Day 10: St Agnes to Land's End

We have made it! At 2.35pm GMT on Friday 11th April 2008, we arrived at Land's End, 600 miles from our starting point in Berwick-upon-Tweed. We travelled on 37 buses, through fifteen counties. It would have cost £122.70 if we had had to pay. We shall donate this amount to charity.

We started out from the delightful village of St Agnes, an old tin mining community. Many chimneys attached to the mines still stand. Apparently they were used to burn off the arsenic.
Lovely pub meal last night and delightful landlady who gave me a tour of the beaches before we left. Our bus last night was full of chattering school children coming home from Truro. Today there was a complete mixture of passengers. There was a lively discussion between the driver and the rest of the passengers about the bus's change of ownership . The wonderfully named Truronian company was bought by First Bus last week but its livery has not yet changed.

We enjoyed todays crossword by Paul. It was challenging until we realised it was about our second favourite subject - trains. The key clues were LATE TRAIN. The key answers were LEAVES ON THE LINE, SIGNAL FAILURE and THE WRONG SORT OF SNOW!

We have almost given up studying timetables. The network of buses in Cornwall is so good that we get to an 'interchange' and wait for a bus we want to arrive which it generally does within minutes. We were met at Penzance by the BBC from Plymouth. A cameraman came on the bus and his colleague drove separately to Land's End to interview us. He took a picture of us in front of the famous sign post with Nil's camera but had the impertinence to criticise the 'white out' in the background because it was such a sunny day. Manju hopes the photograph comes out as she did not know how the change the settings. We thought that would be the end of the media interest in us but I have to do a live interview on Radio Sheffield tomorrow morning, Manju's doing the same for Radio Manchester on Monday morning and we are both going to Manchester for an interview for North West Tonight on that evening.

Our readers will all be pleased to know that we are still very good friends. There was one tense moment when I nearly finished the crossword before Manju got up one morning but we have solved that problem. Either I buy two papers or I don't start the crossword until she is fully functioning. We also had an argument at someone's house about quantum physics. I think the less said about that the better. We really have giggled our way through England and enjoyed every moment. We are going to do a bit of sightseeing tomorrow in St Ives, and on Sunday we return home by train.

This is our last posting to this blog. We have learned many things from this experience - what a blog is, how to edit comments (which is why there were none for the first few days), how to persuade our hosts to give us access to their computers, how to use an iMac, how to charge up our mobiles in bus station offices, how to operate a camcorder, how to resist some of the media expectations and how to travel light.

These bad girls have not gone everywhere ..... yet.

Day 9: Tiverton to St Columb Major and St Agnes

Yesterday's blog told less than the whole truth.  Before we left our Taunton hosts, Manju had an acute muscle spasm in her back.  She moved very tentatively and it slowly eased so by the time we got to Taunton bus station, she was quite happy to climb to the top front seats on the double decker.   Just as we were coming into Tiverton, she had another spasm and slowly fainted.  Luckily we were meeting a friend of hers in Tiverton, Marilyn - another doctor - who helped me to get her downstairs.   We found a bench for her to lie on with her head on my rucksack, her phone went, and she conducted a perfectly lucid live interview with BBC North West news.  Marilyn said her pulse was weak but strengthening.  But she was suffering considerable discomfort so Marilyn took us to her home where she rested and I tried to be a competent nurse.  Its no good this.  I go on a trip with my own personal physician an end up looking after her.  We thought the trip would have to be called off but by the morning, Manju felt able to proceed.

We got a bus from Tiverton to Exeter.  It left at exactly 9.30am and our passes are only valid from then so the bus driver couldn't give us our timed tickets until after we left.  So we just failed to be twirlies - which is what Liverpudlian bus drivers call the elderly who try to get on buses before 9.30.  Great busy vibrant bus station at Exeter with loads of good information and helpful staff who even let Manju charge her phone in their office.  And there we found a wonderful bus which I had missed on the internet, from Exeter to Newquay.   Getting so far into Cornwall would make up for our lost day.  This was our longest single bus journey on a little 33 seater on which Manju was quite comfortable.  It took three hours and 45 minutes to St Columb Major Interchange which, we had been told, was the hub for buses south and west.   St Columb Major Interchange turned out to be two perspex bus shelters on either side of the road with no seats and no timetables.  But there were plenty of buses.  Four came and went in the few minutes we were there.   Not quite up to the standard of Sheffield Interchange but at least it works.  And there we met Arthur Page and his daughter who are doing our trip in reverse.  They come from the West Midlands and were delighted to meet us as they had seen publicity about our trip. We all took smiling photographs of each other and exchanged email addresses.  We caught a bus to Truro and our bus driver from Exeter joined us with his mother and got off at the WesternGreyhound bus depot to get his car home.  Well that's one way of spending the day with your mum.

