James White, a Chartered Engineer living in London, has set out on something of an odd, but extraordinarily impressive adventure, a caper in the truest sense of the word.
He has committed to travelling from Land’s End, in Cornwall, to John o’ Groats, in Scotland. How will he make this journey?
Not by bike, not on foot.
Via the public bus network of the United Kingdom.
I caught up with James three days into his long, long journey, to see how things were going, find out a few more details, and, most importantly, make sure he’s had at least one coffee break.
How’s it all been going so far? Well?
Yeah, I came up with the original plan and then over the winter put together a spreadsheet and then as I got close, I’ve just been checking. You know a couple of weeks ago there were a load of new bus timetables, so I had to redo it and then on Tuesday, I did a final check at the first three or four days and, again, I think some bus time tables went live on Bank Holiday Monday, so [there were] a few little tweaks to timings, but nothing major.
So far every bus has turned up and every bus has more or less run on time and, like I say, [Dursley to Gloucester] is the first connection that I could say I’ve missed but the plan always was to aim for the bus an hour later, so it’s not going to have a knock effect on the rest of today.
So, tell me, when did the journey start, exactly?
I got the sleeper train from London Paddington down to Penzance on Tuesday night, so I started on Wednesday morning and now this is day three.
And how long are you expecting this to take?
I expect to get to John o’ Groats on Wednesday afternoon. Basically eight days of travel!
On your Instagram page, you’ve mentioned that you ‘don’t really know why you’re doing it’, but what sparked the idea for you initially?
Last September I visited Land’s End for the first time on holiday, and I just noticed that there was a bus stop at Land’s End and so my next thought was… “I wonder if there’s a bus stop at John o ’Groats?” and there is!
So, on the drive home, I probably spent the first three or four hours when I wasn’t driving just planning and seeing how I could do it and whether it could be done.
I worked out within a couple of days that, yes you could do it, and then over the winter I started to develop my spreadsheet and then I just decided to do it.
I’m one of those people when if someone challenges me to do something, or if I’m at all curious about something then until I get an answer it’ll always be, you know go and do it, go and try it! So yeah, there’s no real reason, and it’s not like it’s a lifelong dream of mine to do it, it’s just I now knew that it could be done and so, because I kind of knew that, in theory, it could be done, I did it! I suppose it’s the engineer in me: Go and prove it or prove otherwise!
With that in mind, would you say your itinerary is quite loose? Would it be catastrophic if you missed, say, the last bus of the day?
I think today it’s not too bad because I know I can’t get any further than Kidderminster anyway because of the times – and that’s how I’ve decided where to stay at night because it comes to a point where you can’t get any further! The big [problem] is Sunday. Sunday services are, as you know, not as readily available and I can only get as far as Ripon because the buses [there] are run by quite a small company and, basically, I get there and I’ve got to wait until Monday morning before I can leave.
But there are worse places to, you know, spend the Sunday afternoon! I’ll survive.
Absolutely! So, how’s it all going with regards to accommodation?
So the last couple of nights I’ve just stayed in Premier Inns, and then I will again tonight, but then tomorrow night, coincidentally, I’ve planned it in such a way as to get to stay at my parents’ house! Tomorrow’s quite a long day but it does mean I get as far as Manchester and then, as I say, Sunday will be quite a short day comparatively because of the restrictions going forward from Ripon.
Of course! What kind of time have you been starting each day, roughly?
When I left Land’s End I got the bus at around 9:45am, which is comparatively late as yesterday my first bus was at 06:40am, this morning I could’ve gotten a bus at half eight but I woke up early because, obviously, the prospect of getting to Kidderminster was so exciting that I couldn’t sleep(!), so I left Bristol at around 07:45am. Tomorrow I think it’s about an 8:00am start, which is sort of the standard for the remainder of the trip, barring my trip from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Inverness on Tuesday which has a very tight changeover, so I’ll likely leave at around 6:00am, which is a bit earlier than planned. I know that sounds disgusting but there we go!
So, have you put any sort of parameters on the sort of, I guess for lack of a better term, ‘challenge’?
The only rule I’ve given myself was that the only modes of transport I could use were buses that my mum could take using her bus pass – except in Scotland where it wouldn’t be valid. But it still has to be a timetabled bus that I can basically turn up and get on without any pre-booking.
