There was a good turnout today for one of our most popular rides, including Reuben who hadn't been out with us for two years. We parked the cars near Black Forest Lodge, unloaded the bikes (and youngsters) and set off for Starcross and Powderham.

The Powderham road was closed to motor vehicles to protect runners who were taking part in a charity event. When we passed the Powderham estate we were rewarded with the sight of hundreds of deer racing across the grounds. Perhaps they had been frightened by the runners or perhaps they just felt frisky in the morning sunshine, but they provided Olly with an ideal opportunity to use his camcorder.

Fred, being Fred, led two others straight past the track turnoff. When they eventually returned we crossed the railway line and headed with good speed along the narrow path that runs along the edge of the Exe estuary. Everyone loved the track, and there were plenty more after we reached the beginning of the canal at Turf Lock. The canal seemed to be full of wildlife, including swans and even a heron that blocked our path at close range.

Hunger was beginning to bite, but the youngsters still found time to watch some mini motorbike riders on a piece of rough ground near the centre of Exeter before we covered the last mile or so to Pizza Hut.

Our last two visits to Pizza Hut have been excellent, but today things were very different. When we arrived at 1pm we asked for a table for 9. The waitress looked at the sea of empty tables near the window and announced that they wouldn't have a table for our size of group for around 15 minutes. Apparently the empty tables were closed off because they were short-staffed! We thought about suggesting that we had one of those large tables and that they closed off two smaller tables in the used area to keep the total number of tables the same, but we decided this would be too complicated for them and contented ourselves with asking whether they could move two tables together for us. She looked around vaguely and said she would see what she could do. Meanwhile we asked if we could order in advance of sitting down. The answer once again was no, because they were short staffed!

Thirty minutes later we had checked out the menus and decided what to order but were still waiting by the door. Several twos and fours had been allocated to tables, and some of those had left again 15 minutes later because nobody had taken their order! We asked again about placing our orders before sitting down, but were again told no.

It was nearly 2pm when we finally got a table. We had been determined to get the waitress who took us to our table to take our order before she left us, but again we were foiled: she was not a waitress, she was just clearing tables! At 2.12 we had our order taken, and the food finally arrived at 2.35. Unfortunately one of the orders was wrong, but we had enough food to be going along with. We asked whether we could speak to the manager and were told that the chef was off too so the manager was cooking the pizzas!

Then we got to the part the youngsters had been waiting for: desserts. They all wanted ice cream factories, but once again it took a while to get a waitress. She eventually came and took our order, but didn't make any attempt to clear our table. And after the first two servings the ice cream machine turned out liquid ice-cream - apparently it needs a rest after every serving!

It was 3.45 when we finally got away from Pizza Hut. We negotiated free drinks on our order which provided some compensation for our troubles, but now we had precious little time to complete the ride as we had planned. Our excursion of the park started with the trampoline which provided endless entertainment for the youngsters. Maybe they should get one put in at Buckfastleigh?! We checked out the bridges and then paused briefly to admire the young skateboarders showing off their undoubted skills in the skate park.

As we headed back along the canal for home a huge group of youngsters merged with our group, all riding Giant Rock bikes. We found out that they were a group from Millfield School at Taunton, out for a ride on hire bikes, but Zac happened to have exactly the same bike and he was mistaken for a member of the school group on two occasions! We rode with them past the busy quayside shops and came across a few Exeter youngsters on bikes who seemed to want nothing more than to demonstrate that they were better cyclists than Millfield! Because Zac was with us we had to deny that we were part of the Millfield group!

Our rather belated return to the cars at Black Forest Lodge was punctuated by a toilet stop at Turf Lock and some repairs to Freddie's saddle at Starcross. We didn't get back to Buckfastleigh until nearly 7pm but the youngsters insisted on at least half an hour of computer games to round off what had been an adventurous and enjoyable ride.