Using our bus passes.

One of our objectives in retirement was to make as much use of our bus passes as possible, are we doing this? The answer yes. Here are the buses we have used so far….

73 This is the bus that goes to Liskeard one way and Looe and Polperro the other. We use it to go to Liskeard to catch other buses, or occasionally to the station, and to go to the doctors or to go shopping. We frequently go to Looe for fresh fish and odds and ends shopping from the Coop, and to do the walk to Hannafore point and back. We also catch it to near Talland and do the walk to Polperro where we catch the bus home again.

11 This is the fast bus to Plymouth, just under an hour.

11a This goes from Liskeard to Padstow where we often have fish and chips at Rick Stein’s, and walk along the beaches. The journey is about one and a half hours so it is a day out.

71 This is the longer route to Plymouth from Liskeard, about 2 hours. We have only used it once so far and there was a diversion along the coastal bit so it wasn’t quite such a spectacular journey as we imagined. Nevertheless it calls at such nice seaside places as Seaton and Downderry as well as the lovely village of St Germans which is where Port Eliot is situated.

74 This took us to Callington where a short wait enabled us to catch the 79 to Tavistock, a historic market town pleasant and interesting enough for a few hours visit. We caught the 45 back to Plymouth and then the 11 back to Liskeard. All of this needs quite a bit of planning!

The Stagecoach Gold bus to Totnes. This we caught from Plymouth, an enjoyable ride on a rather luxurious double decker with leather seats and wi-fi. We know Totnes well and were happy to reacquaint ourselves on a couple of occasions.

There are more possibilities for us to go to places we haven’t explored yet such as Kingsbridge and Bude for example. But considering we pay nothing on the buses unless we travel before 9.30am, it is a wonderful thing for us. We do hope this perk remains for some while yet!

Using our train passes.

Although you do have to purchase the Senior rail cards (we got a particularly good price for 3 years), they do offer great value. And of course we are just 5 minutes away from the mainline station at Liskeard. Whenever we visit the station I never cease to be amazed that you can get on a train here and get off in places as far away as London or Penzance or Manchester or Glasgow……..all from little old Liskeard. So we hardly feel cut off. We have used the cards to go by train to Exeter, Penzance and St Ives, and on our local beautiful Looe Valley Line (our local station at the bottom of the hill is pictured), so I’m sure we’ll get good use out of them.