We had reached Dean Prior when Ashley rang up, saying he had overslept! Michael went back to fetch him in the car whilst Sam and Jay rode on up the hill past Nurston. Everyone met up again at Bloody Pool.

This year's summer tour started mid-morning at Bodmin on a cloudy morning. Zac had a few problems with his panniers during the first ten minutes of the Camel trail, but we were soon on our way again, stopping for refreshments at the cyclists' cafe.

The path to Wadebridge was not as busy as we might have expected in mid-summer, possibly because the forecast was for showers. We checked out the cycle hire shops in Wadebridge and were shown a range of bikes for hire at £12 per day. Dog carriers were extra, and we saw several of those on the much busier section to Padstow.

Conditions were still dry as we arrived at Padstow, passing the Rick Stein fish and chip shop in favour of pasties and other cheaper lunch items in the village itself. We settled down on a bench overlooking the harbour, admiring the many expensive boats that resided there.

One of our plans for the day was to take a trip on the speedboat, but since the tide was out we had to wait until 3.30 for our trip. An unpleasantly long shower kept us exploring many shops for the hour we had to wait, and the rain hadn't stopped as we boarded our speedboat. At just £5 for a very fast fifteen-minute ride around the estuary we thought it was pretty good value. We were going to get wet anyway, so the only real problem with the rain was that it felt quite painful on our faces as we sped out to sea. It was an excellent trip though, and well worth the wait.

Fine weather returned for the final stage of the journey, which did not prove too hilly. The beach at Harlyn Bay looked so attractive that we stopped for a bit of fun. It got a bit out of hand however, and we all soon ended up waist deep in the sea, with Michael doing his best to protect the cameras and mobile phones. This was our first dip of the tour, and it wasn't going to be our last. We were a bit wet when we returned to the bikes, but the hostel was only two miles away. We took the coastal route around the headland, planning to enjoy Treyarnon's private beach as soon as we arrived, but the heavens opened as we were signing in so a hot shower seemed like the better offer.

Once we had eaten the sunshine had returned. It took only a few moments to decide that we just had to get wet again. The beach was magnificent and this proved to be the most enjoyable swim of the tour. We played in the water for well over an hour before finally hobbling back to the hostel with bare feet.

Today's forecast was the best of the three days, and the sun was shining as we left the hostel. Michael's satnav helped us navigate the lanes and back roads on a somewhat hilly route, bringing us eventually to the Bedruthan Steps cafe where we enjoyed home-baked refreshments.

Next stop was the gift shop at Mawgan Porth, where Ashley bought some underwater goggles. Michael's Cornish relative used to run the shop in years gone by. A massive hill out of Mawgan Porth then brought us eventually to Watergate Bay, one of the largest and most impressive beaches we had seen. There was another hill to climb there of course, so we stopped for a rest and video interviews overlooking the beach. Ash wanted to continue the interview for as long as possible for some reason!

From Watergate it wasn't far to get to Newquay, a popular holiday resort. After a quick look at the beach and sea front we headed down to the Trenance Par and Boating Lake, where the Lakeside Cafe provided an excellent lunch for around £9 each.

Being high summer, the pedal boats were out and available for rental, so we hired a boat and spent an enjoyable time pedalling around the island and fountain, although Ash got closer to the fountain that Michael would have liked. Ash and Zac did the pedalling and Michael did the videoing, so we all had a fun time.

From Newquay we didn't have a long way to ride to Perranporth. We decided to have fun on the beach before going to our guest house, and when we got there we were tempted by the sight of surf boards to rent. None of us had ever been surfing before, so we decided to rent three boards and find out for ourselves what the sport was all about.

Before we got going we met a couple and their two adorable dogs, so they got quite a lot of attention from Zac and Ash. We then had a lot of fun with the surf boards. We found that once we caught a wave it was really quite easy to ride it, and we all got the hang of it after a while. Surprisingly, Michael got some of the best surfs, and commented that Ash looked like he was being tossed around like a rat on the waves, which he thought was very amusing. When we finished Ash got Michael to tow him back across the beach to the rental hut, riding on his surf board.

Soaking wet, hungry and tired we returned the surf boards and rode the short distance up Cliff Road to the Chy an Kerensa Guest House. We had wanted to stay at the Youth Hostel, but it is small and had been fully booked when we were making the tour plans, so this was the next best place to stay. It was actually nice to have large, comfortable beds and freshly-laundered sheets - a bit of luxury for a change.

We walked down to the local corner shop and bought our evening meal from there, although there really wasn't a lot available. Ash had two cheese straws, a jelly and a mango and passion fruit sorbet, not even bothering to eat the yoghurt Michael suggested he bought.

[The second part of this report, after Mawgan Porth, was written in 2022 as no notes have currently been found]