An other driver asked me if I would change duties with him. Mine finished a bit earlier than his and he wanted to go out. I wasn't going anywhere so I agreed. So I ended up doing the open top service, the number 200 which at this time of year runs from Torquay to Totnes. It runs along the sea front at Paignton, some thing the 12 doesn't do. Today was Motor Bike Show day on Paignton Sea Front. Thousands of bikers turn up and park their bikes on the sea front so it was heavy going that way all day. The rest of the route was very quiet, not many people on the bus all day which is strange with the weather being so good, sunny, warm and dry and Bank Holiday weekend. Just the thing to tempt families on the that sea side special, the Open Topped Bus. So why so quiet? Well even though we have just had the warmest April in living memory and May looks set to be the warmest May in living memory we don't actually have open top buses running yet. Which is a shame when you consider that for two years we had open top buses running all year round. Bit cold in winter but the Germans would still board the bus, go upstairs, wrap blankets round their legs and don flying helmets and goggles even when the temperature was down to zero C and the wind had arrived fresh and unimpeded straight from Siberia. I don't think any of them died from hypothermia. But no open tops about until the end of July as they are all being used else where.
But back to the bikers. On one of the trips out to Totnes a group of about 8 went past me, I was doing 40 mph, in a forty limit I should point out, and left me standing. At a guess well over 80 mph. One was so close to the bus avoiding the on coming car that I could have reached out and patted him/her on the head. I didn't try because he had gone before I thought of doing so. As I continued along the road I wondered if I would see a motor bike, and biker smeared along the road some where ahead. Sorry to say, yes I did. There is a section of road that has tall hedges on both sides and a sharp bend. Just on the bend was a stationary car with a serious dent in the side. 50 feet down the road were marks in the hedge that suggested some thing had hit it. An other 50 feet down the road in a lay bye were all the bikes that had just gone past me and one of them looked like it had taken it's last trip to Totnes.
On the way back from Totnes the bikes were still there and had been joined by a police car. No ambulance though. On a later trip still, a brake down truck had arrived.A dismal end to someones weekend.
Totnes town centre, catch the 200 from Torquay or Paignton or the 88 from Paignton, takes 25 minutes. Or 5 minutes by motor bike provided you actually get there. Worth the trip.
3 comments:
Driving up the M3 last weekend at seventy miles an hour I was overtaken by a souped up hatchback going at breathtaking speed.
Three or four miles later it was parked on the hard shoulder, with a police car immediately behind. An almost definite ban on the way.
While my instant thought was one of schadenfreude, it is surely better to drive sensibly rather than risk killing or being killed.
Boring is better.
I used to be a biker for a while, hot headed with a need for speed, it took an accident to knock some sence in to my head. These days I'm happy to let these bikers and drivers get ahead out on my way as chances are as you have found out, you end up over-taking then later on anyway.
What does bother me now is the large number of boy racers on scooters that scream like a hair dryer on LSD and yet bearly get up to 30mph, so they make up for it by nipping in and out of moving cars and buses.
Did the German tourists book the upstairs seats by laying out their towels on them, or were they parachuted in?
(heh heh heh)
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