At Truro, we caught a T1 Trurorian bus to St Agnes, a destination recommended by Mary from Taunton.  The bus driver gave us a lot of useful information about places to stay in the town and, more or less, gave us a tour.   I'm not sure how much of this followed his scheduled route.  We are now settled in the Moat House B and B and are just off to the local pub for meal.   Manju is coping.  She had a call from Lucy at the Bolton Evening News who is writing a daily column on our progress who told her we are now famous. 

  

Day 8: Taunton to Tiverton

A short journey today to a beautiful place near Tiverton where we are resting up before beginning the final assault on the south west tomorrow.

Day7: Bath to Taunton

The BBC have given us more film so we are back on camera. Took a morning off to meet friends with whom we had lunch at the Pump Room. Then the 1405 to Wells. I slept most of the way whilst Manju filmed the lovely countryside and villages. When I woke up she was talking to half the bus passengers, as usual. Visited Wells Cathedral, our third on the trip. We should say that as non Christians we are amazed at the splendid things human beings have done in the name of religion. Then a lovely ride through Glastonbury and Street to Taunton where we were met by a photographer from the Western Daily Press.

We really must emphasise how reliable, regular and comfortable the English bus system is. The only unpleasant aspects of this trip have been some very cold and draughty bus halts.

Manju's grandson, Dara, goes to a nursery in Horwich. The staff have set up a notice board to following our trip and now everyone in the nursery is fascinated by Nani's exploits.

Day 6: Oxford to Bath

We caught a bus into the centre of Oxford, bought a Guardian, and then boarded a bus to Swindon. We finished the crossword in 15 minutes and so we had to talk to each other! But it has been a relaxing day as our tape has run out on the camcorder so what Manju called the 'tyranny of the camera' is over for today at least. She is getting her own back because yesterday I accused her of giving in to the 'tyranny of the mobile'. It was an incredibly efficient journey. As every bus arrived at the bus station, the one we wanted to catch was on the next stand. We changed at Swindon, Calne and Chippenham on the way to Bath. Boring countryside to begin with but beautiful as we approached Bath. Our last driver, Pat from Chippenham, was the first one to examine our passes and comment on the fact that they were issued in South Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. So we told him about our journey. He introduced us to the other passengers and then gave us a commentary on the route. This included the 'fact' that Dickens wrote the Pickwick Papers in the The Three Pigs and the Hare and Hound in Corsham. He pointed out the beautiful stone archways of the Great Western railway as it goes through the Box Valley. He then dropped us as near as he could to Bath railway station where we were being met. He's not allowed to take his bus into the temporary Stagecoach bus, which is next to the railway station, because they wont allow competitors in.

This evening we were taken to a BBC studio in Bath to do an interview for the Radio 4 World Service. I found it a disappointing interview. They seemed to be intent on getting us to say that the bus service is rubbish, which it is not. Manju said she was just enjoying herself.

One thing Manju keeps commenting on is the neatness of the countryside and the towns and the front gardens of houses. And she is right. This seems to be a quintessentially English trait.
Another English (?) characteristic is that 90% of passengers, old and young, thank the bus drivers as they leave the bus. However, we haven't seen any groups of school children yet.

day 5 Leicester to Oxford

Its good to know that the internet cafe has not come and gone without our noticing. We found one in Oxford so we are able to enter our blog without bothering our hosts to give us access to their computers.
Snow everywhere when we woke up but no problem with the roads. We were worried about today because it depended on getting three X buses (presumably short for express) as nobody seemed to be clear about whether they could be regarded as local buses. Manju rang Stagecoach who said yes. The PTE rang Stagecoach who said no. In any case, we climbed nervously on to the X5 at Leicester and presented our passes. The driver said we would have to pay ....... but he was only joking. Great bus to Northampton. There we had 30 minutes to wait and it was freezing and the bus station was pretty miserable. No services of any kind and no staff as far as we could see. EXCEPT in the ladies toilet we found a source of heat - a little radiator in the Nappy Room - so we draped ourselves around this for a while. X4 to Milton Keynes arrived on time and almost immediately we boarded the X5 to Oxford. At Buckingham, a friend of Manju's, Al, joined us till Oxford. They hadn't seen each other for two years but he had found out about our journey from the BBC website and wanted to be part of the action. We have interviewed him with our camcorder. This whole bus journey only took three and a half hours.

