Day 82 A trip on the X26 to Kingston in order to do the No 131

I left home before eleven in the hope I could get a bus to Walliungton Green in order to pick up the X26 at its first stop outside Croydon. No such luck-the No 407 decided to exchange drivers at the Plough and the X26 sailed past. I thus had almost half an hour to wait for the X26 to take me to Kingston. That was the reason I used to walk to Wallington Green when I was catching the X26 to Heathrow for work rather than risk the bus. I therefore arrived at Kingston Fairfield bus station at 1225 just as a No 131 left. I didn't have long to wait as the bus service seems to run every 5 minutes and London General's WVN40 was soon taking me into the centre of Kingston.

Fairfield bus station Kingston with the No 131 I missed, with incorrect destination display.

WVN40 turning into bus stop for layover in bus station

Aboard the next No 131 in Kingston High Street
with a No 513 provided by Reptons buses 

The bus made such good progress that by the mainline railway bridge as we entered New Malden we had caught up with the previous No 131. This meant that when we reached The Fountain the bus was requested to wait to allow the preceding bus to make more progress.

The Traffic lights at the junction of Worple Road and High Street Wimbledon were not working but this didn't seem to limit the rapidity of our travel owing to the lightness of the traffic.

A No 93 pulling out in front of us at Wimbledon station

We again caught up with the previous No 131 at the Polka Theatre, and we were very close behind at South Wimbledon Northern line station. Whilst I was musing whether the bus will be held again to allow the other bus to escape the driver announced we would be switching drivers at the stop prior to Merton garage.

WVN37, the preceding No 131

Merton London General bus garage

This delay was for about 3 minutes and then we ran along the A24 through Colliers Wood and on into Tooting where we halted with the Underground station to our right whilst still remaining on the A24.

Arrival at the Tooting Broadway Crossroads at 1332

From here I ran across the road in an endeavour to catch a No 127 to Hackbridge, but as there was a 13 minute wait I decided to board the No 355 to Mitcham. From here I walked across Mitcham Common, through the Beddington Farmlands to Beddington Park and home. The walk took 1 3/4 hours.

A lovely day for a walk with a Peacock butterfly sunning itself