Our planned ride to the track from Haytor to the ruins of Graetor Village had to be changed since George, who enjoys off-road, did not turn up but his father, who dislikes it, came in his place. Additionally John needed to be back for 2.30, so our options were somewhat limited. We wanted a Dartmoor ride so we headed up Ausewell Hill to Cold East Cross, a climb that took us over an hour today for some reason.

We had just reached the start of the interesting part of the ride at Hemsworthy Gate, with plans for an easy track to Natsworthy, when Jude announced that he thought he had better ride home now (he lives at Ilsington). We all thought he was joking and waved merrily as he set off towards Haytor. When he continued into the distance, however, we began to suspect he was not joking after all. Text message communications proved very difficult up on the moor, but we eventually discovered that his Mum had suggested he could ride home today if he was ever close enough. We were pretty sure she hadn't intended him to go home an hour into the ride, but there was no way to discuss alternatives now so we pressed on to Widecombe for lunch.

We haven't visited the Wayside Café for a long time, so today we called in for omelettes and other tasty snacks. It was very quiet today, with just two other customers - very different from the busy days of the 1990s when all the staff would run outside to wave happily at passing coaches. The prices were a little more than they used to be but we were happy with what we had.

We left Widecombe at 1.20 and it took us over an hour and a quarter to ride back through Ponsworthy. We rode the recently-discovered lane back to New Bridge, stopping at Newbridge Marsh for photos along the way. We were all tired when we finally got home at 2.45 but unfortunately John had to get to work immediately to make over a hundred portions of fish and chips for the steam train!