We had a good turnout, but somehow Jack got the false impression at the start that nobody wanted to help him adjust his disc brakes so he went home. He wasn’t waiting for us in the car park and we didn’t see him anywhere on the way past his house, so we had no choice but to continue with the ride.

We rode up to Scoriton where our friendly dog Ben was out again, then took the lane to Michelcombe and up to Holne. Kevin Presland and the Torbay group came up behind us at the seat junction above Holne just at the point in the ride when Michael was feeling really drained from his recent virus and was wondering whether he would be able to do the full ride to Dartmeet. Callum O’B was also feeling tired so we all rode up to Venford at various speeds, chatting along the way By the time we reached the top Kevin’s group had gone on and the rest of us were feeling somewhat better, so we decided to press on to Badgers’ Holt despite Ash’s kind advice that Michael shouldn’t push himself onwards if he was feeling unwell.

We took the track from Combestone Tor to the stepping stones: it was quite muddy in places, and there was a lot of mud in the narrow gateway near the bottom of the final field – so muddy in fact that Ash got stuck in it!

The river was fairly high today so two of the stepping stones only had small dry areas and the water was quite deep around all of them. As we did our best to carry the bikes across the river Jerry thought the whole situation was crazily fun and adventurous, so he insisted on some photos for the website.

We reached the Badgers’ Holt café at 1.12. Most people wanted to stop there, so we went inside for a very enjoyable break. Ash had chocolate cake and a hot chocolate, Michael had coffee cake and a hot chocolate, but both of them felt the drinks were tasty but too small – yes they were in mugs, but they were the smallest mugs they had ever seen! Zac had a burger with loads of mustard. He also had a black and white cat on his lap that drooled onto him, although he didn’t notice the drooling!

As we were leaving the café at 1.45 some were filling their water bottles, so Michael sent Callum O’B on ahead up Dartmeet Hill on Callum F’s bike, accompanied by Ash, with clear instructions for Ash to keep him moving until he got to the top. He was making excellent progress, but as soon as the rest of us got near Callum F shouted to Callum O’B to stop, then swapped bikes back again! Callum O’B then pushed his bike – slowly – to the top, and we ended up waiting fifteen minutes for him. Thanks Callum F!

Next we rode the famous Dr Blackall’s drive in what was now a quite sunny and pleasant afternoon. Zac almost skipped the final downhill part of the track saying he had had enough of off-road for one day, but in the end we all did it and enjoyed it as always.

Callum O’B was slow again up to Gallant le Bower, so Michael sent the three on that wanted to ride Hembury Woods track and we met them at the car park near the bottom of the woods. We passed Jerry’s grandparents at Coronation Seat and got home by 3.25 for an hour of computer games.