I woke up early this morning and so was able to catch the 07:34 Manchester Airport train to Dore and Totley station, only a couple of miles from the Peak District; most trains from Doncaster don't stop at this station though.
The coverage of my map doesn't quite reach this far towards Sheffield and so I wasn't sure which would be my best route to the moors without too much walking along the road. I saw a footpath immediately opposite the station entrance, it looked interesting and was heading in generally the right direction and so I took it. I was immediately walking along a wooded lane, then next to some playing fields...but after about a mile I was in an expensive housing estate at Dore and needed to ask for directions. About a mile further on and I was somewhere that I recognised, Dore Moor Inn - right on the edge of the moors.
I still had to walk along the road for a few minutes, but the views were nice.
I arrived at the first footpath leading on to the moors a bit earlier than I had been expecting; it's not marked on the map. I'm glad I decided to take it though, it was a useful short-cut which cut out a bit of roadwalking...and I got some close-up photographs of some alpacas in a field. [I've used the word 'some' because I don't know what the collective noun for alpacas is.]
Another short section of walking along the road was required until I reached Houndkirk Moor. For the next couple of hours I just wandered wherever the mood took me, just aiming in a generally westerly direction with the intention of reaching Hathersage: it's all access land, both Houndkirk Moor and Burbage Moor, so there's no problem with me doing this. There are plenty of footpaths, and anyhow the terrain isn't too difficult anywhere.
[I didn't pop in to the Scotsman Pack pub today, instead I went to one of my favourite establishments in the Peak District - Cintra's Tearooms.]
After enjoying tea and cake I left Hathersage and headed to the north, and then the south west. After I'd just walked down the footpath which runs right next to Hurstclough Lane [the views are far better - Hurstclough Lane is a sunken lane and all you can see are the trees at either side of you] when a couple of women walking in front of me stopped me to ask for directions. Unfortunately I had to tell them that needed to turn round and go back where they came, back up Hurstclough Lane...back uphill.
When I reached the bus turnaround at Bamford Station it wasn't being used because of building improvement works. The two different buses which were scheduled to depart from here towards Sheffield, only two minutes apart, were using different temporary bus stops on different roads quite a distance apart. This was a tricky situation for me to manage and so I walked to the nearest stop which both services would be using, at Shatton, not very away. I had plenty of time, I had about twenty minutes to wait.
Unfortunately neither of the buses turned up, something very unusual - it's probably the first time it's happened to me. About half an hour later a bus did indeed turn up, but it was one of the services timed and routed mainly for the pupils at Hope Valley College and so wasn't going all the way to Sheffield city centre, just one of the estates at Dore I think.
I still got on board though and travelled to Whirlow, somewhere on the main trunk road into Sheffield. From here there's a frequent bus service and I only had to wait ten minutes. Nonetheless a good day's walking was still ruined for me by public transport letting me down; two buses not showing up and having to stand on the train travelling in both directions...having to stand on the trains isn't particularly unusual though.
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