Joe was annoyed when he arrived at Newton Abbot Station for the start of our 2005 junior tour. The expensive Altura panniers he had ordered the week before had not arrived in time for the tour, so he had been forced to use the cheap all-in-one panniers that had caused him so many problems on last year's tour. Oliver arrived just in time for the 0940 train which brought us swiftly to Taunton, the start of our great weekend adventure.

Joe's bike needed a few adjustments because he had left an important part of his hub at home, but soon we were speeding around Morrisons buying lunch and supper. We had plenty of time, so we left Taunton by the quickest route and detoured through quiet country lanes to Bradford on Tone. Next stop was Halse, where Keir took a look at the map and suggested an alternative route to the Quantocks that avoided some nasty-looking double arrows. We continued to Greenway and Bishops Lydeard, finally discovering a field near Terhill that was suitable for lunch.

Keir's bike needed some adjustments next so that he could get all his gears, and then Joe required further work to his rear hub. We struggled up the long climb to Lydeard Hill, enjoying panoramic views across the Somerset countryside. Now, however, began the real fun, with a track of several miles that followed the top of the Quantock Hills. It was bumpy and muddy in places, but generally it was fast and fun in the late afternoon sun, wending its way through woodlands and moorland.

Everything was going to plan until we passed Crowcombe Park Gate. A maze of tracks criss-crossed the moor at this point, but Michael felt sure he knew the way without checking the map. Hinkley Point nuclear power station looked magnificent on the distant coast, but it was almost directly in front of us - this was the wrong track. To make matters worse, Keir carried on down a hill and had to be brought back again - he didn't make THAT mistake again! There was nothing for it but to retrace the route until we found a link track that took us across to the Thornecombe Hill track that we should have taken. There was a good deal of riding to do and the light was fading fast, but we just made it down the final rough track to the lanes near Quantock Hills youth hostel before darkness fell. Michael also fell, but he blamed the rough track and the disappearing light!

Our dormitory was somewhat cramped, but the showers were excellent and we were soon setting about preparing a well-earned supper. Keir impressed everyone by making his own lemonade, from lemons and sugar he bought at Taunton!

To conclude an excellent first day we settled down in the dormitory to try Michael's new experiment: he had brought a full size laptop computer with him complete with joysticks, and Gavin was carrying a set of speakers with subwoofer! Miraculously it had all survived the rough tracks and was working perfectly. We played a few multiplayer games and listened to some music before settling into bed for a good night's sleep, soothed by the sound of many sheep on the surrounding hills.

Saturday was a beautiful sunny morning - far better than the forecast we had seen before we left. We had time to take several photographs outside the hostel while Tao and Oliver attempted to prevent Joe's rear hub from completely falling apart.

First stop was the duck pond at East Quantoxhead. It looked at first as though all the ducks had left, but then two came along to save the day and generously ate some of the bread we threw at them. Joe's Weetabix, not surprisingly, disintegrated long before the ducks reached it!

A short spin brought us quickly to the fishing village of Watchet, where a town crier shouted his heart out on the street while we enjoyed drinks and teacakes in the harbourside café. We were loath to leave, but we had a good distance to travel before sundown. It was just beyond Blue Anchor Bay that we noticed Joe was pushing his bike. The hub had finally given up, and Oliver's idea of checking out the nearby junk shop did not produce any useful solutions. A quick telephone call identified a cycle shop not far away in Minehead: we arrived shortly after 12.30 and spent nearly an hour replacing his wheel and buying a new saddle for Gavin (who was really having a hard time with his original one!).

Now running an hour and a half behind schedule we called into the nearby Tesco store to buy our lunch and supper and then set about the long climb of North Hill. It was well into the afternoon before we met at the top ready for the track descent to Selworthy. We had hoped to buy ice-creams there, but the only cafe was full and we really didn't have time to wait around. Another interesting series of tracks led us to Allerford where nobody decided to attempt the ford. Finally we could start the ascent of Exmoor, a climb of around 434m. It was much later than we had intended, but somehow we kept everyone moving and arrived just before 7pm as darkness was falling. We were very glad to get in the hot showers and eat a good meal after such a long day.

Exford hostel has no TV room, and tonight BBC1 was showing the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who at 7pm. Michael had a copy of the episode on his laptop, and this was in fact the main reason for bringing it on the tour. It was a bit of a squeeze for everyone to see the screen in the cramped 4-bedded dormitory but somehow we managed it and were all very impressed - definitely the highlight of the evening.

We had a comfortable night at Exford hostel, but Easter Day started dull and foggy. We made good speed through Simonsbath, delayed only by Gavin and Keir insisting on fitting their waterproof red and yellow pannier covers, then stopped at Challacombe village store to buy lunch and refreshments. The proprietor, amazingly, remembered the group from previous visits many years ago. A regular and rather eccentric local arrived on his quad just in time to see us buy the last of the home-made pasties from the oven, but he didn't seem to mind too much and kept us entertained with his unusual conversation.

When we eventually arrived at Blackmore Gate it wasn't half as bleak and god-forsaken as Michael had been trying to make out - he insisted that it was much worse in bad weather, but the group weren't really convinced. We took the steep drop and climb through the village of Parracombe, then after negotiating some tricky bends on the lane to Hunters Inn we set off along the coast path to Woody Bay. The magnificent coastal views were slightly impaired by the lifting mist but it still made an excellent lunch spot.

From the end of the path we took the long descent to Valley of the Rocks, where we had time to do some climbing while Joe fixed his puncture. A final stretch of coast path brought us quickly to the village of Lynton. We just had to try the cliff railway to Lynmouth, and once we had finished our shopping we headed for the youth hostel.

Finally we had a dormitory with plenty of space to lay out our panniers. After showers and food we settled down to enjoy a music quiz, courtesy of Michael's laptop, that was just as good as any we had run back at the clubroom.

On our final morning of the tour the promised rain had still not arrived. We proceeded at a good speed back to Blackmore Gate (which still didn't look godforsaken), but a motorist with car trouble was too much for Tao, Gavin and Oliver to ignore: they helped with repairs while the rest of the group enjoyed drinks and teacakes in the nearby cafe. The road to Barnstaple was fast and easy in the morning sunshine, and we arrived at the station just in time to see the 1355 departing without us. Well, we hadn't really planned to catch it anyway.

Pizza Hut provided us with a celebratory final meal of the tour which hit the spot to perfection. We then set about preparing to negotiate with the guard on the 15:57 train, who had to be convinced to take all our 6 bikes and 2 bikes from other travellers on a service that is supposed to be limited to two bikes! Fortunately he was a friendly guard and happily let us pack our bikes into the train. We arrived back at Newton Abbot just after 6pm with no complaints at all about the weather on our 2005 Easter Tour.