Overnight rain gave way to sunshine by the start of the ride, as forecast, but as there was more rain forecast for late afternoon we decided to abandon our plans for Exeter Ship Canal in favour of the Avon Dam. We got away rather late at 10.38 but made such fast progress up Dean Hill that we had time to go down to South Brent and take the road to Shipley from there – which actually turned out to be really enjoyable and easy.

The ice-cream van was not at Shipley today for some reason so we pressed on up the riverside path and reached the reservoir by 12.15. We spent an enjoyable quarter of an hour on a chocolate break and photo shoot, then met a man who had actually been involved in building the dam in the 1950s. He said the tramway lines that can be seen on the way up to the dam were actually used for china clay long before the dam was constructed and were not used for the dam building at all. He told us that the blocks for the dam were lowered from a cable that was strung right across the dam.

We took our usual route home – along the path behind the dam and then down the fabulous Abbots Way bridleway across the moor to Cross Furzes, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. When we got back to Crofters at 1.20 Callum felt it had been a perfect birthday ride (his birthday is tomorrow).

There was a social at Crofters after the ride that included trampoline, Supreme Commander and Bomberman. Callum O’B turned up for a few minutes trying to get in on the social – he had stayed up until 5am this morning playing computer games and then overslept, so he really had nobody else to blame but himself for missing the ride.