Day in Dawlish

To get to Dawlish you catch a 32 from the Strand which only goes to Teignmouth, change then to a number 2. Bit closer than Ilfracombe but as I explained earlier I don't start before 9:30 on a week day because the if I try to use my bus pass before then I would get called a 'Twirly'. Don't forget, if you still have an old style pass then hot foot it down to the council office and get a new one before Tuesday or you will end up shouting at some poor bus driver who wont let you on the bus, not for free anyway. Dawlish isn't too far so I decided to get the 10:40 number 32 . What a daft idea. I have only been off the job a few weeks and I had forgotten about the 'After breakfast idea.' Holidaymakers sit in the hotel lounge after breakfast and someone says, "Lets go to Teignmouth." and someone else says, "Now that's a good idea." So there were fifty people (I counted) waiting at the bus stop and most had had the same idea as me, worse they had got there sooner than me. I didn't have a chance of getting on the bus which carried only 60 passengers and would almost certainly turn up with 30 people already sitting comfortably on it. When it did turn up for a brief while I though I might actually get the bus to Teignmouth after all. The 32, going to Teignmouth came out of Fleet Street followed closely by a 33 which was only going to Marychurch, all I needed to do was get those passengers in the queue who only wanted to go as far as Welswood, Babacombe or Marychurch to form a separate queue and catch the 33 behind, there might be enough of them to leave me room on the 32 to Teignmouth.

So, unaccustomed as I am to public speaking, I stood at the front of the queue and in that loud, commanding voice I am known for on two continents, I asked. 15 people, kind souls bless them moved over and formed the new queue. An off duty bus driver who had been on the 32 even helped out by getting off and joining said new queue. Would it be enough. After all the effort on my part and cooperation on the part of the waiting passengers it deserved to. Well I am sorry to report that when the 32 pulled away looking like a sardine tin, without the tomato ketchup fortunately, there were 6 of us still standing on the Strand waiting for the next bus which was due in 60 minutes. We would learn patience waiting for Stagecoach, or we would wander off and sadly never come to Teignmouth.



I got the 33 to Marychurch in the off chance that it might get there at the same time as the 32 and there might be by now empty seats or even some empty floor space to stand on. But it had gone when we got there. I went for a walk round Marychurch and caught the next bus an hour later, I still had to stand part of the way. Just managed to get the number 2 up to Dawlish, the bus was an Enviro 400. A newish bus, less than a year old. I sat in my 2nd favourite seat on a bus, downstairs over the back wheel. You're high up and have a good view. Let me just say this, the last time I sat on a seat this hard it was in a park and called a bench.



A few pictures of Dawlish and the Black Swans and Mr Brunel's railway line. I S Brunel might well have been the greatest engineer ever but it would have been much nicer if he had put his blood railway line somewhere other than 3 feet away from the beach.