For the concluding part of this marathon bus journey, BOB HIND travels from Stroud to the most westerly point on the UK mainland
Day 5
Start the day with a happy employee
There are several routes which Stagecoach operates between Gloucester and Stroud, some quite circuitous and taking over an hour. In the early stages of planning a route between Worcester and Bristol, Stagecoach ran between Gloucester and Thornbury, from where First would take me to Bristol. However, I am waiting in Merrywalks, the Stroud terminus, at 06:15 mainly because that link was cut five months before I was planning to travel. Consequently, it is taking three buses just to get to Thornbury, starting last night from Gloucester. Hopefully a Stagecoach 65 will take me a short way to Dursley.
It arrives punctually, although I get some strange looks from the driver when I am photographing his arrival. A long steep climb out of Stroud brings us to Penn and Stanley Wood, shrouded in mist which soon becomes quite thick fog. We then have a similarly winding descent into the pretty little village of Ulay. I am left outside Sainsbury’s in Dursley with 13 minutes to find the bus station and no one in sight to ask. But, with a little help f…
