Richard was left somewhat bemused as the group set off from Totnes Plains: within a few seconds of their departure they changed direction and headed straight for the nearby bus shelter. The reason was a particularly cold and heavy shower, so Richard decided to follow the others.

The route to Maypool via Parliament Hill is quite short, and we managed to stay surprisingly dry as the cold night drew in around us. On such occasions a warm and friendly hostel makes all the effort worthwhile, and there can be fewer hostels more welcoming than Maypool.

Once meals had been consumed Dave and Jenny Rowe, the wardens, provided us with a superb evening of entertainment which included a firework display and plenty of hot food (tomato soup, hot dogs and delicious hot doughnuts) served on the lawn beside the open fires. From this vantage point we could see the lights and fireworks of Dartmouth reflected in the river Dart. For those with different interests there was the games room in the basement - some of our youngsters even missed the fireworks to play on the arcade games there!

It was difficult to get anybody out of bed next morning - the sound of heavy rain beating against the window didn't offer much encouragement. Conditions improved rapidly during breakfast, however, and we were soon thinking positively about a full day ride.

Once Richard's crew had moved the wood we set sail for Paignton sea front, bathed in glorious sunshine. Toby and Luke managed inevitably to get their feet wet whilst playing "chicken" on the beach, and others (too numerous to mention by name) got sand on their gears - they obviously didn't attend our social on cycle maintenance.

Next stop was Torquay harbour area for a well-deserved coffee, but even after these refreshments there was little support for the climb onwards to Babbacombe. We were committed to joining the Marldon afternoon ride at 2.15pm, so with plenty of time on our hands we amused ourselves near the theatre before pressing on to Cockington Park for lunch.

There was plenty of water at Cockington. Access to the (closed) cafe area was partially obstructed by a huge lake of water - no problem for our bikes, but a real turn-off for potential customers. Then there was the chalky duckpond complete with ducks. Next came the series of lakes, all with warnings about blue-green algae, surrounded by a maize of twisty paths (some people actually got lost trying to find Dayle and Co). Finally, there was the rain. We enjoyed lunch in the bowels of a huge fir tree near one of the lakes, which kept us all reasonably dry, entertainment being provided by Martin Luke and Paul Hamlyn-White, who kept taunting each other, and David Platt and friends who attempted to climb the tree.

The weather cleared up as we left the park to climb the long hill to Marldon. We hope our new hostellers (Luke and Marcus Kudliskis, Arren Hymas, Dayle Guy, Martin Luke and David Platt) enjoyed their first taste of hostelling despite the showers.