Introduction

England, with real county boundaries

This is a record of a trip around the edge of England undertaken mainly by bus but also on occasion by train and ferry as explained in "The Rules" The edge is defined as the coast, plus the Welsh and Scottish borders. Off-shore islands are included if they have a bus service.

It's not a continuous trip - that would be tedious - but instead consists of a large number of shorter trips, fitted in as and when  time allows. There is no fixed timescale for completion. I started in April 2015 in my home town of Lancaster and expect the journey to be spread over at least two - and perhaps three - years!

Why "England" and not "Great Britain" or the whole UK?  Well, partly to keep things manageable - even "around England" is several thousand kilometres and also, of course, because I am using my concessionary bus pass, which allows travel in England only. This saves quite a bit of money, although the cost of the bus travel is seriously outweighed by accommodation costs (I've decided to treat myself) and the train fares in getting to and from each leg, although advance fares and a senior railcard help here too.