On a cloudy and rather damp evening we rode along the old Ashburton road to River Dart Country Park and had a bit of fun on the snake slide. We then followed the track up through Holne Woods, Ash stopping near the top to ride along a stack of felled tree trunks. We returned home via Hembury for around 9pm and played Zombies and Modern Warfare 3 until 10pm.

We were very pleased to welcome one of our regular members from the 1980s and 1990s today, Simon Hopper, who was in the area with his 18-month son Rowan. We rode to Holne play park via Buckfast and Michelcombe and spent an enjoyable time there playing Frisbee in the sun. Meanwhile Simon helped Rowan to use some of the play equipment.

A visit to the café was essential today, and we ended up enjoying drinks and teacakes on the tables outside. After an interesting chat about Simon’s various activities we returned to Buckfastleigh via Hembury: Ash rode the Slalom in a record time of 2:32 while the rest of us did the road alternative in 1:32.

We got back at 1.30 and played games at Crofters after the ride.

We had a great ride this evening in the warm sunshine, up Green Lane to Baddaford farm and then down the track through the woods from Higher Penn to Lower Combe and High Beara. Both Will and George were chattier than usual, making it a very enjoyable ride. We got back at 9pm and played some Supreme Commander by popular request.

Our epic 2013 tour of Switzerland began at Newton Abbot rail station at 0745. This was the third time the club has visited Switzerland but the first time for most people in this group, so there was a lot of excitement in the air.

The 0806 train, which was a few minutes late, sped us to London by 1138 without incident. There was some rain around for our three mile ride to St Pancras International station, but Michael’s satnav led us efficiently through London’s quieter streets.

This year for the first time we had been allowed to reserve proper bike spaces on the Eurostar instead of having to dismantle the bikes and put them into bags. We couldn’t load them onto the train ourselves of course like we had at Newton Abbot: we had to find the Eurostar Despatch office, sign a few forms and leave the bikes with staff there to load onto the train. This left us with many heavy panniers to lug around the enormous station – John was especially grateful for help from Ash.

Our journey to Paris on the 1331 Eurostar was enhanced by an American family who struck up a fascinating conversation with us. The teenagers were keen to tell us how much they enjoyed Dr Who, and the parents lamented the local bias in most of their news sources and explained how much they rely on BBC news to get the whole picture. We felt rather proud of our great national broadcaster.

The weather in Paris was hot and sunny, in stark contrast to London. If our train had arrived on time we would have had a clear hour and a half to cross Paris and board our final train, but it was late so now we were under pressure. And the train we had to catch was the last one of the day to Switzerland. We saved a little time by persuading the guard to let us have the bikes straight off the train instead of waiting for them to be taken to the Despatch office.

Michael’s satnav again did a good job at leading us the 3 miles through the busy Paris streets to Gare de Lyons station, but by the time we arrived we had nothing good to say about French road users. There was a bicycle lane but moped riders were allowed to use it as well, and they kept weaving around us without warning. Then there were the pedestrians who kept walking out in front of us, evidently expecting us to stop for them. To cap it all a bus nearly took out Ash and John by overtaking and trying to turn right in front of them: fortunately it decided to stop at the last second before actually running them over.

Somehow we arrived safely at the station by around 1753, half an hour before our train was due to depart, but then the real nightmare began. The SNCF train to Switzerland had no space for whole bikes so we had brought bike bags with us for this final part of the journey. Our task was simple: remove the wheels, mudguards, pedals, seat and handlebars, pop the bike in the bag and carry it onto the train. But it was very hot and many of the group had not practiced doing this before the tour. To make matters worse there were 23 platforms and the departure platform for our train was not yet displayed on the board. Michael tried asking someone at the information desk where the train would be, but they seemed to have no clue and helpfully advised waiting for the announcement.

We picked a quiet spot near one end of the station, got our tools out and worked as fast as we could on packing the bikes. Everyone felt stressed in the heat and some found it was taking longer than they had expected. When the platform was finally announced it turned out to be in the worst possible place, at the other end of the station concourse! So now we had to drag the bagged bikes and our luggage past 22 platforms!

Michael and Ash got their bikes and luggage onto the train and then went back to help the others, but the guards and station officials were looking anxiously at their watches when they realised there were more to come with only minutes left before the train was supposed to leave. In the end the last few bikes had to be shoved into bags with bits sticking out and zips not done up properly, dragged to the train at top speed and dumped unceremoniously into the luggage space. The guards didn’t seem to mind about the state of the bags as long as the train could leave on time, and somehow it did although we only got on with seconds to spare.

If there was one redeeming factor it was that our seats for the journey were air-conditioned. It took us probably half an hour of sitting quietly before we were cool and calm. We got a lot of strange looks from other passengers who seemed amused to see the state we were in. We obviously hadn’t had time to buy drinks on the station so now we had to pay extortionate prices on the train, but at least they were chilled.

We finally arrived in Basel a few minutes early at 9.20. We reassembled the bikes and bought lots of excellent food from some of the many station shops and cafes, including yoghurt drinks that Michael had not tasted for many years.

We had just over a mile to ride to Basel youth hostel, and once again Michael had programmed his satnav to take us there by the shortest route. Unfortunately trams ran along all the roads near the centre and their overhead electric cables completely blocked out the satellite signals. The maps were stored on the satnav however so we were able to navigate the old-fashioned way.

We had a very comfortable modern dormitory and made good use of the individual showers that opened directly onto the corridor, although because we had arrived so late there were one or two complaints from other hostellers about the noise. Our beds were comfortable, conditions were quite cool and the sound of running water outside put us all quickly to sleep. A few had nightmares about frantically trying to dismantle bikes while the train was pulling out.