The morning of Sunday 26th February was fresh with a few light flurries of snow. We moved off to Newton Abbot with newcomers Chris of Paignton and Simon Warner of Marldon. Dominic Sanders was out with his new Merican cycle – how long will this one last we ask ourselves?

Newton Abbot was the pick-up point, and here we met up with Mr Jones, the Burrowers and a few more of the gang. Dominic had prior engagements and so he wasn’t able to join us for the rest of the ride.

Climbing up to the top of Haldon, Phil, Matt and I had a bit of a brawl, swerving and trying to push each other into the hedge – don’t tell Colin please! Part way down the hill overlooking Doddiscombsleigh we stopped and had our lunch. There were no dangerous food battles this time, thank goodness.

After lunch we set off down the hill towards our destination and met Mike Ward coming from the opposite direction (he had been late getting up that morning). He went home the way we had come, and we all continued our descent to the bottom of the valley.

At this point Colin and some of the newer riders decided to head straight for home, but Phil, his two lads, Michael and I took the steep hill up to Christow. After taking a detour through Clampitt we investigated some of the tracks through the South West Water forest and came out near Kennick reservoir.

We had plenty of time, so we took the path around Tottiford reservoir and came across a little bridge. Having walked across I got on my cycle and started to ride off the other end. I had to pull a small wheely so that my chainset wouldn’t be damaged. When I did this, however, the wheel went too high and came down with a splash as my bike and I went into the ice-cold water. I was completely soaked and bruised all over – I had gone in head first and hit my chin on the bottom, two feet down! Luckily my saddle-bag didn’t go in and my £120 camera was spared.

After diving lessons, we rode down to Bovey and enjoyed a well-deserved “cuppa” with toasted teacakes.

(Richard Wiseman)

[We have been unable to find attendance records for this period, so the attendance list for this event is incomplete]