Cardiff (Wales) | A Day of Wrong Moves - Day 69

I wake early and am out the door around 8 am. The bus leaves for Bristol at 845 am. I plan to go to Bristol, drop off the keys I left my Airbnb with, and be back in Cardiff around lunchtime. The walk to the bus station should take around 20 minutes, and I want to eat breakfast before, so I have plenty of time. It is starting to drizzle when I realize I forgot my daypack and rain jacket. But, it will be alright; this should be a quick trip to Bristol and back. I laugh at myself; hopefully, I don't get too wet.

Once I reach Bristol, it is about 10 am. My return bus leaves Bristol for Cardiff at 1045 am. I don't quite have enough time to walk to Louise's and back, so I walk across the street, grab an e-scooter, and head for Louise's place. I buzz up and back, which costs me a couple quids, and I still have about 15 minutes to spare before the bus leaves. I love it when things work out as I plan them. A quick check of the route board tells me my bus leaves from Bay 1. Great, the bus is already here, so I join the small crowd waiting to board and follow them onto the bus. The driver is busy loading luggage, so I don't bother to show him my ticket.

Wow, this bus is much more crowded than yesterday afternoon. I find my seat, then play musical chairs with a mom and her children, but I end up on the aisle, which is what I prefer. Finally, the bus backs up, and we are on our way. I notice the route leaving Bristol is slightly different today. We travel along the River Avon and pass under the Clifton Suspension Bridge. It is quite a site to see the bridge from this angle, several hundred feet below the bridge. I check Google Maps; we are heading in the right direction toward Prince of Wales Bridge. I put my phone back into airplane mode and enjoy the views. Tens minutes later, we make a gradual 270-degree turn, and we are now headed south. Then I hear a mom in front of me tell her son, "Settle in; we have an 8-hour ride." I am confident my bus's last stop is only 1 hour and 10 minutes away.

When I finally get service again, I open Google maps and notice we are south of Bristol. I am obviously on the wrong bus. After looking at Google Maps, I estimate that this bus is headed to Plymouth in southern England. I laugh. Is this a direct bus, or are there scheduled stops? Unfortunately, cell service is intermittent, and there is nothing I can do but wait. 

I am now fighting an internal battle. On the one hand, there is nothing I can do until the bus stops; then, I will have better service. On the other, I want to solve this problem as quickly as possible. So I study the map and identify the next two likely stops, Weston-super-Mare and Bridgwater and try to enjoy the boring scenery. I hope we stop at one of these two towns. As we pass the first town, I figure out there are no more buses today from Bridgwater to Bristol. If we stop in Bridgwater, there's a train, but it is operated by Great Western. Their website says they are on strike this week. The fastest way to kill a battery on a cell phone is to have it search for service when there isn't any. I need to conserve my phone battery now, so I put it back into airplane mode. I have no idea how long I will be without a charger. As we near Bridgwater, I try again. I cross rental cars off the list. There are no options. There are, however, places I can stay if I need to wait till tomorrow to catch a bus back to Bristol.

The bus pulls off the motorway. Woot! I can finally get off this damn thing. First, problem solved! I am slightly over 1 hour south of Bristol and across the bay from Cardiff. I decide my best option for returning to Bristol today is to try the GWR train. The next scheduled train is in 25 minutes out, and I'm 10-12 minutes out. I arrive at the station and ask the attendant behind the desk if the train is running today. He tells me it is 11 quids to Bristol, and he shakes his head as he says 30 to Cardiff. I board the train at 1230 pm. Problem two is now solved.

I arrive in Bristol. It's now 2 o'clock, and I eat lunch on my way to Cabot Circus bus stop. I plan to grab the Megabus to Cardiff for 5 quids. I have 10 minutes to spare when I arrive. The bus to Cardiff arrives 15 minutes late. I was waiting for the bus to arrive before buying my ticket, and now that it's late, I can't buy a ticket for this bus anymore. I shake my head, oh well, there's another bus at 425 pm. Fortunately, the driver lets me buy a general ticket for the next bus, and he allows me to board the 235 pm. Unfortunately, the ticket is now a couple of quids more expensive. I could care less at this point. Finally, the bus to Cardiff leaves Bristol. About 20 minutes into the trip, all my problems now finally solved. I fall asleep.

I arrive in Cardiff after 4 pm and can't wait to get off the bus. Unfortunately, I managed to turn a 3-hour roundtrip into an 8-hour ordeal. When I finally get off the bus, I am wiped out. I am tired of being on public transportation today. Nevertheless, I decide to wander through town on my way back to the Airbnb. As I pass a side street near the city hall, I laugh. It appears that Scooby-Doo and the gang were on the case! Fortunately, I can call them off now.

Then, that tiny perfect moment that salvages my day reveals itself. On the east side of city hall, on the lawn, between the sidewalk and the building, a Sharp-shinned Hawks is feasting on a pigeon it just killed. Sharp-shinned Hawks belong to the Accipiter family, sometimes called True Hawks. They are adapted for forest landscapes and prey on other birds. This Sharpy is the smallest of the three Accipiters in North America and does quite well in urban settings.

I have seen many Sharpy's in my lifetime. This is the first time I have seen one on a kill. It is only 20 feet (5 m) away. It finally flushes into a nearby tree when a couple of young children (< 5 years old) get too close.

I walk to the southwest corner of the city hall and take this picture. The clock tower is stunning on this massive building.

I finally make my way back to my house and call it a day. I try to avoid spending more than 3 hours on public transportation because it wears me out. However, today I spent > 7 hours in total. Fortunately, I have allowed myself the time to make mistakes like this. I am glad I don't make them often. I'll take a rest day and regroup in the morning. For now, I am grateful that I had no significant layovers today; I made it back to Cardiff and had an incredible experience with a Sharp-Shinned Hawk that never would have happened had I not made a series of wrong moves.