We are still carrying the camcorder lent to Manju by BBC North West Tonight. A courier collected our last tape in Richmond and that formed the basis of a clip which you can see at bbc.co.uk/nwt. One clip is called Manju's Mission and one Manju's Jaunt. After they had used our tape they asked if I would do more of the filming because they want more pictures of Manju as she is the north west resident. This means I have been commenting during the day with the camera and yesterday the blog was very short because I had already said it all. For example, we did a lovely interview with a driver at Leicester bus station. Sally told us about her pleasure at her job and that many OAPs are using the pass to do longer journeys than they normally would. I will try to make sure the blog doesn't suffer because of my broadcasting ambitions in future.

We are now going to get the tourist bus because neither of us know Oxford very well. And then to our hosts for the night.

Day 4: Sheffield to Leicester and Barsby

A very urban day compared with the last three. From Sheffield to Chesterfield to Nottingham to Loughborough to Leicester, ending in a rural retreat, the village of Barsby. We did go through Sherwood Forest bus couldn't see Robin Hood. A long day. Our first bus at 9.45 am and we arrived here at 7.10. All the buses on time and comfortable. Two female bus drivers - our first on this trip. Spent a couple of hours in Nottingham and visited the wonderful sculpture by Anish Kapoor, a stainless steel concave mirror of the world above it. Beautiful and soothing. The day was a typical April day - showers and sun - and we watched these play across the mirror. The sculpture is outside the Nottingham Playhouse and we had lunch in the bar/restaurant attached and were comfortable in this environment since we both have connections with our local theatres - the Octagon in Bolton and the Crucible in Sheffield. We were very unimpressed with the Broadmarsh bus station in Nottingham. A bit dingy and very inadequate timetable information. An office which says 'public transport' where we queued couldn't give us information about getting to Leicester and told us to go next door to a office called 'Barton Travel' where we queued again and were told they didn't have the timetable for the bus to Leicester. We eventually found it but would have had to wait at this rather uncomfortable place for an hour and a half so decided to do the journey through Loughborough.
We realise we have become rather blase with our bus pass and just wave it at the driver. One of them checked us very politely and said he had to know where we were going to so the company could claim the subsidy for the concession.

After we finished Araucaria's wonderful crossword where every clue is an anagram but the letters which make up the anagrams are run-on across words, we read a piece about a Guardian journalist and his father doing what we are doing but the other way - from Penzance to Carlisle. They don't seem to have had much fun. They did it in four days whereas we are dawdling along. Manju said the only interesting thing in the piece was about us!

Manju's counsin rang to say we are on the front page of a celebrity paper in Mumbai.

I should explain why I, Christine, write the blog. We divided responsibility for planning this trip. I did timetables. Manju did the blog. Because once upon a time I trained as a shorthand typist, I can input from an electronic keyboard at an amazing speed so I type the blog. But nothing gets posted without Manju's additions and approval. She manages the blog in terms of accepting or not comments to be posted.

Day 3 Richmond to Sheffield

After a live telephone interview with Radio York, we had a very joyful bus ride to Northallerton. As we boarded the bus on the Market Square at Richmond, the driver was reading a piece about us in the Northern Echo. He welcomed us aboard as ‘his’ celebrities and as we proceeded and collected passengers he – now our friend Alan - introduced us to all of them by their first names. He pointed out sights on the way, kept up a banter of jokes and provided timetables for our future route. We had to sign a timetable for him to show to his mates. Everyone on the bus joined in the general jollity. A woman sitting next to me had been yesterday on a coach to Hadrians Wall with the Northallerton branch of the University of the Third Age and said she was inspired by us to do some long distance travelling on local buses. At Northerallerton, where we had fifteen minutes to wait for the next bus to Thirsk, Alan offered to take Manju to see the local hospital as he now knew she was a doctor. We declined this offer but two passengers overheard the conversation and said they were going to the hospital so he gave them a lift.