No National Express, no megabus, that would be pretty boring, just sitting on a coach from Penzance to Birmingham and so on!
I can confirm – I’ve done plenty of those myself! I’ve been told you’re paying for this whole endeavour out of your own pocket?
Yeah. I decided very late, just as I started doing it, to raise money for charity doing it but no, with regards to hotels, bus fares, the initial sleeper train down to Penzance, etc., my flight back from John o’Groats, I’m paying for it all myself.
Have you got any kind of rough estimate of the cost?
Well, it’s a total of 49 buses and I know that all the buses [in England] will be a maximum of 3 GBP, [but] when it gets to Scotland I don’t know how much it’ll cost. I imagine some of them will be significantly more, because they’re longer journeys, but I can’t see it costing more than about 250 GBP in bus fares in total.
It’s a shame you didn’t have the idea before the bus cap went up!
I suppose I might have saved myself 30, 40 GBP but in the grand scheme of things…!
You mentioned you’re doing this for charity – how’s that going?
So far, quite incredibly, I’ve raised 1,128 GBP for Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), and I never dreamt I’d get anything even close to that.
Tell me about the sights so far – have you seen anything amazing?
The journey from Land’s End was pretty spectacular, but conversely, there’ve been some really dull journeys where you’re just going through suburbia, but I’m quite happy to listen to music, podcasts, I’m double checking timetables, looking at maps, seeing where I am!
What are your plans with regards to breaks – will you take many or is it all bus all the time?
It’s bus, bus, bus! However, it depends on the timetable, really. Where I’ve got no alternative but to wait an hour for a bus. There was an hour-long wait between the first and second buses this morning, so I had to wait. I’m tending to just stretch my legs, get something to eat, get a drink or something and yeah, wait patiently.
Any favourite bus stops or stations so far?
I liked Tiverton because it had an M&S Food Hall right next to it!
Have there been any highlights on the trip so far?
A man tried to sell me a pigeon in Bodmin.
I had a fifty-minute wait in St. Austell so I went for a stroll, and, no offence meant to anyone there, but a lot of the locals stared at me like they’d never seen something like me in their life!
How was Exeter Bus Station?
I only spent about four minutes there – but as I’ve said on my Instagram it was perfectly adequate, not like in Truro where people thought I was responsible for a bus being parked in the wrong place. Ten out of ten, would visit again.
So it’s all gone well so far. Would you recommend the experience to anyone else?
Personal preference! If you like the idea of sitting on a public bus for a week, you’ll love it. My sister absolutely hates buses, but if you want to travel from Land’s End to John o’ Groats for 250 GBP and you’ve got time to spend – it’s probably perfect! I’ll let you know when I arrive.
So too early to say you’re going to do it all again?
It’s probably going to be a one-off, but people are already suggesting doing this and that. Let’s get this one done first and then we can talk about mainland Europe next year!
As someone who’s relied on public buses for a huge portion of their life, this kind of challenge really highlights the importance of local bus services and just how crucial they are in the more rural areas of the country. How have you found them?
I was thinking about this yesterday. The first bus I caught yesterday, from Liskeard to Launceston, if that bus didn’t run there would be a lot of people who wouldn’t get to work, school or college. I don’t want to get too political about it, but you can see the importance of local bus services in rural areas.
I live in London, and we’re spoiled with the public transport options we have there, then in Manchester they’re very good and I realised that other areas aren’t as well served, even though there’s quite often demand for them.
I think that what I’ve been most surprised about, for the most part every bus I’ve been on has been busy, apart from the first bus from Land’s End where there were only two people on it. You know, I did wonder whether the lady [on the bus] was in direct competition with me, but she disappeared in Paignton so I think I’m on my own.
Any seating preference?
I’ve got a bit of knee injury at the moment so I do try to get an aisle seat so I can straighten my leg out but on the double-deckers the obvious choice is to get the front seat on the top!
Thank you very much for your time James, we’ll be sure to check back in as the week progresses!
Donations can be made toward CALM here, and James’ Instagram account, uselessbustrip, can be found here.
All images are courtesy of James White.
