SEE SPACE FROM THE SHUTTLE

Feature Article by Ben Bentley of the Shropshire Star

June 2007

One rural bus service gets right off the beaten track and it's winning a growing fan base of tourists and locals alike.

Getting on the bus is the easy part - getting off is another matter. The Stiperstones bus trip is that most rare of creatures: a wholly enjoyable public transport experience that leaves passengers, and even dogs, not wanting to alight.

A firm favourite with walkers, tourists, pub-goers and people with mobility problems, the Stiperstones summer special links up with Shuttle services from the Long Mynd and Secret Hills and takes a heroically circuitous route off the beaten track into another country.
As the bus threads itself through some of the most stunning landscape that Mother Nature has up her ample sleeve, passenger Sheila Rickers and her husband Derek, from Shrewsbury, explain their reason for being On The Buses.

“My husband’s eyesight is not too brilliant and I’m not the most confident of drivers so this is a good way to spend the day, and we can get on and off the bus when we like,” says Sheila. “It’s a gorgeous part of the country and we just like touring round wherever it takes us. We can please ourselves whether we come or go.”
Today, that means hopping off at a pub along the route, having a bite of lunch and then hopping on the next bus. Although it’s not the first time they’ve been up here, it’s the first time they have done the trip by bus and they are lapping up the experience because for Sheila and Derek the bus offers a chauffeured trip down memory lane. Most of the places along the Stiperstones route they have visited before and the bus now offers a good way of returning to what was their old stomping ground when Derek was in better health. “If people are a little bit older and can’t get out so much, this is a nice way to see the countryside,” she adds. The circuit can be driven by car of course, but then the luxury of being able to sit back and look out of the window gives passengers a vantage point. For keeping track on wildlife and on the ever-changing scenery, the Shuttle boasts the best seats in the house.

And the drivers are not your normal bus drivers either.
There is no sign of a pesky Reg Varney or an offensive Blakey. Phil, Harry and Graham are accommodating to the point where they will help you onto the bus, point out things to see, chat about the latest sightings of wild white ponies, and might even proffer the odd boiled sweet.

Harry Wedge, one of the drivers today, says: “I love it - I love driving in the countryside and meeting lots and lots of nice people - people who are here on holiday, walkers, old-age pensioners.”

Earlier, as a passenger’s springer spaniel refuses to get off the bus, Harry is reminded of another four-legged passenger. “I had a dog get on on his own once and he wouldn’t get off either,” says Harry. “He got on the bus and ran to the back and got underneath the seat and everybody got on the bus but nobody owned the dog. He obviously liked the bus.” The wayfaring waif was kindly escorted off the bus, but luckily this doesn’t happen to our merry band of passengers.

Holidaymakers Merilyn and Brian Holdroyd come down from Chester every year. For them the trekking territory is unsurpassed. “We will be doing a walk across Stiperstones and the bus will pick us up on the other side when we have done it. With the bus, you don’t have to come back to the same place or do a circuit. You just get back on somewhere else.” That’ll be after the obligatory lunch at the legendary Stiperstones Inn of course. A good lunch requires a good walk to follow. “Superb, what a wonderful view,” she says catching her breath as the bus weaves it way past through Stiperstones National Nature Reserve. “We use the bus so that you don’t have to used the car - you wouldn’t be able to enjoy views like that otherwise.”

Next stop, the Bog Centre, an old 1800s schoohouse which is now a caf� and information centre near the nature reserve. With views that would be the envy of many a bird, a good half of the passengers jump off to stretch their legs and to sample some of the homemade cake produced by the volunteers. Bus drivers are known to leap off and order Stiper Scones for the whole family.

An hour later it’s back on the next bus. Onwards and upwards - or rather, with the Shuttle having to negotiate some of the most inhospitable territory in the country, it’s more a case of downwards, sidewards, upwards and onwards. The journey takes in the 19th- century Snailbeach Mine, Plox Green, Minsterley, Pontesbury and Pulverbatch before returning to the place the bus started out, Bridges.

Passenger Michael Hughes, from Bayston Hill, is astounded that so much natural beauty is on his very own doorstep and says you can’t quibble at the price of the bus ticket. Three pounds will take him all way the round and back to Cardingmill Valley. At the end of the trip he says it’s a shame to get off the bus and most passengers, having made a number of new friends while aboard, bid their farewells and pledge to return another day. “I will definitely be back,” says Michael who, in getting off the bus, pays his compliments to the driver by putting two Stiper Scones in Harry’s lap.

It’s that kind of a journey - for passengers, it’s a piece of cake.