Our brand new car-assisted ride to Hamel Down started at the Bonehill car park with a bit of a crisis: a sheep had got itself stuck between a stone wall and a wire fence, and no amount of struggling could get it free. Well sheep do these things regularly of course, but the boys wanted something done. While Michael was working out how to lift it without getting covered in the excrement that was hanging off its rear end, a local man came along, lifted it away from its trap and carried it off down the field!

The track from Bonehill to Natsworthy was fun and downhill, but Michael had miscalculated slightly: it came out half way down the hill from Hamel Down, and the lads were not too happy about having to climb up to the gateway that led to the moorland track!

We eventually arrived, took a short refreshment break whilst chatting to some nearby walkers, and then set off up the hill. It was a fun climb, and even though it was a bit steep in places both lads rode nearly all of it. Near the top we found the memorial stone to the RAF plane that crashed in the Second World War. All the crew were killed and the stone carried the initials of each person that died.

The original plan was to ride the track along the top of Hamel Down, but we were later than planned and the boys wanted to enjoy the downhill and the cafe at Widecombe, so we decided to do the top track on our next visit. We sped back down the track to the road, then enjoyed the long downhill through Natsworthy and had lunch at the Green cafe in Widecombe.

To conclude an excellent ride we climbed Bonehill to reach the car by early afternoon.

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.