An uneventful journey to Thirsk, where we discovered that the timetable has changed and we had an hour and half to wait for a bus to York. The staff of the Tourist Office had seen us on the box so they treated us like royalty and bemoaned the limited bus service. We wandered round the market square (which would be delightful if it wasn’t full of cars), had coffee and finished the crossword. Then we caught our first locally owned bus run by John Smith of Thirsk. All the rest have been part of one of the big conglomerates like Arriva. We felt a bit like kids in a class when the driver asked all ‘the concessions’ to put their hands up. There were seven of us out of 13 passengers.

York was complicated. There seem to be at least three bus interchanges. We were delivered at Exhibition Square, but only after our schoolteacher driver delivered a little lecture about being back by 5pm or we would have to walk home. We walked to the railway station but couldn’t find a bus to Selby. Eventually we found one at Piccadilly. On single decker buses we have started to sit in the back seats because there is more leg room. The problem with this policy is that this is where the kids sit. There were two young girls behaving a bit yobbishly - very loud competing music kit with no head sets, feet on seats, shouting out of the windows. I have recently acquired hearing aids and am still hearing more than I want to, particularly high pitched sounds. I couldn’t put up with this noise for 45 minutes so I pondered what to do. We could either move forward – a nuisance on a relatively crowded bus, I could ask the bus driver to shut them up since all buses have signs saying loud music e should not be played without ear phones, or I could address them directly. I decided on the latter. Very quietly and politely, I asked if they could turn down the sound as it was hurting my ears. They immediately turned off their instruments, apologised and sat demurely for the rest of their journey. Amazing.

At Selby we asked a guy in uniform about a bus to Doncaster. He recognized us and said a note had been sent round to all the drivers about our escapade – his word. Manju, who has now become an experience camerawoman (her work has already been broadcast on North West Tonight), asked if she could interview him. He took off his orange jacket, puffed up his chest and delivered a very interesting treatise on local bus services. We had twenty minutes to spare so took in the lovely Selby Abbey before boarding our bus.

As the bus left, a man in a suit – presumably the bus station manager – came over to shake our hands and wish us luck and told the driver to look after us. I made a phone call which a woman behind me overheard and realised who we were. She was ecstatic about us, our trip and our ‘courage’. She shook our hands and asked for autographs and talked for the rest of her journey about how we women deserve to do things like this. We spend all our lives working and looking after families and now we can have fun. She was going to use her pass to go all over north Yorkshire just travelling for the sake of it.

Great bus station and interchange with the railway at Doncaster and then on to Sheffield.

Since three journalists have now mentioned motorways to me I should explain that local buses never go on motorways although they quite often go over and under them. Only coaches and National Express use the motorways and our bus pass is not valid on these services. Local buses travel on other roads but rarely go directly from one place to the next. They take little diversions into villages or shopping centres, to institutions like prisons to collect visitors or schools to collect children. They provide a local service.

On every bus we have asked the driver how much the fare would be if we had to pay. So far, that is from Berwick to Sheffield, it would have cost £37 each. On the railway, a single standard open with senior railcard costs £37.30 but only takes three hours, not three days!

Day 2 - Gosforth to Richmond

Enjoyed our item on Look North but missed the Tyne Tees piece.
Our hosts were so taken with our trip that they joined us as far as Newcastle and waved us on to a bus to Durham. The journey from Gosforth to Durham took just one and a half hours. We landed in the centre of Durham where there was a small bus up to the Cathedral for 50p (if you have to pay). And we didn't have to worry about parking. The train does the journey much more quickly. I wonder if most car journeys, including parking, would be so speedy. We enjoyed the view of the Sage and winking eye bridge from the top of a double decker and could almost touch the Angel of the North as we sped through the south of Gateshead. The Cathedral is spectacular. Then a bus to Darlington and one to Richmond. All buses running on time and, except for a bit of rattling making our conversations with media people difficult, were all very comfortable. The Northern Echo met us at Richmond as we are now famous! Four separate people approached us - two in Durham, one in Darlington and one in Richmond - to ask if we were the ladies on the bus journey. The taxi driver in Darlington called Manju pet, which she much enjoyed. We both love the Geordie accent. And we are going to be more famous. We have spent the whole day fending off media approaches from local TV and radio and even a London radio show. BBC World Service want us in a studio in Bath next Monday. Tomorrow Asian News are joining us for our journey from York to Selby. We are now completely muddled about what commitments we have now made for interviews etc. so we shall just have to see how we go.
Just enjoyed the delights of Richmond with a walk via the castle to the railway station which has been converted into a community centre with cinema, cafe, exhibition space, etc. All very elegant. This is our second converted railway station in two days as Barter Books inhabits the old railway station of Alnwick.

