The starting point for our first tour of 2014 was the Plymouth side of the Torpoint Ferry at 9.30am but there were a few difficulties getting there: John headed for the French ferry by mistake, Michael's co-driver turned up half an hour late and consequently Lawrence had to wait on Plymouth station for half an hour. It was 10.00 when we finally boarded the ferry to Torpoint, but everyone was in high spirits.

The first hill to Antony left Callum wishing he had done more training before the tour. The coast road took us through seaside villages with strange names like Crafthole and Portwrinkle, bringing us eventually to Downderry where Michael was surprised to find exactly what he was looking for - a café! It was very respectable too, with an animatronic owl on the counter that hooted at us as we placed our orders. Lawrence embarrassed us by eating a sandwich outside, but he eventually joined us inside for a drink.

We pressed on to Seaton where we discovered that the beach shop that had previously served as a café on these tours had been seriously damaged by the winter storms. With no reason to stop we negotiated the serious climb to the Monkey Sanctuary.

Michael had arranged special group discounts for us, so we were expected as we arrived at the ticket office. The Sanctuary takes in monkeys that have been kept as pets and then either given up by their owners or been removed from their care by the authorities. In years gone by the inhabitants were mainly woolly monkeys, but now capuchins occupy most of the cages. Everyone was fascinated by the talks from the keepers and the antics of the monkeys, including Lawrence who had initially not been too enthusiastic about the visit.

We pressed on down the track to Milendreath at 2.30 and then found ourselves facing a huge flight of steps up the other side. Michael assured us that this short-cut was saving us many miles of road detour, so we set about removing panniers and carrying bikes and then luggage to the top. Callum kindly offered to sit at the bottom for a while to guard John's panniers!

We followed some little roads and lanes to the coast path which finally brought us into Looe by 3.30. The narrow streets were bustling with many visitors making it hard to do anything other than push the bikes. Some of us bought pasties and enjoyed them overlooking the river while others bought ice creams. We all bought some provisions at the co-op and then crossed the bridge to West Looe where Michael knew of a very special café. When we saw the proprietor put up a closed sign on the door we thought we were out of luck, but Michael asked if he would open for six of us and he willingly agreed. Only Ash and Michael took the Knickerbocker Glories, although others wished they had when they saw how enormous they were.

It was now around 4.30 and we still had a fair way to go, mainly through farming lanes. Callum was really beginning to suffer now as he had not been on many rides before the tour, so progress was very slow. We eventually got to the Bodinnick car ferry at 6.55 and then somehow got Callum up the final climb to Golant hostel, arriving soon after 8pm.

Golant hostel is closing permanently next month, being replaced by a new hostel at The Eden Project, so for those of us who have been before this was rather a sad visit. As we were around two hours later than planned we had to rush meals and showers and had limited time for Manhunt in the extensive grounds, but we still managed to have some fun and the large attic dormitory was a great place to spend the night.

Fortunately today's ride was to be the easiest of the tour in terms of mileage, giving everyone a chance to recover from yesterday's long day. Michael seemed to be taking endless photographs and video clips around the hostel so the youngsters played with an Eden mini-football they found on the grass and also with the Frisbee.

We left the hostel late at 10.15 in glorious sunny weather and rode the short distance up to the road and down through Par to St Austell. Michael's satnav certainly took us the shortest route, but in this case a slightly longer one would have avoided a nasty little climb in Par.

We went past three cafes because they didn't seem quite nice enough, then found the perfect venue on Holmbush Road. They served a huge range of excellent drinks and cakes as well as bacon baps (for the carnivores in our group), and the environment was modern and clean, so this turned out to be an excellent stop.

After a provisions stop at Tesco we rode the short distance to the village of Charlestown where the Shipwreck and Heritage centre provided a great place to eat lunch as well as an interesting museum featuring lifeboats, galleons, diving equipment, Morse code transceivers and cannons. Callum and Lawrence had some fun with the radio-controlled boats on a three-for £1 deal, although because Lawrence put in his money a minute or so after Callum, his boat kept running out of power half-way through each race!

