We had a little difficulty dragging John and the youngsters away from Michael's new TV this morning - I think John was a little tired and felt very comfortable on the sofa. We got away by 10.45 however and once we were on the road the ride quickly became one of the best rides since summer.

The cloud quickly departed to leave blue skies and bright sunshine as we rode up through Scoriton, where our four-legged friend Leo was waiting to greet us. Everyone was fast and enthusiastic today, so we proceed through Michelcombe and straight up the hill to Venford without hesitation. The provisional plan had been to ride the track around the reservoir and then return to Holne, but suddenly everyone was keen to ride the full circuit through Dartmeet despite John's attempts to frighten them with his exaggerated descriptions of Dartmeet Hill. So we abandoned the track and pressed on to Combestone Tor.

The moor looked rather wet and boggy in places and we expected the river to be fairly high, so we decided to take the road through Hexworthy rather than the track to the stepping stones. The Forest Inn appeared permanently closed even though there were no signs anywhere to confirm the fact. On the lower side of the hairpin bend Michael was almost tempted to buy a jar of home-made lemon curd, left on a shelf outside a cottage with an honesty box, but decided against it when he saw the price was £2.95 for a very small jar.

Michael wanted to show everyone the stepping stones that we would have had to cross if we had taken the track from Combestone, so we parked the bikes tidily against the wall near Dartmeet and walked the few metres down the path. The river was quite high and the middle stones were wet and a little dodgy: Lawrence got across easily but George and Dillan managed only the first few stones before deciding the road had been a better option today.

On the way back to the bikes we were accosted by an elderly gentleman who lived in the house. We soon realised he was not coming out to wish us a good day and praise the youngsters for being out enjoying the countryside. He was, in fact, telling us off for parking our bikes against the wall opposite his house, and he was really quite angry. Since his living quarters were on the stepping stones side of the house we wondered how he had realised the bikes were even there after just five minutes of parking them - maybe they have become so annoyed by tourists parking cars there that they have installed a CCTV camera, or perhaps they just spend their lives looking for someone to get angry with.

We said, quite truthfully, that we hadn't noticed the no parking sign located on the house side of the layby, and apologised for any offence caused, but we pointed out we were only there for five minutes, we had parked right up against the wall on the other side and we really weren't stopping anyone from parking. He wouldn’t accept it however and went back into his house, determined to remain annoyed.

When we reached the bikes the gentleman's wife was there, and she had another go at us! She said we had parked in someone's parking space, but the facts that we weren't blocking it, that the person hadn't turned up to park there and that we were only there for five minutes had absolutely no effect on her demeanour. Again we apologised but she just would not stop complaining - or being angry. When she realised we were not going to get angry and that she was really not winning the argument she retreated to her garden but couldn't resist one final question about how we would feel if someone parked in one of our parking spaces. Michael quite truthfully replied that he wouldn't mind at all if the circumstances were the same. With that she disappeared.

We needed lunch at the Badgers Holt restaurant to recover from the torrents of abuse, Most had burgers but Dillan saved his money for later and just bought toast - mean, nasty George offered Dillan a piece of burger and then ate it himself. It was warm and cosy there, but the prices were perhaps not quite as cheap as we would have liked.

We set about climbing Dartmeet Hill, everyone climbing it at their own pace. Michael had estimated around 15 minutes and in the end we all reached the top in between 13 and 19 minutes. Both Dillan and George did extraordinarily well today and felt very pleased with themselves as they admired the view.

When Michael had changed his brake cable we set off along Dr Blackall's Drive. John, foolishly as it turned out, decided to take the track as well, but some sections were a little too rough for his narrow-wheeled bike and he did a fair amount of pushing. The views across the secluded Dart valley were superb of course, and some Dartmoor Ponies allowed George to stroke them before getting a bit fed up and wandering away with a parting kick – fortunately George had kept well away from their rear ends.

John re-joined the road at the top of New Bridge hill while the rest of us took the final downhill track to Newbridge as the sun disappeared over the horizon. It was getting distinctly chilly as we returned via Hembury, but this has been an excellent ride in every respect. Hopefully the younger riders will be encouraged to do longer rides like this whenever the weather is suitable.