George was up for a longer ride today so we headed out through Ashburton and took the Bickington road to Blackpool and Bovey Tracey. Here we called into the café at the Devon Guild of Craftsmen, which offered excellent refreshments at reasonable prices.

We haven’t been up to the Hennock reservoirs for many years, so today seemed the perfect opportunity. Riding up through the town we took the steep Furzeleigh Lane up past the hospital which offered superb views from Bearacleave Wood and fabulous autumnal colours. Eventually we reached Tottiford Reservoir, one of three built here in the 1860s to supply water to Torbay. The water was drained several years ago to reveal prehistoric standing stones that were the subject of a Time Team investigation at the time, but even today the reservoir was barely half full.

We followed the track all around the reservoir, stopping once or twice to walk down to the water’s edge. We look forward to the day when the reservoir is full again, returning the area to its usual beauty, but we still had a lot of fun negotiating the tree roots lining the rough track.

It was getting late so we rode down Slade Hill, took the shortcut through Bovey Park and then returned the way we had come, through Blackpool and Bickington.