With Jude unwell, only two of us set off from Buckfastleigh at 10:15, taking Colston Road and the cycle path to the shops at Dartington.

The Venus cafe closed a few months ago, and to fill the gap the Dartington organisers had set up a new, temporary cafe in the same premises. It seemed similar in some ways to the Venus, although the cakes seemed a little less varied. We enjoyed some excellent coffee and a teacake however, warming ourselves nicely from the chill November air outside.

After some self-timer photos outside on the picnic tables we returned via Staverton Bridge and Caddaford.

Jude was unwell today, but John arrived in time for a pre-ride coffee before we set off at 10.45 for our ride through Staverton and Fishacre Barton to Ipplepen. Jude, who is a co-op member and proud of it, welcomed the opportunity to look into the Ipplepen branch, which turned out to be a bit smaller than Buckfastleigh. We bought some blueberries and then proceeded to our planned destination, Fermoys Garden Centre, for 12:25.

We were quite hungry so two of us bought the medium-sized vegetarian nut roast dinner in the café for £7.95 which turned out to be surprisingly good. John enjoyed toasted sandwiches, and we are pleased to report that the service was much faster than we experienced on our last visit.

After a browse around the many Christmas treats on sale in the shop area, we headed home via Two Mile Oak and Denbury.

We have passed the entrance to the South Devon Chilli Farm several times on the way to Loddiswell, but despite the large Café signs we had never ventured in. We had made it the destination for today’s ride, and after riding out through South Brent and Wrangaton we arrived just after 12.00.

It turned out to be a little less impressive than we had expected – basically a modern, barn-type building divided seamlessly into a shop and a café. Michael is not really a fan of spicy foods, but he hadn’t expected the spice to extend to the coffee and cakes! There were only four cakes to choose from, all dark, but one contained chilli, another contained ginger and a third had had its gluten removed. That left only the apple cake, which turned out to be acceptable. Fortunately there was a regular latte on the menu with absolutely no added chilli or ginger, but Dillan tried the Chilli Mocha and thought it was .. interesting!

In the shop there was a very long display cabinet offering sample of around thirty different chilli sauces and jams in little dishes. Michael tried the first sample at the “mild” end and decided that was quite spicy enough for him, but Jude and Dillan were not so reticent and sampled the explosive products at the “hot” end without too many serious consequences. We finished with a sample of chilli chocolate – nice to start with but offering what some would describe as an unpleasant kick after a fifteen second delay.

Leaving the establishment at 1.15 we decided to return via a different route, as the main road from Wrangaton is really not especially inspiring. We rode a short distance towards Loddiswell and then took the path near Reveton that takes you down to the river Avon. We had stopped at this path last year when Tao wanted to drink his flask of coffee and Michael discovered a rip in his shorts, but today we were free to explore it all the way, reminding Michael of the fun we used to have in the Section many years ago. It was steep in places but was a real delight to ride.

After skimming a few stones in the river, we clambered up the path to the old viaduct, joining the railway path that we took last year from Loddiswell station. As previously, we followed this along the riverside to Topsham Bridge and then headed back to Moreleigh. Dillan somehow managed to fall off his bike on the approach to Diptford, grazing his knee in three places. While Michael was patching him up, two separate cars stopped to offer assistance, the second person really wanting to get out her expensive first aid kit. We were surprised and very grateful, but we had all we needed to sort him out.

The final lap home via Rattery was tiring in the dull, chilly air of the late afternoon, and when we got home at 4pm we were very grateful for hot showers and a long rest.

Jude was unwell again today, but Dillan very much liked the idea of a trip to the Exeter Ship Canal, so we quickly bundled the bikes into the car and drove to Starcross. Conditions on the coast were a bit chilly at 6°C but there were occasional breaks in the cloud that let through some glimpses of sunlight.

The ride up the cycle path from Powderham was a little trickier than usual as there seemed to be a lot of cyclists out for a spin today, but the views across the mudflats of the Exe Estuary were spectacular as always. There were far too many people out walking to risk riding on the towpath from Turf Lock, so we stayed down on the cycle path, missing out on the canal views as a result. We joined the canal for the section to the bridges, however, and continued on to the Quayside shops.

For coffee we called in to the Welcome Café, originally started up by Roger Olver who used to run the Primrose Café at Lustleigh. Roger retired a couple of years ago but both rooms in the café were packed with cyclists and walkers. As we sampled the generous portions of apricot flapjack and top-notch coffees, we could well understand why!

We pressed on past the Quayside shops, detoured around the path repairs at Pizza Hut and then carried out our traditional tour of the riverside park up to the railway bridge before returning to Pizza Hut for one of the best veggie pizzas we have ever tasted – and with a 41% discount as well using a code we happened to receive this morning.

Fed and watered we returned via the other side of the quay, where shops like the Craft Cellar and the Coffee Cellar vied for passing trade. A speedy ride back to Starcross brought us back to the car for 3.15 after a thoroughly enjoyable day.

As the day started very cold we had a social at Crofters during the morning and set off just before 1.00 for our snow-hunting ride. We rode past Buckfast Abbey and on up to Scoriton, where our favourite dog Leo was outside waiting to greet us.

