Local buses

[ladyofastolat]

People in Fantasyland who want to journey into remote haunted wildernesses are very lucky to have reliable, uncomplaining horses, who go wherever them want them to go, and conveniently wait for them while they save the world. People in historical novels who want to elope with a roguish soldier or confront a nemesis in a remote moorland inn or

Comments

[ylla]

Mostly I find planning adventures by public transport more interesting than if I could just go anywhere - the constraints are inspiring in themselves - but sometimes it's just plain frustrating.

St Oswald's Way in Northumberland is my bugbear (or one of them), because there's a two day stretch with no accommodation either! (I did St Cuthbert's Way and the Northumberland Coast Path in proper long distance walking style.) I think I eventually worked out that you could do it on a Sunday and bank holiday Monday, but I don't get bank holidays, so I've always had better things to do.

[ladyofastolat]

A few years ago, we stayed at a holiday cottage in the grounds of a B&B in Kirk Yetholm. The landlady offered a free pick-up and return service for people walking the St Cuthbert's Way or the accommodation-less final stretch of the Pennine Way. She'd head out into the wilds to pick the walkers up, and the following morning return them again, for them to walk the final stretch of the Pennine Way to a room that they'd been able to leave all their luggage in. It sounded like an excellent idea! If I did a linear long-distance path - which I want to do one day - I definitely wouldn't camp, but would like a nice B&B each night.

[ylla]

I've read about that, but it would feel a bit like cheating to me - I don't know why, because I'm quite happy to get a bus off-route and back (as in Glen Coe), or a lift to the pub from a B&B owner.

Tents are definitely a step too far, although I've mostly gone for hostel beds where I can.

I'm constantly impressed by your distances, too - I did once walk about 24 miles in a day, but it more or less did for me. Are there hills in your island, or is it gentler there?

[ladyofastolat]

The highest point on the island is only 791 feet (241 metres), but the coastal path doesn't go up that. The biggest climb on the coastal path is from sea level to 482 feet, up Tennyson Down. There are a few smaller hills, and quite a few Chines - steep-sided valleys where streams have cut through the soft coastal cliffs - which involve some short but steep ups and downs. But in general the coastal path is fairly easy walking. When we walked the whole Malvern ridge from end to end (and back again) I was absolutely shattered. It was a shorter walk than most of my island walks, but SO many hills!

[leesa_perrie]

Planning an assault on a Dark Lord's fortress might be easier. As long as I didn't have to do it by bus.

LOL! :D :D

But seriously, rural bus services make things so much harder!

[ladyofastolat]

I'm tempted to write a story about a fantasy party who have to infiltrate the Dark Lord's fortress using public transport. Or maybe one about a Dark Lord who decides to go green and have his minions use only public transport to do their minioning.

[leesa_perrie]

Oh please do! I like both scenarios very much! :D

[timetiger]

Oh dear! I'm very glad you are a planner and not someone who blithely assumes transport will appear as needed, like the Night Bus.

I'm hoping to go from Edinburgh to Orkney to visit Skara Brae in July. So far every time I've started looking up bus and train schedules I've quickly remembered several much more pressing tasks.

[ladyofastolat]

Good luck with Orkney! We cheated, and flew from Inverness then hired a car. Mind you, we did almost get stranded, since there was a strike at the airport the way we were due to fly home, and we had to stay an extra day, having returned our car and checked out of our hotel. It was the Kirkwall festival, and it took hours to track down a hotel room for that night, and the rescheduled plane the following day took us back to Gatwick rather than anywhere in Scotland.

[bunn]

The village where I grew up had two buses a week. One going into town, on a Tuesday. And one coming out of town, on a Thursday.

What on earth use that was to anyone, I cannot imagine.

[ladyofastolat]

And then doubtless they noticed that nobody was using them, and cancelled them since there was clearly no local demand for public transport.

IIRC, there was one service here that arrived in town just five minutes before the only returning bus departed. And then they wondered why nobody used it.