Our youngsters have been asking for longer more adventurous rides in recent weeks and today’s superb winter weather provided the ideal opportunity to get started. Bovey Tracey’s Brookside Tearooms was selected as an enticing initial destination for the ride. After a rather late 10.55 start we rode around Ashburton and through Bickington at a good pace before taking the lanes from Blackpool to Bovey, arriving around 12.30 in glorious sunshine. The café was packed with bookings for Sunday Lunch but we were allocated sofa seats and enjoyed some tasty refreshments at very reasonable prices.

Haytor Rocks was selected as our next destination. Dillan felt a little ill for the first part of the climb, and it didn’t help that one of his brake springs had become detached from the brake earlier in the day, leaving the other side rubbing constantly on the rim. He recovered for the final sections however and we were soon buying hot dogs and drinks from the van in the Haytor car park.

Having worked hard to get here our youngsters were determined to climb the rock. As we neared the base of the tor there were, surprisingly, patches of snow lying in shaded areas, left over from last weekend’s falls, so there were a few brief snowball fights. The whole area was swarming with visitors today so progress up the rock was slow, but the view from the top was spectacular when we finally arrived.

We finally left at 3.45 and headed back along the speedy route through Cold East Cross, stopping for more snow fun on the way down towards Ashburton as temperatures began to drop. This had been a superb ride that will hopefully lead to many more adventurous rides whenever the weather conditions are favourable.