After a late start (all Michael’s fault) Neil found himself in trouble again when his chain slipped on Luscombe hill. He fell off and bruised his ribs again, but seemed to be able to continue with the ride.

We were very late at Totnes, but Eliot was still waiting, patiently. By the time we had ridden to Galmpton via Parliament Hill the time was 5.45, which left us in a slight dilemma. The youth hostel had decided not to organise their own fireworks display this evening because (they said) there would be a better display on offer in Galmpton village at a lower price. First they told us the display started at 6.30 so we’d arranged to have our hostel meal at 5.30. Then they telephoned us to say that the display was actually going to be at 6pm, so we changed our mealtime to 7.30. Now we decided that we wouldn’t have time to go to the hostel first to drop our bags, so we rode straight up to the display on the Brixham road.

When we arrived we were informed that the display wasn’t due to start until 6.45!! Frustrated, we rode to the hostel, cancelled our hostel meal (there was snack food available at the display), booked ourselves into a dormitory and rode back to the display.

We paid £1 each to go in, the fireworks didn’t start until 7pm and were all over by 7.20! The bonfire was good, but some Wally put some old fireworks on it and almost caused an incident. We felt that the Buckfastleigh display was usually far superior, and wondered why Torbay were so backward!

Back at the hostel, Richard, Neil and Michael were still cooking their meal when Ken turned up with his family. They chatted with us in the kitchen and then joined us for our Crazy Post game in the hall which saw everyone running crazily up and down the staircase and around the upper balcony trying to find the right post-box for their mail!