A WEEKEND IN DEVON

The proposed ride to “Iddesleigh” was always going to be eventful
and so it was. Robin and Julian had done the ride last year and had
been joined by Don and Sue Morris; so this year they were to be
joined by Steve Pond and yours truly riding up, then to be joined for
a ride on Sunday by Kath and Clive. I decided that it would probably
be to much for me to ride all the way so arranged to meet them at St
Breward. Then all changed!!
Kath cancelled for family reasons, the forecast was not looking good
– in fact it was diabolical, rain, wind, sleet and snow etc. A decision
was made, we drove up. En route we stopped at the Pump and
Pedal, a newly opened cycle shop with a café and bar at Sourton just
off the A30. They were very friendly and allowed us to park whilst we
went for a short ride, it had sort of stopped raining!
And so it came to pass that three hardy cyclists set off into a brisk
head wind followed by yours truly enjoying a leisurely ride with a
smile on my face, or was it a grimace, hard to tell these days. We
passed the Highwayman pub which was closed, even the children in
the old woman’s shoe were hiding! We passed wet sheep, wet cows,
wet horses travelling over surface water, or was it a river, I was very
impressed with my mudguards and the others began to see some
measure of sense in them as they looked as if they had been playing
mud pies. We turned right at Mary Tavy and headed for Chillington
the route was a bit vague as I just followed.
As it turned out it was quite a nice ride and we were soon back at
Sourton. Oh yes, we did have a pint and a snack at Lewdown I think,
nice people. As we had only done 26miles Steve and Julian wanted to
cycle on to Iddersleigh and suggested Robin and I met them there!
Robin driving and not cycling did not bode well so it was agreed that I
would drive and meet them at the Duke of York, our destination. A
beer before departure was in order and by the time they set off I

smugly drove away into the what was by then pouring rain. A
pleasant evening was spent discussing various subjects in the normal
wheelers fashion in other words “complete bollocks” and so to bed.
Sunday dawned and surprise surprise it was raining! We set off at
10.00 when it was merely drizzling I thought it only drizzled in
Cornwall no it does it everywhere. It stopped raining somewhere
and I do believe the sun made an appearance before we arrived at
Tiverton which for some reason seems to be built on the top of a
mountain which uses the roads as rivers. We were there for coffee,
Tiverton is abundant in cafes, coffee shops and Pubs, none of which
open on a Sunday. We ended up having a very nice coffee in a
cinema come Christian centre, interesting people. Back down the
mountain to climb the hill out towards Winkleigh and then on to
North Tawton for lunch at the Railway inn which isn’t in North
Tawton but hey hoh.
Back at the Duke of York to catch the second half of Rugby
(England/Ireland) The evening was spent with more banter and a
game of darts – sportsman to the end that’s us. Monday we drove
home in torrential rain stopping at various cycle shops on the way,
well it was a cycling weekend. Great weekend lots of laughs and
good cycling good company and the weather well enough said.

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