Poor Eliot! Having ridden past Buckfast Abbey Eliot had elected to go with the five other 'trackies' through Burchetts Wood, but when he reached the ford at the end he fell in and ended up soaked from the neck down. Fortunately the weather assisted with the drying process as the afternoon progressed - Tao and Dayle weren't exactly dry or clean either, as the track had been just as muddy as Michael had predicted.

Following a tractor into Holne we realised just how difficult it is for farmers to carry out their daily work during the tourist season. And there certainly were plenty of tourists about today: we took one look at the crowds in the Old Forge café and decided to go straight to Venford, where Michael gave everyone two pieces of a Chocolate Orange - better than Easter Eggs any day.

We decided to return using the track to Michelcombe. As we trekked across the open moorland we witnessed at first hand the damage caused by the recent spate of moorland fires - heather and heath had all been reduced to charcoal in several areas. Alex took a fall on a rough section of the descent, but he was soon patched up. Having traversed the ford near Michelcombe without further problems we finally arrived home at about 5.15pm.