Running the watery gauntlet

[sawyl]

Finally bit the bullet and decide to chance the train up to Coventry. Still nothing running north to Taunton, so I caught a rail-replacement bus which seemed to take an age just to escape from Exeter itself. From Taunton, it was a simple matter of catching a train to Bristol, changing at Temple Meads for Birmingham and again at New Street for Coventry. Rather to my surprise, the journey didn't take that much longer than expected — the timetables had been tuned to match all the connections and even the coach trip to Taunton only took twice as long as usual.