The combination of walking and taking a bus may be completely alien to you or maybe its something you do all the time. Let's face it, if you are a car-driver then you may say "what's the point?" I hope to convert the 'nonconvertible' to take at least one journey with one walk before dismissing the idea and just for the record, I am a car driver but also a bus user too!
For a start, it would be good to just consider buses as big huggy-things that go from A to B at regular intervals throughout the day, on-time, all the time, cheaply or even free for some of us! Dismiss all preconceived thoughts you may have otherwise, as you can easily talk yourself out of what could be an enjoyable day and enjoyable experience. They don't always work out to plan, traffic is the usual cause of delays but that happens if we drive our cars too. Sometimes in busy towns and cities, bus-lanes give a distinct advantage. The hardest transition from car to bus is its not 'your own space' anymore, there is some pre-planning as to routes and timetables and sometimes the hardest is the 'hanging around' when the bus is late or you have not read the timetable correctly!
It doesn't have to be bus all the way. It could be just to get you back where you started from and this is the big advantage. Circular walks can sometimes be difficult to arrange. Doubling back is often a chore. So let the bus take you back. A bit of planning & internet searching and before you know you it, a PDF timetable or route will solve the journey. Once you have mastered the symbols and discovered that Nsch (not school days) sch (schooldays only) M.T.W (Monday Tuesday and Wednesday only) the rest is straightforward! Don't forget weekends are less well served or non-existent. Evenings go the same way and journeys differ at various times by going via or not going via! This could seriously make a difference between a short wait and the need to phone a taxi.
SO WHAT ARE BUS WALKS ALL ABOUT?
It could be the local councils, the bus companies, walking groups, or even the NHS that recommend walking as a healthy hobby. We want to put together walks that ourselves and more importantly, that you have completed, successfully or hopefully with a good story to tell. By searching the web for walks involving a bus, it is pretty patchy on information. Walks mentioned seem to range from buses that are especially put on to run between well known routes like the Ridgeway hopper or the Pennine plodder to the local council printing nice glossy leaflets. Many villages, towns or even counties have excellent area maps with walks, pubs and things to see with suggestions also of how to get there, including sometimes our friend, the bus. We want this site to be an 'encyclopaedia' of interesting days-out revolving around a good walk, a good story and of course, involving a bus journey. The walk can be as eventful or uneventful as you like, there always seems something to tell others. We have already started on our other web-site Walking Over The Hill , that we created to describe the ups and downs of the Ridgeway walk we undertook in Spring 2015 and it would be good to follow the link to see what we have also been up to lately, then come straight back and help us to compile a list of bus-friendly-walks. We have a blog of course so it would be good to give your opinions on anything and everything walking and bussing, so hope to see you there.
