Fortunately we didn't pay too much attention to the poor weather forecast and set out on a car-assisted journey to Morwellham Quay in West Devon. We left the car at the Coypool car park in Plympton and took the excellent Plym Valley cycleway towards Clearbrook. At the half way point we were surprised to see that tarmac had been laid for around a mile of the path - certainly very smooth, but it somehow seemed out of place in this peaceful wooded valley.

We explored many new country lanes through Denham Bridge and arrived at our destination at around 1.15. The Pasty Restaurant looked an inviting place for lunch, but the serving hatch was closed and two tourists told us that the proprietor had just gone. We nipped round the front and caught him trying to escape. Under interrogation he admitted that he was closing up and that he did know the time was 1.20. On further questioning about the logic of closing a pasty restaurant at lunchtime he argued that he had been open since 10am and hardly anybody had bothered to buy anything! We didn't see this as particularly surprising, so just asked him if he wanted to serve us. Grudgingly he returned to his shop and dig out a few pasties for us and another tourist who had happened along. He charged £2.25 for each pasty, and before we had chance to discover that they were 50% pastry, he was gone. We spent the next 20 minutes explaining to five separate groups of hungry tourists why the proprietor would soon be out of business.

We had seen several people wandering around dressed in period costume, but we hadn't been wondering whether they got paid for it for more than a few minutes when we noticed what looked like a little girl from Victorian England running past with a slightly ungainly gait. The pair of jeans visible through the rear of the skirt revealed that this was a little boy who had been enjoying the site's dressing up room. Needless to say, Tao couldn't be stopped from trying on everything, from bowler hats to a delightful dress and shawl number!

Eventually we decided that we'd better be heading for home. Because of the nature of the terrain we retraced most of our outward route to bring us, for the first time ever, riding <i>down</i> the Plym Valley cycleway. We really do recommend it!