This ride took far longer than intended for a variety of reasons, but it was great to be out cycling again for the first Sunday in three weeks. We rode along Colston Road and down the cycle path to the Cider Press Centre at Dartington, where Christmas decorations did not appear to be quite up to the usual standards. We pressed on along the cycle path to Totnes, passing the nearly completed HEP station by the weir along the way.

Morrisons had been selected as the restaurant of choice in view of the excellent value for money, but today our orders took over half an hour to be brought to our table. They forgot John's Ploughman’s altogether, so he got a free dessert by way of an apology. The food was very tasty however so we didn't really feel the need to complain.

Returning past the park there was a short delay while the youngsters played with the Frisbee, then we retraced our tyre tracks back to the Cider Press Centre. On the Dartington Hall road Lawrence got a puncture, but instead of continuing onwards to tell us he stopped at the back with Will and held his finger over the hole to stop it going down! He was still there when Michael finally noticed his absence and returned. Reluctantly he rode the bike on to the relative quietness of the cycle path where we removed the thorn and discovered that his tubes contained a self-sealing compound, so there was no longer any hole to fix!

There was another delay when George managed to damage Will's mudguard at the top of the path, so when that had been repaired and we had ridden the final leg through Staverton and Caddaford it was close to darkness when we finally returned home for games at Crofters.