We had planned an easy café ride today for Tom, but Tom had failed to get up for the ride. We had heard that the chef at Holne Café, Simon, was leaving soon, so we decided to make a special farewell visit, extending the ride a little by first riding up to Cross Furzes. Leo the dog was out to greet us as we rode through Scoriton.

At the start of the road to Michelcombe a resident was out cutting the hedgerow and ominously announced that he couldn't guarantee no thorns along the road. We didn't take much notice until Dillan noticed he had a flat tyre at Michelcombe. As we were so close to the café we hobbled up the hill with a few pumps.

When we arrived at the café we were disappointed to discover that Simon had left at the end of August. Volunteers were manning the kitchen until a replacement could be found, but the soup was excellent as usual. We would like to thank Simon for the warm welcome he always extended to us on our frequent visits and wish him all the best for the future.

Outside we fixed Dillan's new puncture and his older slower one in record time, then rode back to Hembury Fort where George wanted to ride around the moat. After riding the slalom track we returned home for 2.05 and as usual offered an afternoon games social until 4.10m

Ash contacted us just before 7.00 saying he could ride with us for an hour if we could wait ten minutes. We waited, but it was 7.34 when we finally set off. Then, soon after we had joined the old Ashburton road, he said he had promised to be back home by 8pm, so he went home! At least he rode with us for 20 minutes.

We rode through River Dart Country Park, which was all completely dark of course but there were still loads of holidaymakers staying there. We then rode up the track through Holne Woods using Michael's good bike light. At the top the gate was barred as usual, so Michael went around the side after removing his pannier and Gavin and Dillan passed the bikes over the gate. Unfortunately they forgot to pass Michael's pannier and he didn't notice, so we rode home merrily through Hembury Woods in the darkness and got back soon after 9.05.

George arrived this evening in his new Animal suit, which looked very flashy. We rode up Caddaford hill, down to Staverton then up to Rattery Sawmills and home, on a lovely cool evening, having a nice chat along the way. We got home by 9.00.

We rode along Colston Road to Totnes to see the Food Fair in the market area. Totnes was busier than usual today, with the main street closed off. An annoying woman told Michael he was not allowed to cycle because the road was closed, so he told her he didn't think that applied to cyclists and carried on.

There were more stalls than usual in the Food Fair, although flapjacks had still not returned. Michael bought a hot vegetable bake, Dillan had the £6 chicken fry thing and we shared a chocolate brownie that was very nice despite being more liquid than solid. We enjoyed our visit.

We returned home via Dartington and noticed that the new primary school was being demolished! We checked on the internet and discovered that the roof had started to leak in 2014 and the architects and builders will be sued by Devon County Council. Evidently the roof could not be repaired so they are flattening the school and starting again, which is all quite disgraceful. We continued to Staverton Bridge and got home by around 2.30.

Gavin needed to get some new SPD pedals from BigPeaks at Ashburton. We have long thought of making a special visit to our nearest Costa coffee shop at Newton Abbot, so today we decided to make that our destination. We took the main road through Bickington at high speed and got to the café at around 12.20.

When we had finished our cakes and coffee we headed along the main road to Ipplepen where we stopped at Fermoys for lunch - today we really did feel like the Café To Café club (CTC).

Our return route took us back through Ipplepen and Ambrook to Staverton and Caddaford, bringing us home for 3.30.