Our Plym Valley excursion began in the Plympton car park in good weather despite the predictions of rain. After a short look at the Plym Valley railway, which seems to be spending all its time creating a one mile section of track for its engines, we pressed on up the cycle path, crossing the numerous viaducts and enjoying the delightful spring scenery.

On the return journey we stopped at the first viaduct to see what all the binoculars were about. Apparently they were protecting a pair of peregrine falcons and allowing the public to view them free of charge at the same time. The falcon was so far away and so well camouflaged that it was virtually impossible to see without the aid of the powerful binoculars.

Returning to the car we concluded the day with a social at the Barbican leisure centre, starting with a pizza and finishing with the new film Iron Man which turned out to be well worth its number one rating.

On a hot and lazy morning that felt more like July than May we took the bikes to Haldon Forest Cycle Park and set about enjoying the Play Trail. This was Zac's first visit to the park so he was fascinated by all the sculptures that lined the route.

Returning to base we bought some refreshments (including an excellent sweet pancake) and the tried the Adventure trail at Zac's request. Unfortunately the 2.5 miles track turned out to be less than a mile when Zac looked behind him at a junction and followed the wrong sign. Instead we concluded the day by riding the Family trail. Half way around we were amazed to see a high wire adventure course that hadn't been there before - certainly something to visit in the future!

It was lunchtime, it was very hot, and we had only really planned a morning ride. So we headed back home for a cool afternoon indoors.

There was a good turnout for our repeat ride to Haldon tracks. We took in several of the trails, including the more challenging red trail. Everyone had fun getting air on some of the jumps.

We concluded an excellent ride with hot pancakes from the mobile cafe at the car park.

We had reached Dean Prior when Ashley rang up, saying he had overslept! Michael went back to fetch him in the car whilst Sam and Jay rode on up the hill past Nurston. Everyone met up again at Bloody Pool.

This year's summer tour started mid-morning at Bodmin on a cloudy morning. Zac had a few problems with his panniers during the first ten minutes of the Camel trail, but we were soon on our way again, stopping for refreshments at the cyclists' cafe.

The path to Wadebridge was not as busy as we might have expected in mid-summer, possibly because the forecast was for showers. We checked out the cycle hire shops in Wadebridge and were shown a range of bikes for hire at £12 per day. Dog carriers were extra, and we saw several of those on the much busier section to Padstow.

Conditions were still dry as we arrived at Padstow, passing the Rick Stein fish and chip shop in favour of pasties and other cheaper lunch items in the village itself. We settled down on a bench overlooking the harbour, admiring the many expensive boats that resided there.

One of our plans for the day was to take a trip on the speedboat, but since the tide was out we had to wait until 3.30 for our trip. An unpleasantly long shower kept us exploring many shops for the hour we had to wait, and the rain hadn't stopped as we boarded our speedboat. At just £5 for a very fast fifteen-minute ride around the estuary we thought it was pretty good value. We were going to get wet anyway, so the only real problem with the rain was that it felt quite painful on our faces as we sped out to sea. It was an excellent trip though, and well worth the wait.

Fine weather returned for the final stage of the journey, which did not prove too hilly. The beach at Harlyn Bay looked so attractive that we stopped for a bit of fun. It got a bit out of hand however, and we all soon ended up waist deep in the sea, with Michael doing his best to protect the cameras and mobile phones. This was our first dip of the tour, and it wasn't going to be our last. We were a bit wet when we returned to the bikes, but the hostel was only two miles away. We took the coastal route around the headland, planning to enjoy Treyarnon's private beach as soon as we arrived, but the heavens opened as we were signing in so a hot shower seemed like the better offer.

Once we had eaten the sunshine had returned. It took only a few moments to decide that we just had to get wet again. The beach was magnificent and this proved to be the most enjoyable swim of the tour. We played in the water for well over an hour before finally hobbling back to the hostel with bare feet.