Dillan was keen to do a longer ride today and selected a destination of Princetown. We made good progress through Scoriton and past Venford, but then Michael noticed some distant rain in the Princetown area. None of us had brought coats with us as we had stupidly only checked the forecast for the Buckfastleigh area. Light rain was with us by the time we reached Hexworthy, so Dillan decided the café at Dartmeet would be a safer bet on this occasion.

We enjoyed some good refreshments at Badgers Holt café until the rain finally gave way to sunshine, then we set off up Dartmeet Hill and on to Leusdon where Michael found his beloved ducks hiding behind a tree some way from the pond.

Spitchwick was busy as usual in the afternoon sunshine. We took the riverside path to New Bridge and returned home via Hembury having completed the ride in excellent time.

After fixing Dillan's puncture, we left at 10.52 and rode to the cafe at Hill House Nursery at John's request. When we arrived at 11.40, Dillan’s acquaintance from school, Ziggy, was serving. We shared an apricot and plum franzipan which was absolutely delicious, so we had an enjoyable time there.

We returned home via Baddaford and Ware Lane, which was not too overgrown today, getting back at around 1.30.

Michael had been charging his new Cateye Volt 1200 since 2pm, so it was fully charged for this evening's ride. The evening was chilly buy dry, and we managed a good ride that took us up to Cross Furzes, down to Coombe, through Holne the steep way and home via Hembury Woods. George had cold hands and borrowed Michael's gloves three times. The Cateye light was fantastic – almost worth the £109 it cost - and was far superior to Michael's old light. This made a very nice final evening ride of the season.

As we rode out along Colston Road, Michael tested his new Asda mobile signal, which uses the EE network, and it turned out to be generally good everywhere. We continued on through the Cider Press Centre, where we saw an unusual wooden "caravan" on display in the courtyard, then after following the cycle path towards Totnes we were disappointed to find there was not much water on Totnes weir.

We went to Morrisons for lunch, although Michael only had a coffee. We then rode home via Littlehempston, taking the steep track shortcut but this time getting no punctures whatsoever. The little stone bridge at the bottom is actually a private bridge linking parts of a farm I think. We took the short route home via Green Lane, which saved us half a mile but added some additional metres of climb, bringing us home by 2.30 after another enjoyable ride.

Our return to setting provisional destinations for Sunday rides got off to a good start as four of us set off from Buckfastleigh at 10.35 in cloudy but dry conditions. We rode through Harbourneford to South Brent and then took a Google Maps shortcut to the Sign of the Owl pet centre near Wrangaton before heading along the B-road to California Cross. The sun broke through now from time to time, and we made good progress to Loddiswell. The Chilli Farm café looked interesting but we had set our mind on Avon Mill.

We arrived by around 12.20 and quickly settled into the café for very tasty but expensive soups and snacks. We then moved upstairs to the balcony for the second course, enjoying coffee cake and lemon meringue pie in the early afternoon sunshine.

The return route proved far more interesting and varied. We rode up to the old Loddiswell railway station and joined the path the follows the old railway line to Topsham Bridge. It’s been a few years since we last rode this path and we were pleased to discover that there are now no obstructions, apart from a fallen tree that required a small deviation. As we emerged at the far end John commented that the path was “all right”, high praise indeed from someone who is not a fan off off-road.

We were back on the South Hams lanes for the final part of the ride, taking us through Moreleigh and past Diptford. As we rode down the hill towards the solar farm we had to stop for three huge trailers carrying old tractors. John thought they had probably come from a ploughing match, and when we met two more between the viaduct and South Brent it looked like he was spot on. We finally found the entrance near the A38 junction at the top of Dean hill, with several horse boxes leaving the event.

We got home by 4pm after taking the short-cut down the A38. It had been a good ride, so we hope to set provisional destinations for most of our future rides.