#busride - across the border to Essex, garlic in hand...

The view down the bus...

It's all going swimmingly so far. All of the buses have turned up on time, have all arrived on time and, whilst I'm in Haverhill, I'm not here for long. Handing over another £3.90 (my driver asks if I'd prefer 10p or two bob in change - that's proper Suffolk banter, that is) for a scheduled thirty-three minute journey, I settle down for the cross-border journey to Saffron Walden.

Funnily enough, I've never been to Saffron Walden, which surprises even Ros. And, I've got thirty-seven minutes there, so I might even get to see a little of it. Not much mind, but enough to decide whether or not to go back.

Essex countryside. Looks suspiciously
like Suffolk countryside...

It's lucky that I made the connection, because there are only four buses per day, and the next (and last) one is four hours away, but that doesn't matter today, as we're off to the evocatively named Steeple Bumpstead (and I'm sure that Jennie could have hours of fun with that one...) and Radwinter, which has more of a Somerset feel to it, namewise. This is a rather more lonely journey though, with only three other passengers. One wonders whether or not Essex County Council are getting real value for their subsidy.

Much though it pains me to say it, the North Essex countryside has much to commend it (Suffolk could always annex it, I guess). And the villages are perfectly charming, though more expensive due to their relative proximity to 'that London'. But Saffron Walden beckoned, with its promise of charm...

That makes £18.20 spent thus far... this is not turning out to be a cheap day out, is it?