ANYONE tangled up in a timetable or stuck at a stop should spare a thought for Andy Bardoe and Tarja Rantanen.

The Colchester couple are setting off today to travel 900 miles from Land’s End to John O’Groats...only using local buses, a trip they expect will take a month.

Andy, 31, said: “We love travelling and do as many and as varied trips as we can.

“We’ve cycled around Finland and walked the Camino de Santiago across Spain, but I wanted to see my own country with Tarja, who’s Finnish.

“We had a think about how to do it and chose to just use local buses and stay at pubs. They’re both such iconic images of Britain.”

The intrepid travellers set off from Land’s End tomorrow and hope to reach Lyme Regis, a 150-mile journey timetabled to take ten hours on six different buses.

He said: “After that, we’re just going to see how it goes.

“We’re zig-zagging across the country, with 15 places we want to go through, including Canterbury, Conwy and Hadrian’s Wall.

“But we want to go on the quieter routes and see parts of the country you wouldn’t normally go to.”

However, the couple are realistic about the prospects of a smooth journey. Andy said: “Even from where my parents live, in Birch, to Colchester, the buses can be ropey.

“I’m sure we’ll have delays and problems, but that’s part of the fun.

“We had to drop one of the places we wanted to go to in northern Scotland because a bus only went there every four days.

“Our friends and families do think we’re a bit bonkers, but at the same time, they’re used to us going off and recognise it’ll be interesting.”

Andy and Tarja, 33, met six years ago when she was working at Colchester Zoo and he worked behind the bar at the Christmas party.

Andy added: “We’ve got the same approach to life and were directed towards each other.

“We both work in hospitality and do short contracts, then pop off to do something like this.”

* To follow Andy and Tarja’s progress, visit http://sites.google.com/site/thegreatbritishbushop/