Friday
We left Surrey on a very wet Friday afternoon in Charlie's old Tranny but trusty (and a little rusty). The rain lashed down all the way down the M3/303. Slow going with traffic queuing past stone henge but otherwise a clear run with no accidents. Stopped at Solstice Services and we reminisced on our Salisbury weekend.
We arrived at our hotels in Torquay about 7. Charlie and I in the Burlington (long past its best) and very much akin to Faulty Towers, while Luke opted for the Palace a much grander affair. the decor aside it was extremely functional and the staff were extremely friendly and accommodating. Once we put our stuff in the room we wondered down to the bar for a local brew.
A few of those later and we met up with Luke at the Kents pub (in between both hotels). The Kents is a lovely gastro pub with what looked like an extensive and slightly quirky menu. They had anything from Vietnamese Pho to your gourmet burger and everything in between! very impressed. We opted to skip dinner there and stuff our faces on a chinese - which went down a treat after all the beer/cider. Sadly Charlie didn't fall asleep so the ketchup was kept in reserve for when he did.
Saturday
And "ENDURA" the goddess of all things off-road was smiling on us. What a beautiful day.The trails would be dry but not dusty, perfect trail riding conditions.We geared up in the Palace car park and were even offered the use of their vast covered garage, not too sure if they were being kind or we were making their Hotel look untidy, either way it was a nice offer.
Then the Husky wouldn't start, but after a bit of fiddling with the coil that (was rusty around the earthing points), a plug change, a squirt of WD, she fired up after a little persuasion.
And we were off....
We meandered northwards towards Teignmouth and came upon our first lane. Now if any of you have been to France or IoM then you would inmediately recognise the difficulty of the task at hand of getting up a what seemed vertical climb of large rock strewn mess! Second - flat out feathering the clutch when needed to keep the momentum going (thanks Walters your training does come in handy!)
After a couple of warm up lanes we came into a little village and were approached by two horse riders, we killed the engines and waited for them to pass.. But as they approached they stopped for a chat, horses right up to the bikes, which was really good to see. Very friendly locals that told us about some good lanes (can't beat local knowledge) and they even let Luke feed her pony...
We set off again and rode lots of great lanes - quite a few hadn't been ridden in a while and were massively overgrown - to the point where charlie as the lead had to barge through with his bike and after a meter or two completely disappeared from view in the bracken!! Along our way we passed a lot of lovely looking pubs and were getting hungry by 1330. As we round out of one of the many rocky lanes we wondered down a road with a stream running down it. It was quite aggressive as it had rained so much the day before. Charlie in all his wisdom decided to drop into it! Typical always the one that likes to give every one a laugh but at least we didnt have to drag him out of deep mud like in Bighton! Luke then decided that that looked fun and also dropped into the stream. No Luke wasn't as lucky as Charlie - Charlie had the sense to get out whilst the going was good.Luke had to tackle the stream and try and get out - the banks were too high and it was getting deeper and deeper. Luckily he kept to one side - gassed it and came out under a bridge where we just had to get it up a step. Absolutely knackered, hungry and totally soaked we searched for a pub.
So lo and behold we came upon a beautiful pub along a river in the town of Buckfast. There was a local festival (Sheep Pie Day or something) going on and we came across a group of lads that entertained us with their wild stories of the local goings on. by the time we stopped it was nearly 1500 and the kitchen was closing so we had to ordered quickly. The food was amazing - well cooked and "proper nosh".
The selection of beers on offer was also good. The Cornish Rattler was certainly one for Charlie whilst we had largers and lemonades.
The serenity of it all was very enticing and beckoning us to stay there and have a few more drink but alas it was time to push on.
The next lane we came to was Water Lane - and surprise surprise it really was similar to our old Water Lane in Alton. We tackled it with much revived enjoyment.
We came to a junction called Charlies Cross and no it wasnt Charlie throwing his toys out the pram surprisingly enough and for a change!
We carried on with out trail ride cutting what we had wanted to do short and only having done about a third of it - still we covered 100 miles the first day which wasnt bad going at all. At least there is more of this to see we thought. We enjoyed the evening by going for a curry where we were well and truly stuffed, followed by a civilised Gin and Tonic at the local hi class cattle market. Luke even managed to get VIP ticket for us three grandads but we gave the bands away to some love birds and went back to sleep and regain our strength for Sundays trek.
Sunday
Sunday was a more relaxed affair. After a downpour on our way to Exmouth we found a lovely parking spot where we could begin our ride. The rain lashed down more and more with driving wind that absolutely soaked us to the skin.
We did a few gentle warm up lanes and then came across some fantastic climbs with rocks. we tackled these and even went back for more! One of the lanes we went down turned into a coastal path and the view although very misty was breathtaking.
Unfortunately even in Devon you get fly tippers, but on the whole the lanes were excellent. We did come across 2 or 3 locked gates, and it appeared as though someone had even built a fence right across a lane.....
Sidmouth was our next stop for a welcome break from the driving rain. We managed to find a lovely pub - the Swan Inn - Youngs brewery of all things! Roast Pork! lovely! very much needed with a few pints of a Youngs Golden Bitter. Charlie tried some local Cider that looked orange like berocca! not nice and he almost turned green!
Sadly the weekend came to an end and we wished we had more time to explore more extensively - all this again but for next time!! Charlie will reorganise another trip in the next few months so keep your eyes peeled.
