Ten of us eventually converged on each other at Newton Abbot on 10th June, including newest rider Adam Nice and oldest Frank Boyes making a rare but welcome appearance. The day was a little too hot for cycling, so our planned coffee stop at Teign House was keenly anticipated. The Exeter A Section, who were meeting us, promptly departed, having told us the amended lunch destination, and the female proprietor began to pull her hair out over our apparent lack of organisation.

Rob Spence left us here for his lone trek to Crediton, and we trudged up through steep Christow to Clampitt Woods – a very pleasant part of the world. After checking the less grockle-infested lunch spots around the reservoirs we re-met the A-Section and settled down for an extended lunch break on the shore of Trenchford Reservoir.

By 3.15 we had all soaked up a lot of sun and didn’t feel like putting much effort into the afternoon’s riding. Having said our farewells to the A-Section and to Frank, we slowly made our way up to Pepperdon, down across the valley and the A382 and up again from Wray Barton. In the circumstances, one of which was lack of water, we were not enjoying the climbs, but the views from the hills made it worthwhile (we kept telling ourselves). We eventually swooped down past Bishop’s Stone into Lustleigh, where we consumed large quantities of tea, squash, iced water and, in Richard’s case, strawberry gateau in the Primrose Cottage tearooms.

Those of us who had brought our “cozies” had been promising ourselves a swim all day. When we found a suitable spot in the River Bovey, a mile down-stream, the water turned out to be rather cold and the bed rather rocky. However, Adam, Matthew and Richard (in his cycling shorts) actually swam (a bit) and Phil paddled, although he ended up so wet he might as well have swum! By this time (due to the stops, not miles) it was getting a little late, so it didn’t help when we had to return from Wolleigh to the swimming spot to find Adam’s watch. However, it was quickly found and we re-climbed the hill.

Returning home through Bovey and Newton we suffered the now familiar water spurting fight at Heathfield where Simon dropped his bottle and Matthew nearly wrote it off.

(Phil Burrows)

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