The rules

So it seems that the project is go – I've told a couple of friends, and whilst they think it's a bit bonkers, they seemed to laugh at the madness rather than look concerned for my state of mind. Therefore I'd better codify a few of my guiding principles for the trip:

• National coach services are a definite no-no – so no National Express or Megabus. After all, what would stop me catching the overnight coach from Glasgow and arriving in Plymouth the next morning? That would be cheating.
• Routes with an "X" in the service number should be avoided if possible. They're likely to be fast services, and I'm trying to do this the slow way. Otherwise I may as well catch that midnight coach – and if I do that, perhaps I should have stayed at home in the first place?
• My aim is to have reached the final destination within six days. In order to achieve this, I shall need to spend around ten hours per day out and about including lunch and connections. There are to be no late evening excursions unless I'm running late.
• As far as connections are concerned, I shall try to leave at least twenty minutes, with at least one hour break for lunch every day. At peak hours I shall try and leave a little more, but there may be the odd occasion when I can only spare a couple of minutes. In this event, I'm at the mercy of the Four Horsemen of Traffic Congestion: namely Roadworks, Accident, School Run and Lack of Bus Priority Measures.
• I'll plan my itinerary before I leave. It would be an amazing challenge to try and make things up as I go, but impracticable as far as accomodation goes – unless I pitch a tent every night. I may have considered it ten years ago but these days I prefer a little bit of comfort, and that is likely to require pre-booking in order to stay within budget.
• I'm not too hot at blogging, let alone live-blogging. I will probably take a laptop with me along with a digital camera, and I'll try to use them. My main form of communication en route however will probably be Twitter.

That seems to cover the main points. Of course rules are made to be broken, but I'll attempt to stick to them as best I can. There's just one last "rule" I should let you in on:

• All the buses that I catch should belong to the Stagecoach Group...

Image credit: didbygraham on Flickr