Budgie was late! He’d had a puncture, and now he couldn’t get to the Budgie Box (RAC box on the A38 near Caton) by the usual time. He chased down the A38 to the Chudleigh Bridge pickup, but alas, everyone had already gone. He got out his map and decided that the most likely route we had taken was the right turn to Longdown at the far end of the Teign Valley road. He set off at high speed.

Along the way, who should he meet but Charlie Walker, hotly pursued by Andy Walker, heading the opposite way! This was a stroke of luck: they would obviously know where the group had gone. He stopped and turned around - only to see Charlie and Andy disappearing into the distance! Budgie swore!

He pressed on to the destination, but didn’t see any other club members all day! Where had they gone?

The answer was simple: to the BMX track at Christow for 2½ hours! Paul Oakley had suggested visiting the track, and Michael had thought that perhaps we could spare half an hour for a bit of fun. Once there, however, we were joined by some local youngsters and the whole crew just wanted to go round and round the track, doing incredible jumps over the bumpy bits - so we stayed there for lunch! We could see the Teign Valley road from the track: if only we had looked at the right time, we’d have seen poor Budgie riding by!

Paul’s younger brother, Philip, was on his first full-day ride today, so there was no question of doing a quick sprint to Holcombe Burnell. Anyway, some nasty rain clouds were heading our way, so we chose a route through Bridford to Blackingstone Rock. We’d never approached it from this angle before: surrounded by beautiful countryside full of bluebells it looked quite stunning today.

Next stop was Moretonhampstead, for refreshments at the Corner Cafe. The final lap took us through North Bovey and across the moor via Hound Tor and Hemsworthy Gate. We stopped along the way for hot dogs (vegetarian variety for Michael) at the Hound Tor van. Then, with renewed energy, Philip had no trouble making the final few miles to Buckfastleigh.