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.