With just Tao and Michael in attendance today there was nothing stopping us from enjoying a longer ride. We sped through the lanes to Red Post and Marldon, then took the lane to the delightful village of Cockington. We needed refreshments, but as we didn't want to stop cycling for too long we selected the village shop rather than the cafe. Sadly, however, the shop took longer than the cafe: there was just a single shopkeeper to serve customers, and whilst she was very friendly she would have needed two more clones of herself working flat out to work as fast a single shopkeeper anywhere else! We had to wait while she prepared what seemed like an endless sequence of ice creams from the freezer for one customer, then when she returned to the desk she had to answer the phone - well, I suppose we weren't really in a hurry!

We rode past the various refreshments on offer at Paignton sea front, continued to the harbour area and then took the cliff path through the golf course, an area neither of us had explored before. Tao, who seemed to be unusually keen to avoid upsetting pedestrians, pushed along the wide promenade to Goodrington, only to be overtaken moments later by a policeman riding a police bicycle! He decided at that point that perhaps it was ok to cycle after all!

Tao bought fish and chips, Michael bought sandwiches and both enjoyed hot doughnuts on Goodrington beach before we continued along the coastal path to Broadsands. This section involved a lot of steps, both up and down, but the views were tremendous. To conclude an excellent ride we returned home via Waddeton, Parliament Hill, Totnes and the cycle path to Dartington and Colston.