In order to avoid some of the debates on recent rides about where we should go, Michael made today's ride a "mystery ride" and everyone found that it made the event much more interesting. Points were offered to anyone who could answer Michael's questions correctly, such as which village we would be going to next, or what special feature would be found around the next corner.

The ride took us up the hill to Pennywell and Rattery. Nobody remembered that there was a viaduct at the bottom of the next hill. We continued on past Blue Post to Diptford village and stopped on the old bridge near the river Avon for refreshments. It was amazing how many fish there were in the river below, and many of them managed to hold stationery position by clever swimming.

Ash remembered the old station building a little further along the road, then there was time to play around the river for a while and spot a few more fish before taking the old cobbled lane through Avonwick. We stopped at South Brent's Plymco for refreshments, headed back towards Buckfastleigh along the back lanes and then, as we were in no hurry, decided to explore the rough track that runs off to the left of the Dean hill decent. Michael knew there was a reason why he hadn't done this for many years, and when the track petered out by a boggy gate and led us into a field he remembered why. We managed to find a gateway that took us back to the road near Dean and vowed not to try that particular detour again.