Grindleford, Bretton Clough and Hathersage

A perfect day for walking and photography...and the Met Office forecast was correct for once. The day started a bit cloudy and quite cold; I saw my first ice of the winter on Eyam Moor, the highest part of the walk: later, someone told me that there had been a dusting of snow overnight on the Snake Pass - as you can see from the photograph, visibility was excellent and I could easily see towards Kinder Scout, the highest point of the Peak District, a few miles to the north; and there was certainly no sign of snow up there by mid-morning.

The walk began with a steady climb westwards out of Grindleford on the road up to Sir William Hill; unfortunately, according to the Ordnance Survey map there are no public footpaths leading from the village to the west. I then dropped down into Bretton Clough, where the woodland was looking decidedly autumnal; followed by a steady walk along the brook to Leadmill Bridge and then Hathersage in time to catch the 15:24 bus back to Sheffield...except that it didn't turn up. It wasn't timetabled to show up though, the bus was doing the school run, taking the children from Hope Valley School home. The next bus arrived half an hour later and only went to Fox House; but I knew that there were many more buses back to Sheffield from there. When one did appear it was ten minutes late, so I arrived at Sheffield railway station ten minutes late thinking I'd just missed the express train back to Doncaster and would have to wait for the stopping train...however, the express was also ten minutes late and so I was able to catch it. Hallelujah, a problem with public transport working in my favour.

So, what could have been a perfect day ruined by the vagaries of buses and trains.