There are three Adventure Labs in the town of Warwick and we have been meaning to get over there for a few weeks but something always comes up preventing us.
With the Easter bank Holiday / Sue’s birthday out of the way, I’m back to my usual Friday gadding about on the buses.
I decided to stay localist and go and polish off those AdLabs and perhaps grab a traditional cache or two.
The 09:40 X12 from Green Lane took me the Birmingham International from where, after a short wait, I took an X1 to Coventry.
Alighting at The Belgrade Theatre, I took a short walk to nearby Church Street from where I caught the X18 to Warwick via Leamington Spa.
On the way out of the city centre, we passed roadworks (nothing new there, I hear you say) but this was the laying of a test track for the proposed Coventry Tram system.
The first trams in Coventry since 1940, these battery operated vehicles will run on a special low profile track which is easier, quicker and cheaper to put down than that for conventional trams.
According to the Coventry City website it will soon be possible to book a test ride. I’ve got to do that !
The bus proceeded out, past Warwick University, and after negotiating the inevitable HS2 roadworks, made its way through Kenilworth and on to Leamington.
The journey was slow through the spa town but once out the other side we were soon coming to the outskirts of Warwick where I got off.
Checking the geocaching app, I knew that there was a cache just before the bridge over the Avon but at ground zero I could find no trace of it.
Returning to the bridge and there should have been another cache here but due to extensive roadworks on the bridge the location was inaccessible. Press on.
Nearby St. Nicholas Park was the home of an Adventure Lab and the five locations were found and answered during a short stroll around this little gem of a park.
I continued to walk around Warwick, finding another ten AdLab locations and another four more traditional caches, ending up at the bus station.
Sue was going to visit one of our daughters in Olton, Solihull later in the day and if I had time we’d agreed that I’d meet up with her there.
I was just going to back-track to Coventry then a bus to Solihull with a final connection to the bottom of my daughter’s road. However, putting the destination into the Traveline app (this is becoming a go-to app) I was advised to take an X17 to the Coventry War Memorial Park (where we cached a couple of weeks ago) then an 87 to Solihull.
I waited at stand D until an X17 arrived then boarded.
This double decker made an unusual whine and ,checking on bustimes.com, I discovered that I was riding on my first electric bus.
We had left a minute early and I was confident that I’d make all my connected and get to meet up with Sue at our agreed time.
However, roadworks and diversions meant that I would arrive at the Memorial Park about fifteen minutes after my connecting service – not good.
Luckily, Traveline came to the rescue and by enabling the trains option, I was told to get off at Coventry Train Station, catch a train to International then the X1, this time towards Birmingham and finally another bus for the final short leg.
I alighted opposite the railway station and, checking the boards, discovered that the next train was an Avanti service. I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to use this with my travel pass so picked the slightly later Cross Country service instead.
I watched as the Avanti arrived and departed and whilst waiting for the arrival of my train, check on the web and discovered that I can, legally, use Avanti trains -damn, at least I know for next time.
When the Cross Country arrived it was rather full and I had to stand for the whole ten minutes that it took to get to International. No real hardship but the previous Avanti had been nearly empty !
After the short walk from the railway station to the adjacent bus station, I had a wait of about ten minutes until the bus so used the time to visit and use the facilities.
Entering the Gents I was at first confused by the sight that greeted me. I don’t, usually, take photos in public toilets but this had to be captured. The wall to the cubicle had been removed.
Whilst here, a chap who was washing clothes in one of the sinks making the situation just a little bit weirder, exclaimed, “You’d be surprised at how many people have taken a photo of that” adding, “but they’ll nick anything in Birmingham”.
Luckily, my X1 arrived and about ten minutes later I was getting off in Sheldon.
A short walk past the Tesco store had me standing on a small side street under a bus stop for the 630 service which runs between Solihull and Hall Green.
Bang on time, a small bus pulled up and I joined the throng (two old ladies) scanning my pass before finding a seat.
This service was run by LandFlight and this was my first time with them.
The bus was fairly new (74 plate) and featured a next stop display which was a couple of stops behind.
I got to my daughter’s one minute after my planned eta so we were all happy with that.
Just before we wore out our welcome, we made our excuses and headed for home (in the car) stopping off an Morrison’s fro a bottle of bubbly and some asian type snacks for dinner.
The evening was rounded off with a soak in the tub followed by a couple of episodes of the new series of Andor on Disney+.