Seven day rover

As a parent now, I can't believe I was so willing to deceive our parents in such a blatant way and in an age before instant mobile phone communications. 

We had it all planned out, I had purchased a book of all the train timetables for that time of year and worked out a rather complicated route. I then typed this into my father's work computer and printed our itinerary on a roll of printer paper. I also dreamt the connections and the possiblitity of failures for months beforehand. 

The route was something like this

Day 1 Thursday

Portchester to Exeter

Exeter to Penzance (past the Royal Navy basic training school)

Penzance to Bristol

Bristol to Crewe

Crewe to Bangor

A very wet Bangor overnight to London Euston

Day 2 Friday

London Liverpool Street to Norwich

Norwich to Birmingham

Birmingham to Chesterfield (to meet a girl I fancied and who never turned up)

Chesterfield to London St Pancras 

London Euston to Carlisle 

Carlisle to Newcastle 

Newcastle to London Kings Cross

Day 3 Saturday

London Euston to Oxenholme

Oxenholme to Windermere

Overnight stay in a youth hostel 

Day 4 Sunday

Windermere to Oxenholme

Oxenholme to London Euston

Then it should have been London Waterloo to Clapham Junction to pick up a train to Liverpool, but the guard didn't turn up. 

London Euston to Stafford

Stafford to Edinburgh

Tried to sleep on the station but frequently moved on by police 

Day 5 Monday

Edinburgh to Inverness

We did plan to go to Wick, but we had a few hours in Inverness instead

Inverness to Edinburgh 

Edinburgh to Bristol (to sleep)

Day 6 Tuesday

Bristol to Crewe 

Crewe to Bangor

Night in a youth hostel

Day 7 Wednesday

Bangor to Cardiff 

Cardiff to Portchester

I was sick on the second day, either due to the contents of the pasty in Penzance, lack of sleep or eating my day old sandwiches for breakfast

We met some very interesting people, we were offered chewing tobacco, cigarettes, beer and on one occasion, we were offered someone's wife. 

On Edinburgh station we were offered a night with a very strange man, which we declined quickly and ran away. 

We arrived in the Lake District in the pouring rain and awoke the next morning to glorious sunshine and a wonderful view over one of the lakes. 

We walked a bit around Crewe, Norwich and Inverness, mostly we played cards on trains and slept in train seats. In all we covered over 3,000 miles on a seven day all areas rover ticket. 

Staying in Bangor, Leo phoned home to learn his exam results. They weren't as good as he expected and he wasn't very willing to go home the next day. The fact that he was willing to run away and leave me on my own, came as a big shock to me. In hindsight I should have been ready for the next time he did it