What's up on the hill - is it a Routemaster, is it a Routemaster?
No - actually it is over 25 Routemasters. This is Imberbus - the annual parade of London buses from Warminster to Chitterne - via Salisbury Plain and a collection of quaint villages, including Imber (hence the esoteric name of the event).
This eerie sight has a fitting backstory. The inhabitants of the small village of Imber in Wiltshire were expelled from their village by the Ministry of Defense in 1943 so that the country could be used for military exercises. At the end of the war, their village was promised to them. That never happened.
Fast forward to a tipsy talk in a Bath pub in 2009, a bit cuddled with the best minds of the Ministry of Defense, and Imberbus' concept was born ... Imber may not have inhabitants, but the hell there should be (once a year ) Bus connection.
It has become a kind of cult event, some bus fanatics even come from overseas.
How do you participate? All you have to do is come to Wiltshire on the 17th of August. The first buses depart from Warminster at 9.45 and the first buses in the other direction from 11.04 clock. Buses then run all day until late afternoon. There are various sights, events and refreshments along the way.
A shorter service runs on Sunday (18 August) only between Warminster and Imber.
Day tickets for Imberbus cost £ 10 (children only drive £ 1 extra). In this way you can drive indefinitely (you can try different buses and stop in different villages on the way). You do not have to book in advance. Get all the information you need on the Imberbus website.
In recent years, the event raised £ 22,000 for the Imber Church Fund and the Royal British Legion. This is almost as cool as the spectacle of a series of vintage buses rushing through a military training area.
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