Cornwall Bus Preservation Society

At one stage we thought we were going to miss this event because the RE is poorly,  but thanks to 'friend' Steve loaning us his Marshall bodied 1972 'Royal Blue' Bristol LHBristol Commercial Vehicles Light Horizontal engined coach, five of us made the trip and a very good day was enjoyed by all. 

This annual event is held in the new arena area next to the harbour almost  in the centre of the city. We arrived at about 10.45 hours only to find about 70 or more vehicles, mostlly Bristol's were already there. We joined the line up which looked very impressive and realised that buses giving free trips out around the city and further, were already out. There were many stalls there selling EFE, Corgi and Oxford diecast models plus all the other brands with associated intresting bus 'bits and pieces', After a look around and checking out the many bus photographs that were for sale (costing my mate a small fortune!), we lept on a Bristol MW coach for a trip out. This was quite a run taking us out past the SS Great Britain, under the Clifton Suspension Bridge and out to Avonmouth. There we paused for a photo opportunity outside the old bus garage before returning via Shirehampton to the top of Bristol before making our way down through the city and back to the harbour. This took nearly an hour and was very enjoyable.

After a break for food and 'water' and another look around, we saw a 1966 Bristol FLF double decker about to go out so we hopped aboard. This time we headed into the city centre and started to climb up through the city. It was at this point that I recognised places we had seen earlier so asked a fellow passenger where we were going. 'Avonmouth' he replied, 'but anti clockwise this time'. Ha! You should always check where a bus is going and don't assume anything! When we returned, we found our LH was one of the last vehicles left so we started up and headed for home. We broke the journey with a refreshment break at the Barn Owl in Exeter before heading back to west Cornwall.

Thanks to Mel, Joth, Chris and Dave for making the day a 'gooden'.