With our load complete we were waved away by Bernard, and set off on the route via Cudham, while John Huxford took GS1 via Pratts Bottom. This time we paused for photos at Cudham, then went on down past the busy pub and down through the green tunnel to Green Street Green. We passed RT2043 at the Queens Head stop, and headed towards Orpington.
We continued under the railway arch, and turned at the War Memorial towards the Station. We turned up the Station Approach, passing PVL271 setting out for Woolwich on the 51, to meet GS1 and GS64 waiting for us in the bus station.
The three buses stayed together down to the War Memorial, and reasonably so southwards down the Sevenoaks road as far as the foot of Farnborough Hill. There GS64, on the 471, stopped at a bus-stop, while GS1 and GS32 turned right, to pass the Metrobus garage and climb up to cross the by-pass.
We started up Farnborough Hill, then dived off to the left into Shire Lane. The two GSs rattled along there in style, passing High Elms with its Country Park, and crossing the London Loop, the London outer orbital footpath. We recrossed the London Loop as we approached Downe Road. Briefly on the 146 route, we followed it along to Keston Church, where we turned left onto Westerham Road.
We climbed the old 410 route towards Leaves Green. Nowadays of course it is the 320 and 246 thast frequent this route, and one of the former rolled down the gradient past us in the shape of Metrobus 402. John Huxford pulled up at the Leaves Green stop to check that John Clarke knew the turning arrangements at Biggin Hill, and Eddie Knorn pulled up behind with SNC168, having come out from Southborough as a 705.
We went on, past Biggin Hill Airfield with the Hurricane and Spitfire at the gate, and passed the end of the runway.
At Biggin Hill Post Office we found the shops swathed in scaffolding, and RP21 waiting with the 705 on the other side of the road. The GSs took it in turns to reverse turn into a side-road to change direction and pull up at the Post Office in front of the RP.
On the way back out of Biggin Hill John stopped to refill with diesel, so we lost sight of GS1. We returned the way that we had come: past the airfield and down the long hill through Leaves Green to Keston Church (well remembered from cycling and motor-cycling days), then right along Downe Road, diving left at the last second into Shire Lane (we almost went to Downe). We motored back along Shire Lane to Farnborough Hill, and negotiated the roundabouts back down to Sevenoaks Road in Green Street Green. We turned left for Orpington, and found GS1 in the bus station. We did not make a long stop there. John let me off at the bus-stop islands, and I crossed to the Station Approach where GS1 and GS32 slowed almost to a halt for classic poses.
We set off on the by now familiar 471 route to Green Street Green. Almost inevtably, it seemed, we met GS34 coming the other way at the Queens Head stop, and GS64 also came past as GS32 and GS1 made their stop.
John decided to go back up to Knockholt via Pratts Bottom again, (so I still haven't been UP Cudham lane in a GS!) so we wended our way along the A21 and up Rushmore Hill to The Three Horseshoes.
All photos by Ian Smith. Click on most of them for a larger picture.
Ian's Bus-stop
Part 4: Knockholt Garage
Part 6: Fort Halstead and back