Our ride this evening took us up Green Lane and then on to Higher Penn from where we took the bridleway that descends through four fields to Landscove. George had found a miniature tennis ball on the way out of Buckfastleigh, so we called in to Landscove school playing field for some ball and Frisbee games.

With darkness falling we had to abandon plans for an extended ride, heading home to Buckfastleigh by the shortest route.

Today was our most adventurous ride since the Easter Tour. Everyone had agreed on a longer ride today, preferably to a beach, partly as practice for our upcoming Lake District tour and partly to start increasing distances of Sunday rides. To Michael's surprise everyone was raring to go at the start, so we set off along the main Totnes road to Charlie's Cross. Tom, who is a relative newcomer, only came as far as Austin's Bridge, but by doing that he earned his ticket to the cinema trip on Wednesday.

The youngsters impressed with a relentless speed through Staverton and Red Post, reaching Marldon by 11.55 and Paignton sea front shortly after mid-day. The whole area was swarming with tourists today, but what was more surprising was that every single parking space along the sea wall was occupied by a VW camper van!

Food was expensive here so we pressed on via Belle Vue Road and the delightful Roundham Gardens cycle path to Goodrington Sands, resisting the temptation to spend £5 on a bumper boat ride but failing to avoid the need to spend £2.75 on a barely adequate burger lunch from the takeaway by the beach. After a few hot doughnuts we wandered around the rock pools before setting off once again in a homeward direction.

We took a route that Michael had only researched last night - a track around Torbay Caravan Park and then the surprisingly quiet Grange Road up to South Devon College. We stopped to refill water bottles at the Long Road garden centre, then continued at speed for the descent of Parliament Hill. The Parliament Stone in the cottages near the bottom says that William Prince of Orange held his first parliament here in November 1688.

Totnes offered the chance of buying milkshakes at Morrisons, then as we were in plenty of time we took the cycle path through to Dartington and Colston Road back to Buckfastleigh. I think the youngsters were as surprised as Michael how fast they completed this ride - and how energetic they felt when they reached home. They asked for longer rides every Sunday from now on, so we will write that into the runs list for when we return from the Lakes.

Report to be written from the following notes made by Michael.

I was up at 5.30. Dillan got here 10 mins late at 6.00 but was bright eyed and bushy tailed. We got away at around 6.20 as planned, leaving Ash asleep. We got to Neil’s around 6.35, got to station at 6.45 as planned. Lawrence was late of course! We took our bikes in bags to Platform 3, then Lawrence came. He had only packed his bike that morning despite my requests that he did it the night before … all he did was take off the wheels, so it didn’t fit and most of it was hanging out! Useless. Train was on time at 7.03, Crosscountry train, only 2 bikes spaces, but we got all the bikes and bags in the area.

Our seats were not totally together, but we arranged things with another passenger so we had a table. No coffee on the train until Bristol, which was very poor as we were all looking forward to it. At Bristol I hopped off and got one from the Pumpkin café, rest got them from the end of the Voyager train. Had to move seats at Cheltenham, not as much together.

Arrived a few minutes late at Birmingham so we had a lot of work to do, around 15 minutes to change train. We used the lift three times to take everything up, then took it all down on the nearby platform where our train was leaving. Got to the platform with around 4-5 minutes to spare. Got the bikes up to the far end where the bike space was, found the door was locked! I asked the nearby official to unlock it, he asked for my reservations, I showed him my res number, he refused to accept it saying I needed a ticket! Apparently you get them from upstairs! But after I complained it would make the train late he said I could ask the train manager. He was down the OTHER end! I ran down there while kids loaded luggage, very hot today. He said of course we could load the bikes and radioed through to the other chap to open it up. When I got there they had started loading the bikes. It was all a rush, the train was 2 mins late leaving, the stupid bloke looked at me as he walked past and said he wasn’t trying to be difficult, he was just following procedures or something. I said nothing.

Train was packed and this journey was difficult, with two changes of seats because of our late booking. So we weren’t really sitting together much. It took me a while to cool down.

Got to Oxenholme several minutes late, almost after the Windermere train should have left, but it always waits. We had to rush our stuff down to that train, but the staff helped load bikes and bags which was really helpful of them. Northern chap chatted with us on the train to Windermere. Short journey.

So we got there around 12.45 as planned. We had to reassemble 4 bikes. Then I had to take the bags to the taxi place at the bottom of town where they accepted them in one pack for £8 for 4 days. Then while still reassembling bikes I rang the boat hire places. I don’t think I could have booked them earlier, as we could have missed any of those trains, and you have to pay in advance. Well the best place was fully booked until 5pm, so I checked with everyone and rang them back, then it was 5.30! I had hoped for a 3.30 boat trip, so it was all messed up a bit, but I paid the £28 and allowed time to pass slowly. We bought lunch and supper in Booths supermarket on the station, really big and nice. Northern only I guess. Around 30 stores in the North West. High end, like Waitrose.

We had the option of riding to the visitor centre and then back to the boat hire, but it was hot so we just rolled down the hill quite late and sat on tables outside Bowness marina. Some wandered off to look at the fair but spent nothing. Some used the nearby toilets.

So in the end we got on our boat for around 5.30 and had an hour on the water, taking it in turns to drive. I just did the first few minutes, then let everyone else have 2 goes. It wasn’t that fast, so Lawrence and Will did loops to try to get some fun out of it, and several enjoyed rocking the boat from side to side. Lovely weather and a nice trip though. Boat was called Tarryn I think.

Got back around 6.30, then rode the path to the ferry and then the road route to the hostel. This was way later than I would have wanted to arrive. To make things worse, Lawrence, Dillan and George rode a long way past the left turn that we needed. It was at the corner just before. John had stopped at the back somewhere to look at Will’s gear problem, as Will was getting frustrated, I came up to the others at the corner, they asked how much further, I said 2.6 miles or whatever it was, but as I was finishing the sentence “..but don’t go on until John gets here” they were setting off around the corner. I waited, then went around the corner and found there was a left turn we needed but they had gone on. So I waited. And waited. Eventually John and Will got there, but the others did not come back. John kindly offered to go and get them back. I had a look at Will’s gears and established the problem was the new chain on old cassette. It was still taking ages, so in the end I thought if they had gone all the way to Hawkshead it would be quicker to go on than to go back, to go around the other way, so we went off too but soon met them coming back up. Lawrence denied responsibility, saying he had been chasing them to stop them, and finally caught them near the lake, so they had stopped to skim stones! That of course turned out to be all a lie later when it was discussed! We had wasted half an hour.

So we got to the hostel way later than I had planned, around 8.10 I would say. Nice hostel. Self-catering kitchen was outside, so we all showered and ate at different times.

It was quite late of course, so we dind’nt have time to get Bomberman out. We did get wi-fi in the reception area. Some tried to play Table Tennis in the games room but ended up just going upstairs. We were in room 8, upstairs and through some twisty corridors and doors. Lights out around 11.