Newcastle first thing yesterday morning, note the 'new' bus station which is much easier to photograph.
As well as the Enviros Go Ahead has a host of new route liveries in the North East
Catching up with Edinburgh on Good Friday last week, great weather, met three lots of people I knew ranging from Aberdeen to Warrington, just a little hassle with a loonie drug addict early on, took everyone by surprise especially the passengers at the bus stop I was filming at
There were lots of new buses in Glasgow, I'm just back from the North East today, Newcastle, Gateshead, South Shields, Sunderland and Durham, report and photos to follow. No hassle other than football 'fans' in Sunderland, weather fantastic.
Three weeks to spin wool for a jersey at this small croft on the s west of Islay, Mandy bought a deer horn paper knife.
Some of the home spun wool when dyed
Greenock turned out to be the most friendly and other than Edinburgh boasted some of the smartest buses on the mainland at Easter, how things change.
I think I was pretty luck to catch the RM, never saw it again.
Two of three buses seen on the island of Jura last Monday lunchtime, the weather was dire so cut the journey short and returned to Islay
Isle of Jura distillery, loads of whiskey, we bought a couple of bottles from here
Port Askaig being rebuilt, the Jura ferry still goes from the midst of this mess
Islay bus at Port Askaig ferry terminal
Islay Coaches well presented, friendly and ran on time ( and very swiftly), this at Port Ellen with our ferry behind it
Portnahaven is at the S West of the island and has both route and post buses terminating just yards away from the seal colony.
In the 'capital', typical wet scene, note whiskey distillery reference, there are 9 on Islay.
Our bedroom at Kilmeny farmhouse, sheer luxury, near Port Askaig.
Lucy the sheep with one of her triplets, Mandy feeding her with biscuits.
Well hi to everyone who has been waiting for the results of our trip over Easter, we got back after nearly 15 hours of travelling last night. Here is Arran while we were waiting for the ferry, yesterday afternoon, we tried for an earlier one but they were full so had to wait until our booked slot hours later! Dull weather but a bit better than Islay, there are several Stagecoach operated routes plus Post Buses
Post bus just fueled up opposite the bus station at Brodrick.
The yard at Stagecoach Brodrick's depot by the ferry terminal, we saw a group of six deer on Arran.
This was Sunday waiting for the Islay ferry, raining while the rest of Britain baked.
It wasn't all gloom, Friday morning in Edinburgh.
a few very sunny days, paid visits to both Widnes and Runcorn. Everyone seems to have been having fun, well all the girls seemed to be in the club. I may have had cause to knock Runcorn in the past but couldn't fault it this time, even had buses possing mid exit from the bus station, cheers lads and lasses of Arriva and Halton transport, oh and not forgetting Anthony's travel!
a selection from some of the older buses at Cobham at Chobham last Sunday, bright but cold. Today was just cold in Lower Peover.
Saturday morning we were in Milton Keynes, quite a sunny but cold windy day, the crews are all very friendly and a colourful bus scene with easily filmed locations.
The journey from Milton Keynes to Bedford is well exemplified by the Bedford route branding which uses the names of the planets, at first i though they were advertising Mars bars, you'd need a few butties to put you on to Pluto, still it seemed that long in the traffic jams
Once more a very friendly location, other than the car driver who drove straight at me and tried to knock mew down, not the sort of place I'd like to live in but guess there must be nice parts to it.
My meal, mixed grill, Mandy's birthday at the Three Greyhounds, our 'new' local, 3 mins drive away.
Again at Three Greyhounds
One of several vases of flowers for Many's birthday
This was behind us at Cobham, nice Tonka toy eh?
It says it all, Mike Davis holds the Buses Worldwide stand as it's nearly blown away, otherwise fine weather. Didn't break any records, can't think of anything positive except we got away quick and met lots of friends there. Lots of effort went into the event by Cobham volunteers but it was on MOD land and they had some very rude staff. Its not easy finding new venues this close to London though. More photos tomorrow.
