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After rejecting the ferry on the grounds that there is no onwards transport at the other side of the river, we continue our journey down the Exe on the 11:05 train from Topsham station, arriving at Exmouth at 11:15 on Thursday.
Time again to see the delights of East Devon by bus, so we board the 1140 Stagecoach Devon service 157 to Otterton (Cross Tree) that arrives at 1211 on Thursday afternoon.
We have just time to cross the road and catch another 157 bus heading in the other direction. Dep 1214 arr Budleigh Salterton Library at 1229 Thursday.
Well it has to be better than Sidmouth. Well different anyway.
It appears that we are in an area where before the summer season starts, we are only able to use one bus service, so we cross over the road to the Public Hall, to once again change direction and board the 1300 Stagecoach Devon service 157 to the quaintly named settlement of Newton Poppleford where we disembark at the War Memorial at 1324 on Thursday afternoon.
What an unmitigated disaster..........the trams on the Seaton Tramway do not start running until the following day. Making a good impression of Victor Meldrew and keep repeating "I don't believe it" does not help matters and we decide to calm down by a visit to the front where we have a snack and then we return, suitably calmed, and board the 1550 First in Dorset service X53 to Poole bus station that arrives there at 1920 on Thursday evening.
I looked on their website and it gives Friday, 6th April 2012, as the first open date.....which I most certainly would have used, as that is my 67th birthday....but the "quiz day" at that time still showed Thursday....
Ah - I think Friday 6 April is the first date you could currently make an advance booking for - they've been open every day since last Saturday, light green timetable
Anyhow, you would have had time for a trip to Colyford and back while you were waiting so all is not lost
From Poole we catch the SWT at 1943 and travel to London Waterloo for a 2149 arrival, Thursday evening
Faced with the choice of carrying on or backtracking, we wait nearly half an hour for the next SW train at 2317 on to Windsor and Eton Riverside, arriving at 2321 Thursday evening
Since the next (and last) train from the terminus is the one that the last journey was made upon, we decide to pass away the night by watching the Thames flow by and we return to the station to board the first train of the morning and we board the 0553 SWT service to Twickenham that arrives at 0623 on Friday morning.
As we cannot use the same bus, we decide to wait for the next available service and board the 0747 London United service 81 to Slough bus station that arrives there at 0820 on Friday morning.
We walk the 50 odd yards to the rail station and catch the 0836 FGW HST to Honeybourne, arriving at 1009, Friday, taking care to travel in the front 3 coaches
What an excellent destination to have arrived at and we spend a goodly amount of time in exploring all parts of the settlement, before returning to the railway station, where we board the 1207 FGW service to Hereford that arrives at 1348 on Friday afternoon.
From the bus stop on the station forecourt, we board the 1555 Swans Travel service 200 to the National Trust estate at Quarry Bank Mill, Styal that arrives there at 1605 on Friday afternoon.
We spend a little bit of time wandering around, before heading back to the bus station to take the 17:05 Swans route 200 to Ringway Road/Airport Pub arriving 17:13 Friday
Again we cross the road and we soon board the 1832 Stagecoach Manchester service X57 to Bramhall (Moss Lane) that arrives there at 1853 on Friday evening.
We have just enough time to make a connection across Bramhall centre onto the 18:59 Stagecoach Manchester route 308 to Boundary Bridge, arriving 19:15 Friday
Keeping the South Manchester oddysey going, we cross the road and board the 2007 Stagecoach Manchester service 43 to Manchester Airport bus station that arrives there at 2032 on Friday evening.
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