Day thirty three the opportunity arose to do the No 61 as Richard was going to the dentist

Despite living in the Croydon area since 1986 we have maintained our Orpington dentist since my first visit in 1965. Thus this afforded the opportunity to catch the No 61. I had hoped to take the No 119 to Bromley North and thereby start the No 61 to Chislehurst via Orpington that way. However, it was not to be and we had to change to the No 353 on Kent Gateway so as to make our son's appointment. Post appointment it seemed sensible to catch the No 61 to the Chislehurst end of the route and then catch the bus back to cover the entire route to Bromley North.

My travel from Orpington to Chislehurst was aboard Stagecoach
number 19131, one of ten originally bought for the route.

AD Trident AD Enviro 400

The bus starts from a stop called Chislehurst Gordon Arms. This used to be an occasional end point when the bus started at Eltham Well Hall when I was a kid. It was amongst one of the first routes to be privatised with Metrobus blue and yellow Daimler Fleetlines in the mid 1980s and at the same time was truncated at Chislehurst. Departure was at 1620 from Chislehurst having arrived at 1610
on the same bus AD Trident with AD Enviro 400 bodywork.

Indicating the rural nature of parts of the route; at this point I was passing through the National Trust woodland of Petts Wood 

The 1920s facade of Bromley North's two platform
terminus station

The bus driver was changed at Bromley Garage and this delayed progress for a few minutes but we were soon underway again and reached
Bromley North station at 1716.

Final stop on the route at Bromley North

From here I returned the way I had hoped to arrive, by utilising the No 119 back to Croydon.