Two days before the tour the Met office were predicting abysmal weather for the first day of the tour and showers for the remainder, so Michael took the executive decision to take the two younger riders to Cornwall by car.  Zac had the front seat and was in charge of the Sat Nav, but sadly he had entered the wrong postcode so we almost ended up going to completely the wrong destination!

The Acland family took the train to Camborne and were slightly concerned at the heavy showers that buffeted the train.  When they started cycling, however, the sun came out and the remainder of the day was really hot.  They found it very amusing when they arrived at the Gweek seal sanctuary half an hour before Michael, Ashley and Zac!

Finding each other at Gweek proved more difficult than expected since there were no mobile phone signals in the area.  Michael did a tour of the village and found the Aclands enjoying lunch outside the village shop, so we were soon together again for the look around the seal sanctuary.

Entry prices on the door were very steep, but Michael had checked online the previous night and bought some of the tickets for less than half price.  Unfortunately he hadn't been able to get hold of the Aclands before he left home to confirm their plans, so they had to pay full price.  Nevertheless we spent an enjoyable hour or so eating lunch in the cafe and watching the many seals (and seagulls) being fed.  Casualties included Ashley, who while rolling down a woodland sloped managed to impale is leg on a small stick, and Michael, who cleverly managed to drop his new camcorder.  There was no serious damage however.

Now the tour officially began as we set off up the gentle climb to Goonhilly.  Everyone did well and we were soon at the Earth Station, complete with its many enormous satellite dishes.  Sadly the dishes, which were once used to send and receive live TV to the USA and other world destinations, are now mainly redundant and the site has become a tourist attraction.  We arrived just too late to get into the main exhibitions, but we were allowed into the shop and the computer area, where the youngsters spent time trying to get their favourite comedy sketches to appear on the Apple computers.

Before we left, Michael and Ashley got told off for walking in the restricted zone near the Arthur satellite (apparently they should have followed the path around the edge rather than the hard area next to the dish), and all the youngsters played in the playpark.

The final stretch of cycling was easy, being flat and downhill all the way to the hostel at Coverack in glorious afternoon sunshine.  The hostel itself was a magnificent mansion set in its own grounds high on the hillside.  Our dorms had fabulous views overlooking the sea, and everyone agreed this was likely to be the best hostel of the tour.

After showers and meals we played a few games of pool in the common room while Ashley skated around on his new heelies.  Then there was time for the main fun of the evening - a game of manhunt around the grounds.  For those who don't know the game, everyone hides from the seeker, and as each person is found they become seekers too.  Some hid in trees, others in bushes, but the two that hid underneath an upturned canoe were felt to have gone a step too far!  We wondered if they woudl think it fair to bury themselves under the garden!

Ghost stories and pink panther cartoons finished off a perfect first day of the tour.

After an early shower the morning became bright and cheery.  An easy ride took us to the picturesque fishing village of Mevagissey, but Michael's assurance that it would be Mega Busy proved misleading: today the whole place was strangely quiet, with some of the better shops not even having bothered to open!  We located the only fudge shop that was trading and then headed onwards.

The warden at Boswinger had told us of a new off-road cycle route from Mevagissey to St Austell that would be easier and far more interesting than the road route.  We soon found it, and after a fairly steep initial climb it turned out to be very enjoyable and very downhill!  The youngsters got plastered with mud and splashed through the many puddles that lined the route.  The track made the day far more interesting than it otherwise would have been.

A short climb took us over the hill to Charlestown, famous for its interesting harbour and its shipwreck and heritage museum.  Sadly it is not famous for its food: there were no food shops to be found, and the only cafe was now an upper class Sunday Lunch restaurant that needs to be booked well in advance.  Today it was full of well-dressed diners who had clearly forked out a very large amount of money for the waiter service.  As we walked through dressed in our muddy cycling gear the waiter at the front wasted no time in letting us know that every table was booked!

We made do with biscuits and chocolate, then set about a tour of the museum.  Highlight of the visit were the radio-controlled boats: the first one Ashley tried wouldn't turn left, but he was given another one free of charge by way of compensation.  Zac bought a catapult pencil sharpener from the gift shop, but when he got outside and found that it didn't actually work he swapped it for another.

A mile up the road we found a huge Tesco supermarket which met all our needs for lunch and supper.  We then continued through Par and up the hill to Golant, which didn't actually turn out to be as steep as we had expected.  We arrived at Golant at 4.10 in bright sunshine.  It had been an easy day, but the youngsters needed that after yesterday's high mileage and late arrival.

The hostel was open but reception was closed, so after a short rest in the foyer the more energetic members of the group played Manhunt in the grounds until 5.15.  Loads of showers didn't seem to be in working order, but when we finally finished our meals we spent the remainder of the evening in the grounds again.  Manhunt proved much harder here than at Coverack as the grounds were much larger: the younger members just couldn't run fast enough to catch the longer-legged members!  A few pheasants were scared from their roosting places in the woods as darkness fell.

Michael's final attempt at a ghost story failed once again when Ashley fell asleep before it was completed.

Our final day turned out to be the brightest of all, with not a single shower all day.  Some of the youngsters remembered the route to Looe from last year, which started with a trip across the Bodinnick ferry.  This ferry gave us our usual discount and the journey cost us a mere £4 for the whole group!  Well I guess they are a car ferry, so can be more generous to cyclists.

The climb from the ferry brought us quickly to the lanes, navigated successfully using Michael's SatNav which avoided referring to two overlapping maps.  We arrived at Looe by lunchtime.  Michael, Ashley and Zac bought pasties in West Looe and then extravagantly bought knickerbocker glories in the Tasty Corner cafe - a long-standing tradition for this Section.  The remainder bought food in the old-fashioned streets of East Looe, the others crossing by passenger ferry (80p each) to meet them rather than riding around the nearby bridge.  There was time to browse the famous joke shop before the two groups split, the Aclands returning to Liskeard for their train home.

Michael's group showed just how much their cycling had improved during the tour by climbing the very steep hill from Looe to the coast path without walking.  They then proceeded to the steps leading down to Milendreath beach.  Ash, who had been looking forward to swimming throughout the tour, had planned to jump into the sea, but it took only a few seconds of standing in the icy waters for him to think better of that idea.

A final climb up the track brought us eventually to the Monkey Sanctuary, where Michael's car had kindly been deposited by his family over the weekend.  The Sanctuary was due to close ten minutes after we arrived, so we were fortunate enough to get a reduced price entry: seeing the woolly monkeys and capuchin monkeys made a perfect finish to a very enjoyable tour.