We could have been on time at Avonwick but Dave for some reason was wandering about looking in shop windows at Totnes without a care in the world. Ken, although ride leader for the day, felt it disrespectful to say "come on, time to go" to someone who is, well let's face it, older. Anyway when Ken did eventually mention the fact that fifteen minutes to get to Avonwick might be insufficient it turned out that Dave had thought that we were waiting for the Buckfastleigh lot to arrive - hence his lack of urgency.

In the event we weren't too late and, greetings exchanged, we set off towards Warren Point. Riding towards California Cross Michael noticed a huge lake of surface water on the inside half of a right hand bend, close to Graffiti House. It didn't appear to be affecting him as he rounded the bend, but just then a car came around the corner from the other direction. The driver was going so fast that he couldn't slow down to avoid the lake, and Michael's presence on the offside meant that the driver couldn't swerve. So he went right through the middle, drenching Michael in dirty, foul-smelling water. Michael wasn't amused, but everyone else was!

In view of the poor weather it was decided to shorten the ride and have coffee at Avon Mill garden centre cafe. Unfortunately it had closed for the winter the day before! A particularly unpleasant downpour while we were eating lunch dampened the enthusiasm of even the most hardy participants (sheltering under a cafe doorway is not a lot of fun) so we headed back to Totnes along a different route.

The ride back was memorable for two things: Neil and Martin fell out quite seriously after horse-play got out of hand (again!!) and Dave had a puncture which Ken repaired - Dave may be an engineer but Ken is a father of six!

At Totnes we had to make do with the smoke-laden atmosphere of the Riverside cafe where the serving lady abused Ken for some earlier (imagined) indiscretion. Ken denied ever having seen the woman before - but he would, wouldn't he!!

By now the weather had finally cleared up and we went our respective ways home.