Day 160 After many days where transport strikes have made doing my odyssey rather difficult, the No 245 from Alperton to Golders Green.

 Owing to engineering work on the line to Victoria it took rather longer to get to Alperton than on previous occasions. Thus we had to get a bus to East Croydon at 1125; later than we intended as I wanted the cold front to have cleared through. At East Croydon we took the 1153 train to London Bridge and after arrival walked to the Jubilee Line at 1212. Here we caught a train to Green Park where we changed to the Piccadilly line for a train to Alperton. At Alperton station it was quite a shock to see nothing remains of the Metroline bus garage adjacent to the station  and that it was being billed as a location of future housing. From here we walked to Sainsburys where we found we had a 12 minute wait for the next No 245.  

 

Charmaine actively waiting for our bus to arrive

The No 245 Waiting departure from lay over.

Metroline's VW1831 arriving ar the Alperton Sainsbury's bus stop

Behind the barrier is the razed site of Alperton bus garage

Metroline's VW1831 arrived at 1342 and soon passed the site of Alperton garage as we headed for Sudbury. At the next fork we took Bridgewater Road to the Sudbury roundabout and then under the bridge at Sudbury and Harrow Road station before taking the right at the next major junction into Watford Road. The bus turned right at a set of traffic lights into East Lane and passed over a bridge at Wembley North after which were nice views of the Wembley Arch and the surrounding high rise buildings.

 

View of Central Wembley from East Lane

We continued across Preston Road into Forty Avenue which becomes Forty Lane passing to the north of Wembley Park before swinging southeast down Blackbird Hill. As we crossed the river Brent here I was very surprised to see a heron in such an urban setting standing in the river. Neasden Lane followed, once the river was crossed and this then took us through a spiral to Neasden parade, and then after this circuit we headed down Tanfield Avenue which becomes Crest Road. The bus turned right along Coles Green Road to where we met Dollis Hill Lane.

'Borismaster' on bus route No 332

Looking Southeast from Dollis Hill towards Kensal Rise to Primrose Hill

We then turned left and dropped down to the A5 (Edgware Road) to turn right to Cricklewood bus garage where we arrived at 1423. From here we took Cricklewood Lane to go under the Midland main line next cross Hendon Way and up the hill to Childs Hill. This meant we reached the Finchley road where we turned left and ran into Golders Green. The bus terminated at 1438 whereupon Charmaine went off to investigate the High Street.

Approaching Golders Green bus terminus

Journey's End

We used the Northern Line to get to Kings Cross from here and then took a Thameslink train from St Pancras to East Croydon arriving home around 1715.