update: bus bloopers

So this week there's been the relatively run-of-the-mill bus break down in peak hour when I'm already late on my way to work, but also, much more creatively, there's been the mysteriously directioned bus.  This was the E71 which stopped in Neutral Bay clearly hailing itself a Manly bus, which was perfect, seeing as Manly was where I was going.  Unfortunately, it had a very different idea about how to get there than I did.

Having traveled to Manly probably hundreds of times by bus and car, it's one of the few places I feel pretty confident I could drive to without actually having driven it myself (generally I can be driven somewhere umpteen times and still have no idea how to get there until I do it once on my own ... seeing as I don't drive per se in Australia, well, I guess it hasn't been that much of an issue.  It's more of an issue when someone is driving me and expects me to know my own way home ... which I would, providing they stuck to the bus routes and left those pesky back roads alone).  To be precise, when you come up Military Road and hit Seaforth, I tend to think a right-hand turn is in order.  If you looked at a map, I'm 99% sure you'd agree with me, unless you're a big fan of seeing the rest of the world before you see you Manly and have a car that could handle that.  The bus, it appeared, thought it was such a car and hurled headlong into a left-hand turn.

Fortunately, I know that particular area quite well, having lived there for a year and a half awhile ago.  Unfortunately, it appeared that the driver had not made a wrong turn for the route in question because no one else on the bus appeared the slightest bit perturbed.  I hastily pressed the button, got off, crossed the street and waited ten minutes at the bus stop going the other way and finally caught the much more reliable 143 to Manly.

I presume the E71 must have made it there eventually, but I suspect I beat it by a long shot.  Perhaps you've found it in your neck of the woods as it meanders its way across the globe?