A few weeks ago, on a trip out to Stafford, I sent Sue a photo asking her to guess where I was. She, incorrectly, guessed The Peak District. Back home, I explained that The Peaks were a bit far to travel in a day but it did get me thinking.
To push the envelope a little further north, I devised a route to take me as far up as Uttoxeter.
The first section is a tried and trusted formula of 96 to Erdington and the X3 to Lichfield. I even had time in Erdington to grab a Greggs vegan sausage roll for brekkie.
At Lichfield after the obligatory toilet break, I had a short wait before a posh looking single decker bearing the moniker X12 arrived. This X12 is not to be confused with the X12 between Birmingham and Solihull via Castle Bromwich, International and airport).
The internal layout featured rows of seats which rose all the way to the back. Apparently (bus nerd alert) it was a Scania Irizar i3.
The X12, once it got onto the A38, flew along at up to seventy, overtaking all-comers. It had to slow down as we approached Burton even stopping through a number of roadworks.
In Burton, I simply had to cross New Street to catch my last outward bound bus of the day, the 401.
There are three (or possibly four) services that run between Burton and Uttoxeter by slightly different routes. I say possibly four because as well as the 401, 402 and 403 there is also a 402A.
As it was the first to arrive, I was on the 401 – the middle route on the map.
I sat in the best seat (front, upstairs) and was soon joined by a mother and grown up son occupying the other best seats (they on the right).
Of all the villages, through which we passed, I was impressed with Tutbury. Firstly, it has a castle perched on top of a hill and secondly, I spotted a signpost to Ollainville, in France, which is seven hundred and twenty one kilometres away. It seems that the villages are twinned.
As we trundled along, my companions told me that they had to travel this route every week to visit the job centre in Burton. Perhaps a job centre could be set up in Uttoxeter – that would create a few jobs.
Once I had landed in Uttoxeter, I set about doing a couple of AdLabs consisting of some fifteen locations.
As I approached the railway station, I wondered if there was a SIde Tracked cache and, indeed there was. It was soon found contributing to a daily total of sixteen ‘caches’ found.
TWINNING
Here are some, to me at least, local, interesting twins
Birmingham – twinned with Frankfurt, Chicago and Milan (amongst others) presumably for the car construction. Oddly, it is NOT twinned with any Birminghams in the US but Liverpool is.
Coleshill – twinned with Chassieu in France, which according to Wikipedia is famous for not a lot (good match?)
Solihull – Changzhou in China which seems to be surrounded by water (as is Coleshill with the Rivers Blythe, Cole and Tame).
WIth all those caches found it was about time to continue on my travels. I had planned on taking a bus to Rugeley and then back to Lichfield. However, I had over an hour’s wait in Rugeley so back tracked on the 401.
Back in Burton, the expected X12 did not show up but a “Not in Service” double decker did pull up. One of the other who was also waiting to get back to Lichfield aske the driver if he was to become the X12. “No, love”, he explained, “School Bus”.
”Are you going back to school?” She asked.
”Nah. Just picking the little shits up!”
Eventually, an X12 did arrive and whisked us as fast as the traffic allowed back to the triple spires of Lichfield.
Running behind schedule, I just missed the X3 back towards Brum and the next one wasn’t showing on BusTimes so I decided to move over the road to the train station, get a train to Erdington then the 96 back home.
Trouble was my pass was only valid from a couple of stops along so I had to buy a ticket at the cost of £4.20 to get there from where my pass would be good.
Annoyingly, I wasn’t asked for either a ticket or my pass. Anyone less honest could have chanced it for a couple of stops !
On arrival at Erdington, I had four minutes until the bus arrived but a brisk walk got me there in time.
The 96 mad it’s way back getting me home around six.
I didn’t make it to The Peak District but I did get a little closer.
Looking at the timetables, there is a bus (6.1) from Derby (half hour from Burton) which could take me to Bakewell (which is in the national park). I would have to return immediately on the same bus and if EVERYTHING went to plan, I could just make it in a day.
Alternatively, if I do it on a Saturday, my pass is valid all day so I could make an earlier start.
