Tuesday 3 November 2015

Introduction

England (with real county boundaries)
This blog is a record of a trip, or rather series of trips, around the edge of England. Travelling mainly by bus, but also where necessary by train or ferry, the idea is to keep as close to the edge of the country as possible, the "edge" being the coast and the Welsh and Scottish borders.
It's not a continuous trip - that would be tedious - but instead consists of a large number of shorter trips, fitted in as and when  time allows. There is no fixed timescale for completion. I started in April 2015 in my home town of Lancaster and expect the journey to be spread over at least two - and perhaps three - years!

Why "England" and not "Great Britain" or the whole UK?  Well, partly to keep things manageable - even "around England" is several thousand miles and also, of course, because I am using my concessionary bus pass, which allows travel in England only. This saves quite a bit of money, although the cost of the bus travel is seriously outweighed by accommodation costs (I've decided to treat myself) and the train fares in getting to and from each leg, although advance fares and a senior railcard help here too.

I am aware that I am not the first person to attempt something like this and others have already written about it, but unlike some I will be keeping as close to "the edge" as possible as explained on the "Rules" page.

In planning the project I found it was necessary to set some rules and I've laid these out on a separate page. However, I reserve the right to amend or break the rules as I see fit - it's my project after all!

The record is set out on a day-by-day basis, posted in arrears - and sometimes a long way in arrears!

For planning I used the obvious sites:
Traveline (better than it was, if not yet perfect) and Google Maps/Transit.  I also consulted the various bus company websites and County Council Public Transport pages, although many of these now merely link to Traveline. All-in-all, planning has been fairly easy although a good knowledge of English geography and an interest in buses helped a lot.

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