Another local walk today as I planned to keep as far ahead as possible of the approaching bad weather from the west. The rain was forecast to reach the Peak District by 11:a.m. this morning, but four hours later at Retford. The forecast turned out not to be very accurate though, it started to rain as I was waiting for the bus at Doncaster, and once I'd gotten off my second bus at Welham it was raining quite heavily...fortunately it didn't last for long and this was the worst rainfall of the day.
After I'd put on my anorak and hood I left Welham, walking to the east by taking a lane up a hill before turning southwards as the terrain levelled off. At a point where four footpaths and bridleways meet I took one of the bridleways towards Little Gringley. Most of the houses at Little Gringley are detached with large gardens - nowhere looks its best on a miserable day though. The only bit of colour I could find to photograph was this letter box.
The weather improved for next half an hour or so as I walked across fields and through a small wood to reach Grove. There were a lot of easily pickable blackberries in the wood and a lot of mean-looking aggressive cows in the fields as I approached Grove. Every cow was staring at me and they were trying to out-manoeuvre me, attempting to crush me against one of the walls or fences...I'm convinced that cattle have a herd intelligence...and that they're evil too. Sheep and pigs never behave like this.
When I reached Grove I did a short detour further into the village to visit the churchyard.
I had planned to walk across the fields to Nether Headon but the route of the footpath across some wheatfields hadn't been trodden down so I had to choose an alternative route down a farm track and then a more clearly defined path until I reached the road that goes to Nether Headon, and then continues up the hill to Headon.
There was another church here for me to photograph.
On the Ordnance Survey map it shows Headon and Upton as two separate villages...and so that's what I'm sticking to.
As I left Upton the path I was looking for doesn't seem to exist any more so I had to keep on walking along the road until I reached the next one going in the right direction, just before entering Askham. Askham looks to be a pretty village with a winding road going up to an old church at the top of the hill. I decided not to visit though because I had already reached the edge of the map I'd printed out.
I got completely lost and had to re-trace my steps a couple of times as I was passing by Gamston Wood Farm. I eventually reached the road I needed to find and continued across the fields without any further problems all the way to Retford. The final picture I'm including was taken as I was walking along the Great North Road in Retford, less than a mile from the town centre.
I had nearly an hour to wait for the next bus back to Doncaster and so did some shopping, I bought some apples, chocolate, shortbread biscuits, flapjacks, frozen cod, and a large bottle of Pepsi Max.
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