Day 5 - Birmingham to Shrewsbury

Before setting off on today’s bus journey, we took a tour of the Cadbury estate so that Manju could compare it with the other model villages or towns she has seen – Port Sunlight and Welwyn - and then went past my old school. Then the 45 into New Street. At 9am on a Sunday morning, this bus was packed with the most ethnically mixed group we have encountered. It was all very noisy and jolly. Manju overheard a conversation between two strangers, a black woman nurse on her way to work, and a white guy who indicated that he was going into town for a drink. They discussed one god or many, agreed amicably that there was one god whatever you called him and wished each other well for the rest of the day.

We walked across a city centre I no longer recognise to Priory Queensway for a bus to Walsall. Then more urban sprawl to Wolverhampton where we enjoyed the sardine sandwiches provided by last night’s host. We left Wolverhampton for Bridgnorth and, at last, hit some real countryside. The ability to rest ones eyes for minutes at a time on the far horizon is such a relief after the cacophony and clutter of the streets where the buildings and billboards, the traffic lights and vehicles endlessly restrict your view. Manju illustrated her eclectic tastes as we came into Shropshire. She is a scientist so likes facts. She told me that up until last night (half way through our journey) we had been on twenty two buses for twenty and half hours and they would have cost £67.70 if we had had to pay. She then read me Houseman’s ‘On Wenlock Edge’ from her electronic reader.

At Bridgnorth, which declares itself as Shropshire’s first Fair Trade town, we asked the bus driver where we could get the bus to Shrewsbury. He drove us on after everyone had left the bus and showed us where to go and said he would be our driver for the ongoing journey. Its a good job he did because the road the bus stop was on had only opened last week, the bus stop was without any information and we would have been stuck. These bus drivers really are very good. There was one in Solihull who when we asked for the location of our next bus, drove us on to the stop and we were able to get an earlier bus. In any case, at this anonymous bus stop in Bridgnorth, other waiting passengers discussed the qualities of the drivers on the service (called Choice) and told us they were organising a petition because the new weekday driver was too slow. Our bus driver was 10 minutes late at the stop but said: “I always come late so no-one misses the bus”. He then gave us a guided tour of the hills we passed – Wenlock Edge, the Wrekin and the distant Welsh mountains – and when we got to Shrewsbury proudly pointed out where Darwin went to school and the enormous statue of Clive of India, also a son of Shrewsbury.

We have just seen our second what I now know to be a female greater spotted woodpecker in the garden where we are staying.