I thought I was being so clever when I organised a cycling break in Devon. I found the B&B that discounts for cyclists, the cycle-friendly road map and the bike hire shop near the train station, but I forgot about one thing: the hills.

By car the idyllic West Country vistas that take just a squeeze of the accelerator in my Renault require punishing pedalling on a bike. It was at the top of one of these inclines, above Blackpool Sands beach, that I nearly packed it in and flagged down a bus (the number 93 for your reference).

Perhaps it was the slipstream of my yellow-jerseyed friend, perhaps that second scoop of clotted cream ice cream, or maybe my dogged determination to eschew anything motorised, but I made it, only to pedal half a mile on, and see the road slope up again.

The trip started at Totnes, which is three hours from London on the eco-friendly train (0.1 tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted between four of us according to CO2 Balance, rather than 0.12 by car). Totnes is cycle-friendly with plenty of marked paths that keep you away from the traffic and smoothly whisk you out of town into the Devonshire countryside.

We pedalled off following the National Cycle Network Route 2, ignoring the advice of the tourist board to catch the ferry to Dartmouth for a gentle cruise down the River Dart, reckoning the 12-odd miles would take us a couple of hours.

Within a mile the tarmac path took us through rolling fields of sheep and cattle, overlooking the Dart river and through cool mossy woodland. After a steep and muddy woodland section, relief came at 2pm when a sign to Sharpham Vineyard beckoned us for lunch.

The Sharpham Estate surrounds a beautiful Elizabethan/neo-classical house on the fertile and hilly land of a bend in the River Dart. Sharpham is famed locally for its cheese production, wine-making (60,000 bottles a year are produced), and between May and September, its al fresco café. We snapped up the last table for a lunch in the sunshine of fresh salad, soup and a cheese platter with light, fruity Sharpham wine.

The café also offers wine tasting, guided and self-guided vineyard tours, and further up the hill is a Buddhist centre, a barn for meditation, a bio-dynamic farm and an activity centre to get kids involved in environmentally-friendly projects – it’s a buzzing enterprise.

After lunch we slalomed our way up Sharpham’s tortuous drive, which might have had something to do with the wine, but also perhaps the drive, which was so steep I struggled to tackle it head on.

When we met the road at the top it was a blissful descent through Asprington and Tuckenhay, picture-postcard Devonshire villages; and two pubs, The Waterman’s Arms (tel. 01803 732214) and The Maltster’s Arms (tel. 01803 732350). It would have been lovely to stop for a riverside drink, but it was approaching 4pm and we’d been told that the single-track road to Dittisham was another thigh-burner.

When we finally reached Dittisham, a picturesque fishing village on the Dart, the sky was turning grey and we were still only half way to Dartmouth. Activity here focuses on the jetty, a popular spot for crabbing and pick-up point for the ferry to Dartmouth, which you beckon by ringing a bell on the shore, but no amount of ringing could help us - we’d missed the last boat by ten minutes. The rain now falling we retreated to the Ferry Boat Inn (tel. 01803 722 368) for a pint of cider and attempts to find someone with a boat.

The barstaff and drinkers at the Ferry Boat embraced our cause, but chances of a lift looked grim until Katy showed up. Head-to-toe in oilskins and as mad as a brush, she offered to take us and our bikes to Dartmouth, and emphatically refused to take money. She was a wonderfully eccentric tour guide, pointing out the spooky house in the trees where Agatha Christie grew up, the most expensive waterside holiday homes, and finally the best pubs in Dartmouth.

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