Will got into trouble for bundling his father and consequently giving John and handful of prickles, but when Ash had removed this with some improvised twig-tweezers we set off up the hill and soon joined the cycle route to Mevagissey. For the most part the route was flat and easy, taking us through interesting woodland alongside the St Austell River, but then a right turn took us uphill through a woodland track which left us hot in the afternoon sun. It soon levelled out though and led down a great track to reach the picturesque fishing village of Mevagissey by just after 4pm.

We just stopped long enough to eat ice-creams and watch some local youngsters fishing in the harbour, then we were off again for the final lap to the hostel. This involved, inevitably, two more steep climbs, but everyone was starting to enjoy them now, even perhaps Callum.

We arrived at the small Boswinger hostel shortly before 6pm as planned so today we had plenty of time for showers and food. Ben, the warden who has managed this hostel for more years than Michael cares to remember, has moved to winters only now, so new warden Jim looked after our needs.

Lawrence was tired and had gone to bed at around 8 when we were planning a walk down to Hemmick beach. After much persuasion he reluctantly agreed to come with us. We had a good deal of fun playing Manhunt amongst the rock formations on the beach, although the near-full moon made hiding a little more difficult.

Will managed to annoy everyone this morning by leaving his alarm set for 7.15, but most people managed to doze off for another half an hour before breakfast. We got away by 9.30 as we had a long day ahead of us, and after a steep descent to Caerhayes castle and a short climb we took a coast path shortcut to Portholland to cut off some of the miles to Veryan. We got some great coastal views, and part-way along the flat section we found a rope swing that offered some amusement.

The last bit of the track turned out to be a bit muddy, but we were soon climbing the long hill out of Portholland and eventually reached Veryan Green, famous for its round houses, just before 11am. Maybe the road route would have taken about the same time as it turned out, but the shortcut had been a good deal more interesting.

We were on target for reaching the St Mawes ferry in time for the 12.45 crossing, but that seemed at risk when Michael tried a short-cut route via Pendower that came to a no through road. We ended up having to push our bikes across a beach to meet up with the road on the far side, but overall it turned out better than the main road alternative.

We made good speed on the main road as far as St Just, but then a steep hill left Callum in despair. Fortunately the last two days of riding had done him good, so when Ash started riding with him to boost his morale he suddenly found energy he’d forgotten he had and performed admirably for the rest of the tour.

We reached St Mawes with ten minutes to spare, giving us plenty of time to buy tickets and remove panniers. Carrying the bikes down the steep steps required a bit of care, but the ferry was larger than Michael remembered so there was plenty of space for bikes, luggage and riders. The crossing to Falmouth was chilly despite the brilliant sunshine. We saw two huge navy ships in the harbour: RFA Mounts Bay L3008 and RFA Argus A135.

We spent an hour or so in Falmouth, first eating pasties on the quayside, then getting drinks from the café and finally stocking up with food at Tesco. We had another ferry to catch however so we headed off up the hill to Mawnan Smith in the afternoon heat and reached the Helford Passage ferry by 4pm. This was a much smaller boat, but somehow the ferryman managed to squeeze us all in and get us safely to the other side.

The final leg of today’s journey involved negotiating the network of lanes through to Coverack, but now that Callum was up to speed we had no difficulty arriving on time. Coverack’s sea wall was seriously damaged during the storms in February. Repairs were still underway and the road was closed, so we had to negotiate the pedestrian routes to get through to the hostel road. A short but steep climb brought us quickly to the hostel by just after 6pm.

The hostel had some electrical problems this evening which meant that whilst the bedside lights were working the main room lights and en-suite shower lights were not - those using our shower found John’s torch most helpful.

