Looking at my map of places visited for free courtesy of my bus pass, I noticed a bit of a gap around Banbury. A quick search on Traveline revealed that it would be possible to make the return trip on a week day (the bus pass is only valid after 09:30).
While waiting for the first bus, I got chatting to a woman who was off to Solihull but wasn’t too sure as to where the various buses went or how far away places were. This surprised me as I have a rough idea how far places are away – perhaps I’m not normal ?
On time, the X12 arrived and whisked us off to Solihull. I sat next to my bus-stop friend as far as Chelmsley where her friend boarded for a girlie’s day of shopping. Luckily a lot of people got off, so I had a choice of seats for the remainder of the journey.
From Solihull, and without having to change stops, I boarded an X20 to Stratford-upon-Avon. I had another connection to make there so started to worry when the X20 stopped on the outskirts of Stratford to change drivers. Luckily the delay only amounted to a couple of minutes.
Arriving in Stratford, I had time for a comfort break before returning to the same stop to await the arrival of the Stagecoach 76.
The 76 took a circuitous route to Banbury calling at a number of small, quaint villages and navigating along some narrow lanes.
Quite a few of these lanes had some low hanging branches which smacked against the front of the bus (I was upstairs at the front) before noisily scraping along the roof.
To add to the interest, in one village, after traversing the high street, the bus did a three point turn before doing the same road again.
As I was twiddling my thumbs, a Midland Red (I thought they had long folded) pulled in. A quick check of the timetables revealed that I could take this as far as Bloxham and return on another a few minutes later. Still plenty of time for my return to Stratford and better than just waiting around.
About seventy minutes after leaving Stratford, I left the 76 within spitting distance of Banbury’s famous cross and firing up the Adventure Lab app proceeded to the first of ten locations in the town.
I had about two hours before the return bus so took my time ambling around finding the locations and answering the questions.
Even taking it slowly, I was done well within an hour so made my way along the Oxford canal to the bus station only to see a number 75 bus, with Stratford on the front, leaving. This service had not shown on my Traveline search so I still had another hour to wait.
The short jaunt out to Bloxham went fine and I got out on the northern outskirts of the village, crossed over the road and waited for the return bus to Banbury.
This stop was near a school and as it was kicking out time, a swarm of school kids passed me heading into town. One thing that I didn’t see was the return bus.
The 15:12 did not arrive at 15:12 and a few minutes later, I realised that I was going to miss my connection. The next bus to Stratford would be another two hours !
I frantically search Traveline and hatched a plan to travel via Leamington Spa and Coventry from where I could catch a bus or train. If this 486 would hurry up I’d be fine.
Eventually, the bus arrived, some thirty plus minutes late and I discovered where all those school kids had gone. They’s walked up the road to get the bus earlier so it was full, really full, when it stopped to pick me up. I squeezed on board as we slowly made our way to Banbury’s bus station with the minutes ticking away.
My bus to Leamington was due to depart at 16:00 and that time passed before reaching the depot.
I phoned Sue to tell her that I could be rather late home but as I concluded my call the 77A pulled in. This was the bus I was hoping to catch at four and luckily this too was running late. I wasn’t complaining as I was almost back on schedule.
The driver did his best to make up for the lost time and got to Leamington in time to catch an X17 to Coventry via the railway station where I got off.
AT Coventry Station, I had about fifteen minutes to wait for the Avanti service to International, from where I caught the X12 – the last bus of the day.
I called Sue to let her know my ETA (what it was originally) and asked if she wanted me to pick anything up. She had already eaten so I ordered myself a Chinese, on-line, to pick up after alighting from the bus. This worked well and I was back home just after half six with a king prawn fried rice and a bottle of prosecco.
I have learnt not to take an ‘extra’ bus just for something to do – it could have ended a lot worse than it did. On the bright side I have added an extra bus icon to my map just a little bit further south.
On a Saturday, when I can start earlier, Oxford is well within reach, or perhaps even Cheltenham to the south west ?