day one - Berwick to Gosforth

First the crossword. Araucaria has done us proud today. The crossword includes 'national bus pass', April Fool, Cornwall and Umbria. And one clue mentions 'bad girls! We were met at Berwick station by a crew from Tyne Tees Television who actually came on the bus- clearly a rare experience for them - and interviewed and filmed us. But we got our own back. Manju has been given a camcorder by the BBC with which she is increasingly confident. So she filmed them filming us. The BBC should love that. At Alnwick we were met by Look North who trailed around after us for over an hour. We spent some time in the wonderful Barter Books shop which fills the old railway station in Alnwick where we took a call from Jeremy Vine and did a live interview. Both our buses were exactly on time, clean and comfortable. The only unpleasant thing was Alnwick bus station which is cold and has no proper waiting rooms or toilets. The Northumberland countryside of Northumberland is gorgeous and, most of the time, the sun shone. Manju has started to accost strangers and film them describing their experience of buses.

We are completely bewildered by the media interest as they are by us. Their line of questioning is sometimes quite odd. They want to know if we will still be friends after 12 days. We doubt they would ask men that. They say: "aren't you a bit crazy?" So we say yes! They are very ignorant about buses and immediately take photographs when we produce a timetable. One said "wont it be boring on the motorways"!

End of first day

Manju did interviews with Radio Manchester, Northwest Tonight, Manchester Evening News and Bolton Evening News at Piccadilly Station. When she got to Sheffield we both did interviews with Radio Sheffield and the Yorkshire Post. We had hundreds of photographs taken of us holding a poster sized bus pass and getting on and off buses and waving from buses. On the train to Berwick we spoke to the Northern Echo, Tyne Tees Television, a Bolton radio station and Look North. We are staying in a very pleasant small hotel in Berwick, Alannah House. Tomorrow morning our adventure starts on the bus number 505 to Alnwick. But we have to be filmed by Tyne Tees Television before we leave.

The journey begins

By the way, we are Manju Ghosh and Christine Jackson and we have been close friends for fifteen years. Manju lives in Bolton and early this morning she met a crowd of media people at Piccadilly Station where she was 'seen off' by the Minister for the North West, Beverley Hughes MP and the Vice Chair of the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority, Counciller Allen Brett. She is now travelling to Sheffield where I live and where we shall also meet the media at the Interchange bus station before we get a train to Berwick. If we can find an internet cafe the next blog will be from the Scottish border.

A number of difficulties have arising during the planning. First, the bus pass has not arrived. We contacted the Passenger Transport Executives where we live (Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire) and they are trying to speed things up. They also intend to issue a press release about our trip and take photographs of us climbing on to a bus. The second difficulty is the definition of a local bus. Neither the staff of the PTEs or of the main bus companies seem to be clear about their policy. We are working on the assumption that a local bus is one on which you cannot book a seat: that is, a bus which randomly picks up passengers at bus stops or stations. Third, it is difficult to find timetables. There is no longer a national bus directory so we have to search all kinds of websites to get the data. Its easy in a PTE area but where buses cross into county areas, the information gets patchy. Then you find the perfect bus but the small print tells you it only runs twice a week. Fourth, its very difficult to find a good bus where there is a good rail link. Its clearly not in the bus companies interests to compete. Lastly, finding buses on Sundays is a nightmare.

Our planned route is as follows:
1st April - Berwick-upon-Tweed, Alnwick, Gosforth
2nd April - Gosforth, Newcastle, Chester-le-Street, Durham, Darlington, Richmond
3rd April - Richmond, Northallerton, Thirsk, York, Selby, Doncaster, Sheffield
5th April - Sheffield, Chesterfield, Nottingham, Leicester
6th April - Leicester, Northampton, Milton Keynes, Oxford
7th April - Oxford, Swindon, Chippenham, Bath
8th April - Bath, Wells, Taunton
9th April - Taunton, Tiverton
10th April - Tiverton, Exeter, Bude, St Columb Major
11th April - St Columb Major, Truro, Penzance
12th April - Penzance, Lands End, St Ives, Penzance