When we arrived at Holne we were hungry so decided to go to the café before continuing up to the open moor, but when we arrived at 1.45 we quickly discovered that the café was closed for redecorating. We had to make do with what little there was in the shop - chilli crackers and wrapped caramel shortbread. We set off again at 2.08 and rode up the steep hill to Venford Reservoir, getting a short spell of rain on the way up. There was a fair amount of snow lying around at the top, exactly as we had hoped, so we enjoyed 45-minutes of snowball fights and snowman-construction.

We returned home via Hembury with cold fingers and feet, although conditions got warmer on the descent, arriving back by 3.25. Everyone had thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

Jude, Dillan and Michael rode along Colston Road to Dartington, then on to Morrisons along the cycle path via Borough Park. We had refreshments in the café, then bought a pack of five doughnuts to share and one Mega Doughnut each, as we had never tried them before.

We were running a bit late now, so we went home along the path from Brutus Bridge and then via Staverton Bridge and Caddaford, getting back for around 1.45.

Across the UK, today was nearly the warmest February day on record, although down here in Devon, temperatures only reached around 11 degrees. We decided to go towards Bovey Tracey as we left, as we have not been there for a while. Jude would have liked to go via a different route, but we had little choice other than the usual route via Bickington and Blackpool. We went to the café at the Craft Centre for refreshments, looking at the various pieces of carpet on the wall priced at upwards of £3500.

After a quick visit to the coop where we forgot to get a bottle of water, Jude left us on the Brimley road to ride home to Ilsington so Dillan and Michael took a new route back through Lounston that took us past one of Michael’s customers. This involved climbing a very steep hill during which time Dillan was almost dying of thirst, but we managed to get to Ashburton where we were able to buy a bottle of water from the Spar before heading home for around 2.30.

We set off at around 10.40. The weather was a bit chilly with occasional showers and longer sunny periods, although a rain shower was just finishing as we left. We decided to do the ride planned for last week, to the new café at Harbertonford, so we followed the Google route precisely, up Dean Hill, through Rattery and across the Totnes Road. There was an interesting sign outside a farm near Tigley: “Alpaca Poo £1”. We wondered how much you got for your £1, and whether it was bagged up or you had to bring a shovel and a sack!

The route took us through Harberton for the first time in ages, and through the twisty lanes above and below the church. Dillan went to look at cakes for sale in a hole in the wall, but it turned out there was only one cake available. Both lads thought the village was expensive but nice, and Dillan liked the slate wall to the left of the road near the cake hole.

A dark cloud was chasing us as we rode the final mile to the café, and sadly it overtook us and sprinkled us nicely before we could park up and get inside. The Nkuku Lifestyle Store and Café was an interesting place with lots of unusual items for sale, but we headed straight for the café which was smaller than we had imagined from the photos. The cakes looked good, but they were ridiculously overpriced - £3 for the burned Pain au Raisin that I had was way too expensive, although it did look nice and tasted pretty good in the middle. Dillan’s £3.50 carrot cake was very moist, however, and he loved it. Coffees were £2.80, or £3.40 for the “large” which Michael ordered, but he swapped the order back to the standard size when he discovered the cups were still the same small size for the larger ones - they just had 2 espressos instead of one, and consequently less milk. The café was all wooden and brown and rustic, so a pleasant place to stop, although we couldn’t help laughing at the salt and pepper tray which was simply a couple of dents in a wooden block, leaving the salt and pepper to collect dust and whatever else it wanted from the environment. There were also two carved wooden salt spoons that were way too thick to pick up any salt.

We browsed around the shop afterwards, the sun now out, took some photos upstairs and found a few interesting if expensive items for sale such as a marble chopping board, a wooden stapler (well just a metal stapler mechanism encased in a pair of wooden blocks) and some wooden toys. The place was definitely worth the visit, and as Jude said, it was unusual to find such a place in the middle of nowhere.

We left there around 12.40 in bright sunshine and rode down past the garage to the shop, where Jude bought some lunch and Dillan and Michael bought a half price veggie pizza for £1.65 which was enough for two. We ate it by the river, where there were now some copper-topped tables for our pleasure. It was a lovely spot for a picnic.

Jude fancied returning via Dartington as he likes it around there, so we took the lane up past the memorial and down into Totnes. On the way down we found Leechwell Lane and followed it to the Leech Well, which Michael had not visited for many years: The lads didn’t seem to think it was particularly special, but they did want to know what it was used for, and it was unusual.
We rode down the main street since the boys wanted to buy some sweets, but the sweep shop was closed until 2 with a sign saying “Gone for lunch”, so we took the riverside path and followed it back to Dartington, stopping to look at the river that was in full flood with both turbines working. We stopped again a little later so that Dillan could clamber up the bank to see what was beyond the fence at the top – it was just a field as it happened.

In Dartington we called in to the Food Shop to buy three tasty-looking flapjacks that were well priced at 99p - Jude ate half of his there and then. We left there around 3.25 and headed home via the cycle path and Colston Road. We stopped to eat the remainder of our flapjacks at the top of the steep hill (Cumming Farm), at which point Jude headed off to meet his mum at the garage as it was 2.59 and he had to be collected by 3. Dillan and Michael meandered home at a slower pace, enjoying the lovely sunny weather and getting back by 3.25.