If you're planning on catching the 09.05 bus from Tavistock to Dawlish this Saturday (31 August), it might be a good idea to get to the stop in plenty of time – if you miss it, it's a seven-month wait for the next one.
In a piece of scheduling that looks at first glance to have come straight from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the Tavistock Country Bus company's 113 service runs only on the fifth Saturday of the month and only once in each direction, and only from March to October.
However, there is a method in the apparent madness. The bus company – which started in 1981 and is staffed entirely by volunteers – is responsible for local services in Tavistock during the week, but on Saturdays between March and October it becomes much more ambitious, with Exeter, Plymouth, Torquay and even distant Truro in its sights. A service to each of these destinations is scheduled on one of the four Saturdays of every month, leaving poor Dawlish the rather less coveted fifth-Saturday slot. "'It's not as popular as the other four places we run to," explains company chairman and sometime driver Douglas Humphrey.
Unsurprisingly, this coming Saturday will see the Tavistock to Dawlish bus run for only the third time this year. It's a pity that it's such a rare event because the route the doughty 113 takes puts it firmly in the pantheon of great British bus journeys.
From the ancient stannary (tin mining) town of Tavistock, with its fine buildings of green stone (much of it filched from the abbey when it was dissolved by Henry VIII), the bus hauls itself up on to Dartmoor. It takes in Princetown – home of the infamous Dartmoor prison and the tasty Jail Ale – and Ashburton, old enough to be in the Domesday Book but progressive enough to be the first town in Britain to elect an Official Monster Raving Loony Party councillor. Here the bus dips off the moor to visit the attractive market town of Newton Abbot, before hitting the coast by way of Teignmouth.
After two hours of pootling around some of Devon's most eye-catching scenery, the 113 arrives in Dawlish (not to be confused with nearby Dawlish Warren) at just after 11am. The lone bus back leaves at 4.30pm, allowing passengers a leisurely five hours or so to enjoy the seaside town's sandy beaches, tea rooms and famous black swans.
In June, when Douglas last drove this route, eight people got on at Tavistock – "though only two went all the way to Dawlish". With the weather set fair for this weekend, there's every chance that this total could be beaten. Which is another reason why you might want to get to the bus stop early – the 113 has only 16 seats and no standing places, and it would be an unhappy event indeed if you were the 17th in the queue …
• £4 single, £8 return; 0758 026 0683, tavistockcountrybus.co.uk
FIVE MORE GREAT BRITISH BUS JOURNEYS
Carlisle to Hexham
If there were any justice in the world, whoever had the inspired idea of creating a summer bus service along Hadrian's Wall and then giving that bus the number AD 122 (the year the wall was started) would be given the freedom of the city of Rome. A thing of beauty pretty much from start to finish, the route takes passengers along Hadrian's masterpiece, from Carlisle in Cumbria to Hexham in Northumberland (with one bus a day making it all the way to Newcastle) stopping at all the highlights, so you can hop off and on if you fancy a closer inspection. Unusually, the bus takes bicycles too, so you can pedal off somewhere glorious afterwards.
• One-day rover ticket: adult £7.20, child £3.60; 01434 609700 (Hadrian's Wall Trust), pdf timetable, hadrianswallshop.co.uk (tickets)
Bournemouth to Swanage
There can't be many bus services in Britain that come with a ferry ride included, but the Purbeck Breezer also has another ace up its sleeve: it's an open-top bus. Starting at Bournemouth in Dorset, it begins its exhilarating 80-minute journey by cantering around the coast to Westbourne before reaching Sandbanks, home to many of Britain's most exclusive properties (some of which you can have a peer into from the top deck). Crossing the entrance to Poole harbour on a chain ferry (eyes right for Brownsea Island), the Breezer enters the Isle of Purbeck, via the village of Studland, arriving at last at the jaunty resort of Swanage.
• Adult single £6.20 (£8 return), child £3.60 (£4.80); 0845 0727093, morebus.co.uk
Hereford to Ludlow
The route of the 492 bus may appear unspectacular on a map – for most of its hour-and-a-quarter journey it follows the line of the A49 resolutely north – but, in reality, it's very scenic indeed. It tells the tale of three rivers in three valleys as passengers are swept from the Wye along the pretty Lugg valley to arrive at the Teme. It makes this reverse pilgrimage from Herefordshire's pious cathedral city to Shropshire's premier foodie destination into a truly memorable blaze along the Marches.
• Adult single £4.20 (return £6.30), child £2.10 (£3.15); 01568 612759, shropshire.gov.uk
Llandudno to Blaenau Ffestiniog
Fast and furious and undaunted by a climb of over 350m, the dashingly named X1 takes off from the fabulously grand seaside resort of Llandudno bound for the slate-filled heart of Snowdonia. The nimble bus breezes along to Llanrwst and its wonderful three-arch river bridge (reputed to have been designed by Inigo Jones) on its way to tourist-drenched but still rather cute Betws-y-Coed, before swooping down on Blaenau Ffestiniog and its Llechwedd slate mines. The whole seat-gripping trip takes just over an hour, which is even quicker than the train.
• Adult single £3.20 (£5.20 return); child £1.60 (£2.60); 01286 881108; gwynedd.gov.uk
Tarbert to Campbeltown
The Kintyre peninsula – that curious floppy arm dropping off the west coast of Scotland – must rank as one of the nation's most underrated regions and this route covers it from collarbone down to first knuckle. It starts at Tarbert's colourful three-sided little harbour, passes over gentle hills with views of tiny islands, and ends in Campbeltown, "wee Glasgow by the Sea". The place was once purportedly the richest town in Britain, thanks to its distilleries, but now has a distinct, and endeating after-the-goldrush feel.
• Adult single £7.40 (day return £10.30), child £5.20 (£7.40); 01586 552319, westcoastmotors.co.uk. Scottish CityLink runs a service from Glasgow to Campbeltown via Tarbert. Adult single £19.20, child £13.40; 08705 505050; citylink.co.uk
• This article has been amended. The original piece incorrectly said the bus from Llandudno climbs to Llanrwst. That has been changed.
