We were up at 7.45 as usual on our final morning of the tour. It had been so hot last night with the window closed that Michael actually felt slightly sick as he got up – he was relieved to open the windows again at the earliest opportunity. It had still been noisy even with the window closed, both from the road outside and the nearby railway line, so the general feeling was that we should avoid staying here again in future. Michael had to wake Callum by knocking on his door, but by 8.10 he was up and we all went down for breakfast. The breakfast was fine, although Ash and Jack had to fetch chairs from the library before they could sit down.

While we were packing, Callum O’B found his wallet in his pannier! He maintained £20 was missing, as he only had £10 left in it, but we suspected he had actually overspent on the first day of the tour. After Callum O’B and Michael paid for their restaurant meals from last night we got away at about 9.30.

We rode past the New Theatre and on to Broad Street, which actually had very few shops and was something of a disappointment. Next stop was Radcliffe Square, where the Radcliffe Camera was used as a location in the film The Golden Compass – Michael didn’t recognise much of it, but we took photos and videos anyway.

We then went straight to our main attraction of the day, Christ Church College. Michael somehow managed to get us all in for £16, and then everyone was quite excited to be walking up the Hogwarts stone staircase. The Great Hall was a highlight of the visit for Callum O’B and several others. It will be interesting to compare the videos and photos from our visit with the relevant scenes from the movie. After walking through the Courtyard we looked around Christ Church Cathedral, the smallest in the UK, and the gift shop, where COB bought a real Harry Potter Horcrux to carry around his neck. We had to take the long route to get out, but it had been an excellent visit.

We got food from the nearby Tesco Express in St Aldate's, then headed on towards the access point for the cycle route at Grandpont Bridge. We found the path on the other side and followed what we thought was the right route, but the signs stopped so we doubled back and followed the Thames path, even though it was not marked as a cycle route at that point. The cycle route soon joined it however, and it turned out once again to be excellent for cycling and so much better than the roads. Donnington Bridge provided useful shelter from a nasty shower that started just as we arrived there, but then we continued in bright sunshine.

The cycle route left the Thames near Kennington, took us through the village of Radley, then brought us to the attractive Thames-side town of Abingdon. We stopped in Abingdon Meadows just before 1pm for lunch by the Thames, and bright sunshine and boating activity on the rriver made it a great lunch spot. Callum O’B seemed to be having some difficulty wearing his Horcrux!

Continuing along the cycle route through Sutton Courtenay we soon found ourselves right next to the huge towers of Didcot Power Station that we had been seeing in the distance ever since leaving Abingdon. We would have liked to look inside but it was protected by an impenetrable security fence so that idea was a non-starter.

We followed the path onwards through Southmead Industrial Estate and got to Didcot Parkway station at 2.35. We locked up the bikes and then used our final hour to look around the Didcot Railway Centre, which cost us £4 each. This proved to be really interesting, as we could go inside all the many steam locomotives on the site and get a real feel for what it might be like to drive them. There were Broad Gauge engines at the far end, and we got to see a signal box at close quarters.

We just managed to get back to the main station platform in time for John and Will to catch their 3.53 train to Reading, then the rest of us caught the 4.16 train. We arrived just in time to see John and Will board their train back to Devon, then we had refreshments at Reading station and bought more items to enjoy on the train. Our 5.32 train left on time, but I think everyone was tired as it was a very quiet journey home – COB slept for most of the journey (maybe the burden of carrying the Horcrux was just too much for him), and Ash played a Lord of the Rings campaign on the laptop. We arrived at Newton Abbot on time at 7.42pm as planned.

This had been a brand-new touring area for us with many interesting places to see and some great scenery and cycle routes. We could easily go again and see a whole new range of places. The one wet day was not great, but on the whole we had some great weather and a great adventure that we will never forget.

Will and John were recovering from a 50-mile Dartmoor ride yesterday but George still joined us and rode really well today.

We rode up Dean hill and through South Brent without stopping. We then rode along the Cobbly Walk track in Avonwick and crossed the main road to the Diptford road. We stopped beside the river Avon at a spot Michael knew, but the river was too high to have very much fun on the rocks.

Further along the road we stopped at a disused bridge for a chocolate stop: it was a real sun trap so we didn’t really want to leave.

We continued on up the hill to Diptford village then returned via the viaduct and Rattery, admiring the many alpacas that resided in the fields on the left past the viaduct. We got home for 1.20 and played on Modern Warfare 2 and the trampoline until 2.30.

Ash was still recovering from a virus he picked up on Friday. He was really suffering by the time we got to Ashburton, but after a rest he decided to continue. Chuley Hill drained him again so from the top we headed back to Five Lanes.

Michael had planned to go via Green Lane but Ash and Callum really wanted to ride the rough track down to Dart Bridge. Michael advised against it but allowed John to make the final decision as he really doesn’t like off-road much. After some deliberation he decided to give it a go, but this did turn out to be a mistake as it was really muddy: Ash and Callum thoroughly enjoyed it but the rest of us just coped as well as we could.

We returned home via Austin’s Bridge for 12.15, played some games and then set out by car at 1.50 for our very special trip to Totnes. We parked on Barrack’s Hill at 2.03 and walked down to the Totnes bypass just as the advance runners were passing through. Next came the Coca Cola advance party, then Lloyds and finally the Olympic Torch itself with its runners and coaches. It made a great sight and was well worth the effort of a trip to Totnes. We got home for 2.37.