Eliot received a warm welcome today on the occasion of his first ride since he moved away from Buckfastleigh.

Saturday morning had been wet and the mist still lingered on the high ground as we rode through Hexworthy. Dartmoor always captures a mood, and today’s moorland crossing was a unique experience.

Eliot ran into some freewheel problems on the bridleway to Bellever Forest and had to be pushed along from time to time. We still managed to reach Bellever in plenty of time to play with Frisbees by the river before we settled into the warm hostel. There was a casualty, however: Neil fell onto some rocks, bruised his knees and found himself in a certain amount of pain for the rest of the evening.

The new warden made us very welcome at the hostel. Budgie and Julian created some very interesting meals of their own while the rest of us enjoyed hostel food. The remainder of the evening was spent playing games by the open fire in the cosy common room.

Budgie started Sunday with another ingenious culinary creation, this time a combination of grapefruit and eggs - the rest of us could only look on with admiration from the safety of our cereal bowls.

The weather was not at all promising, however: the rain was still falling by the time we were ready to leave despite our many hopes that it would stop. Our planned visit to Princetown didn’t seem such a good idea under the circumstances, so we headed for Widecome’s Wayside cafe and hoped that things might improve.

They didn’t, so we sped through Buckland and Spitchwick and spent the afternoon at Crofters.