𝗕𝘂𝘀-𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸-𝗕𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 – Cardiff Bus No.6 Baycar

This is more like the type of bus I anticipated myself catching when I started this challenge. A bus that travels between two significant destinations, Cardiff City Centre and Cardiff Bay, not some out of town industrial estate as was the case with the 1A and 2A or a nighttime journey to the Bus Depot as with the No.4. Here I was mixing in with the late-summer tourists and some Belgium football fans over for the World Cup qualifier game with Wales tonight.

Cardiff Bus No.6 in Cardiff Bus Interchange

I’m guessing Cardiff Bus probably deliberately put one of their most cheerful drivers on this route to give a good impression of the city. I felt like asking him why is the bus called the ‘No.6 Baycar’, when it’s obviously not a car, it’s a bus. And why haven’t the other buses got a name such as ‘miserable-industrial-estate-car’? I didn’t have the heart to ask him.

To wow the tourists the No.6 drops you right outside the Millennium Centre. It’s hard not to be impressed by this slate and copper-fronted building with its giant words in Welsh and English set to confuse many a tourist and even the natives when they discover that the English translation of the Welsh words is different from the English words. I like this area with the Millennium Centre, the Senedd and the Pierhead building. Yes, it not a grand as was at one stage proposed but it’s still good.

Wales Millennium Centre: I must admit I didn’t know until now that the words These, Stones, Horizons, Sing are four words from the end of four lines in a poem.

I’m much less impressed with Mermaid Quay around the corner but this is where I was heading on a mission to see the E.T.Willows clock. I’m thinking of doing a talk on the airship pioneer, Ernest Willows and this was part of my research. The clock is looking a bit battered these days and some bits, notably the gold model airship have gone missing.

The clock’s outer kinetic components that were in sync with the hour hands, include landmark buildings and aeronautical motifs depicting key events in Willow’s life. On the one face the buildings are from Cardiff, and the other face shows buildings from London. Both clocks have a second-hand that has a model of an airship on its tip that used to sweep around fairly quickly. The clock was designed by Andy Hazell.

I’d even bought some Ernest Willows reading material with me in the form of a book called Weekend with Willows about a trip in a balloon in 1924. Willows was a great inventor but a lousy businessman. By 1924 he was broke and making money by taking people on balloon trips. It’s a fascinating account of ballooning. Willows would descend when he was lost and shout to ask passers-by on the ground where he was.

I sat alone on the deck of the Mount Stuart pub, enjoying my pint of Exmoor Dark and imagining myself up there with Willows, floating quietly across the skies over London.

Exmoor Dark and a Weekend with Willows in the Mount Stuart Cardiff

I took a stroll along the boardwalk outside the St David’s Hotel and arrived at the Cardiff Welands, first to enjoy some of the art; Cadair Idris and Ship in a Bottle, and then onto the wooden jetty to look at the birdlife. Much of it moved up the coast towards Newport when Cardiff Bay was flooded after the barrage was built but some decided to stay put (I guess I’m talking about the bird’s ancestors rather than the present generation of waders. No idea how long a duck lives for.)

It was then a few more building to look at on the way back and then a short wait for a No6 Baycar back into the City Centre. A fascinating couple of hours.