There was plenty of time for Manhunt tonight in the hostel grounds which provide much entertainment. John found a great hiding place underneath a trailer, then another on top of a landrover (he hadn’t heard the warden telling us the landrover was out of bounds!). Michael found a great place underneath the front of a large Volvo parked in the grassy car park. Unfortunately he chose the wrong car as the owner came back and opened the boot while he was hiding: she viewed him with great suspicion when he emerged from under her car and approached her in the semi-darkness.

Another fabulous sunny morning allowed the youngsters to have fun with a water standpipe in the grounds before we eventually set off at around 10.15. We headed off at good speed for Goonhilly Downs earth station, famous for receiving the first live satellite TV broadcasts from the US in the 1960s and for being a major satellite communications hub for BT for many years. We saw some of the enormous satellite dishes from several miles away, but the site that greeted us when we arrived was rather sad.

The BT signs were still there to greet us, but the placed looked dead. Several large dishes had been removed since Michael last brought a tour here, the visitor centre was closed and the famous Arthur satellite dish, protected by law from demolition, looked like it could do with several coats of paint. We made our way to a side car-park where the Cornwall Segway café was the only sign of life on the site. The owner told us that BT closed the site in 2006 and closed the visitor centre in 2009, just after our last visit in 2008. Apparently the huge dishes were no longer needed for communications. The good news is that the whole site has now been purchased by a group who plan to carry out space research there, so there should be a brand new visitor centre next time we call in.

The café had been expecting us as Michael had booked in advance, and we were all very impressed with the quality of the home-made cakes and drinks. They offer Segway tours around the site for £30 but had agreed to offer us a shorter 45-minute tour for £15 just in case any of our group fancied a bit of fun. After much deliberation and calls home to secure additional funding, everyone fancied a bit of fun. We had to put on loads of safety clothing and then did some practice work on the segways in one of the car parks. They cost £6000 each and have so many giro stabilisers inside that they remain upright no matter what the rider does. To make them move you just have to lean forward: the more you lean the faster they go. At first there was a 50% speed limiter, but once that was removed they really were a great deal of fun. We did a short tour around the site and then finished with team races and obstacle courses in the car park outside the café. This turned out to be one of the highlights of our tour, with everyone having a great time.

We finally set off again at 12.55 and rode the short distance to the village of Gweek. Michael had negotiated a special entry rate to the seal sanctuary there and we spent a very enjoyable couple of hours looking at the many seals, sealions and penguins and enjoying lunch on the picnic tables. Feeding time was definitely the most interesting part, although viewing the creatures underwater from the viewing portals was also fascinating, especially when one of the seals followed the provided toy fish wherever we moved it. Michael had a run-in with a seagull over lunch: the annoying bird took off from a nearby wall while Michael was looking the other way, grabbed a huge chunk of his pasty right out of his hand and then landed on the ground where it promptly devoured the lot.

At 3pm we set off for the final leg of the tour to Camborne rail station. There was a lot of uphill but it wasn’t too steep and we made good progress. This part of Cornwall, away from the busy coastal areas, seemed to be rather dead. Poldark tin mine, supposedly a famous tourist attraction, looked permanently closed despite its website suggesting it was open. King Edward mine near Camborne was also closed until May, but we were able to follow some of the tramway routes into Camborne.

We arrived at the station just after 5pm and walked into the town to find some food. All we found however was a Costcutter, which had no hot food, and a Kebab shop. We made do with what we could find, then waited on a chilly station platform for our 6pm train. The bikes had to go in coach B at first since the platform at Camborne isn’t long enough for the whole train to fit – we had to jump out at Helford to move them back to the power car.

The guard on this train was really friendly. Another cyclist at Redruth, who had not booked his bike on the train, rushed his bike up to the power car and put it in one of the six bike spaces. The guard, however, promptly removed it and said we should have the six official spaces because we actually booked in advance!

The journey back to Totnes was occupied with games and refreshments. Everyone was collected from the station by parents and friends when we finally arrived at around 8.15, marking the end of another eventful tour. We had been fortunate enough to have good weather every day of the tour, so it’s not surprising that we had a lot of happy memories to take home with us.