East to West

I decided to do something i had never done on Saturday morning, when it comes to days out with the camera its always in the car or train depending on the destination, the furthest by bus for me is usually Acle to Norwich. Today was going to be long distance (For me anyway!). Kings Lynn was my place of choice to catch up happenings in West Norfolk and to sample the other side of the X1 route.
My first steed for the day was 33820 which worked the 06.53 from Acle to Norwich, all good and away i went, next it was a swap to 33807 at Norwich bound for Kings Lynn, a pleasant journey in the spring sun through a few villages new to me via Dereham and Swaffham before reaching the temporary bus stops in Kings Lynn's Portland Street.

Excel Enviro sisters 33806 & 33807 loading up in Portland Street

Portland Street itself is now home to three stops being used whilst the Bus Station is being refurbished, work which is due to be completed in June. It is also a good area for photography especially in the mornings if like today the sun was shining. I eventually wandered over to the Bus Station where i was greeted by my first sighting in the flesh of an Optare Tempo belonging to new operator Lynxbus.

YJ05JWZ is a shorter wheelbase Tempo now with Lynxbus, Fleet number 1.

Photography in the Bus Station at Kings Lynn has always been enjoyable with a decent selection of places to stand throughout the day to follow the sun round, it did cloud over occasionally but never a bad thing!. I was lured away to the Vancouver Shopping Centre to sample a full English in one of the Cafe's, i tried hard to stop myself but gave in within seconds!.

Norfolk Green Enviro 300 GX10KYZ heads out of the Bus Station bound for Hunstanton

After an hour or so in the Bus Station i headed back to Portland Street to view a few more arrivals and departures where i bumped into Richard Algar whom many of you will know from the EATM and of course First at Lowestoft.

Recent arrival from Stagecoach South is Dart 34630 GX54DVY

From May 1st Norfolk Green is now officially known as Stagecoach Norfolk and the current Stagecoach corporate livery is to be brought in across the fleet like the Dart above. So over the coming months the Green wll be replaced with the brighter colours meaning Kings Lynn will look rather different than it has over the past few years.

Only recently refurbished Optare Tempo YJ56ATU, no doubt another trip to the paintshop awaits

After a good session with the cameras, myself and Richard boarded Enviro 33814 and headed back East, my plan was to stop off at Dereham and visit the Mid Norfolk Railway in the town, i left Richard and he headed back to Norwich. After my Railway visit it was back to the Market Place to wait for the bus back into Norwich to be greeted by a lot of happy people in Yellow and Green!

Unusual sight on the Konect 8 was standard liveried 603 SN10CFG

33820 was my ride back to Acle and it was my Bus trip over so i headed back home to Ormesby quite satisfied with my first experience of more of the X1 route aboard First's flagship fleet and i can Exclusively reveal...... for a regular car user i quite enjoyed it!

Photos from the day can now be viewed on my Flickr pages here  https://www.flickr.com/photos/hemsbybus/