panniers fitted, but of course he was only just ready himself despite getting up more than an hour earlier than Michael's dorm!

The Tesco Express was open again despite it being Easter Day, so we bought lunch there and then headed out onto the Levels in brilliant sunshine.  We made such good progress to Wedmore that Michael felt there was time to allow Sam's request stop at Blackford play-park.  It turned out to be better equipped than the park at Buckfastleigh despite there only being a handful of children in the village, but as Heidi pointed out they probably don't have a computer club and cycling club at Blackford!  Matt ended up with a sore back when the person on the other end of his see-saw got off without warning, and Alex spent most of his time sitting in a toddlers' springy butterfly that seemed to be just his size!

When Michael had given out a free Easter egg to each of the youngsters and Charles had thrown in some free chocolates as well we were rewarded with the site of a pair of nesting swans near Westham which seemed to make Zac's day.  We passed a couple of the pumping stations that keep the area partially drained of water, including the one at Gold Corner which is sometimes open to the public.  It wasn't open today, but the Huntspill river made an impressive sight.

We stopped for lunch on a grassy verge in the attractive village of Cossington, then pressed on to Bridgwater where our fears about closed supermarkets proved well founded.  Instead we started looking for a local Tesco Express, and found one in a housing estate just a few minutes from the main road.  It was well stocked with everything we needed for our evening meals and left us all very impressed with the Tesco Express network.

The real work of the day still lay ahead, so we pushed on towards the village of Spaxton, stopping only to make a fuss of a flock of lambs that were bleating pitifully on the other side of a gate.  The Cockercombe climb onto the Quantocks turned out to be gentle all the way but the younger riders were tired and needed several rest stops.  During one of these Michael was standing on a wall overhanging the woodland below and Olly thought it would be fun to give him a little push!  Unfortunately Michael wasn't expecting it and quickly found himself off balance and making a forced jump downwards!  He wasn't hurt, but when he returned to find Olly he was nowhere to be seen!

We arrived at the top by around 4.45 and made time for a rest and refreshments in the late afternoon sun.  Everyone was ready for the promised tracks across the Quantock hills, so without further delay we set off along the woodland path, the youngsters suddenly having much more enthusiasm than they had on the climb.  There were six miles of tacks to negotiate, offering spectacular views to the Somerset coast and the Hinkley Point nuclear power station.  Matt got a puncture after already having problems with a pannier jumping off, and was so annoyed with his poor bike that he needed some assistance with the repair!

Quantock Hills youth hostel is located on the side of the Quantocks and can be reached directly from the tracks, but care is required to take exactly the right track otherwise a long detour and climb is required to reach the hostel.  The tracks on the ground in this area never match the ones marked on the map, but we still managed to come out at the right spot with the combined efforts of Michael and Charles.

By the time we reached the hostel at 6.50 everyone was ready for showers, food and relaxation.  The youngsters had great fun hiding from each other in the darkness outside the hostel, although Matt wasn't quite so happy when the owner of the camper van he was hiding under came out to the van, sat in the seat and tried to start the engine!  Suddenly it didn't seem like such a good place to hide!

We finished the evening with mode games of Bomberman.  Poor Alex had ended the day having lost his helmet and one of his shoes, but we were beginning to understand that looking after his possessions was not his strongest skill.  During the night he called out in his sleep that he'd got no food left - we could just imagine his dream of the various components of his evening meal dropping out of his pannier on the Quantock tracks!