2025-04-28 55 -2

Location

On the eastbound shoulder of Edinburgh Road, West Barns, Scotland

Participants

Plans

Catch the X7 bus from Edinburgh at 17:32. Get off at a stop about 200 m east of the hashpoint. With luck I'll be able to catch the return bus 11 minutes later.

Expedition

Well, the first 48% of the trip went as planned. Things went sideways when the last bus stop before mine had gone by, I had rung the stop bell, and the bus did NOT bear left on Edinburgh Rd as I expected. Instead it continued on the larger road to the right. I watched at a couple of intersections to see if it would turn back toward the hashpoint, but no luck. At the next stop I asked the driver "Did we miss the East Links Family Park stop?" He replied "It's closed because the road is closed. I'm just doing a loop in Dunbar and heading back out. I can let you know at the spot that's closest if you want." A few minutes later he said "This is as close as we'll get to that stop. It's straight down the road. You can walk from here." Geohash Droid said 2.5 km. It's a nice evening, the sun is still up, these buses run fairly late so I won't get stranded. What the hell.

So I walked, through western Dunbar and West Barns to the hashpoint. It was indeed a nice evening, with a pleasant temperature for walking and lots of birdsong. The road seemed fine but was indeed blocked (but otherwise undamaged) at the intersection just east of the hashpoint, where the originally intended bus stop was. It was pleasant to do a road hashdance without worrying about traffic.

As I was returning to town I saw a lady about my age waiting for a bus on the other side of the road. I walked over to tell her there wouldn't be any buses stopping there this evening. We both ended up walking back to town and riding the same X7 back to Edinburgh.