Darfield, Edderthorpe, Stairfoot, Broomhill, and Low Valley

I travelled on the X19 Barnsley bus this morning and got off at Darfield and immediately walked towards the church, going in a generally southerly direction.

I looped back north and went along the Dearne Way to Edderthorpe, and then continued following this designated footpath almost to Monk Bretton Priory. The countryside is quite open and pleasant, but there's nothing to see at Edderthorpe.

Beyond Edderthorpe I still walked across some open fields but there were also woods and an old railway embankment - I also spotted a deep abandoned railway cutting and a blocked up tunnel entrance. there were few opportunities for taking photographs because power lines and pylons were usually spoiling the view.

Just before reaching the priory I turned south onto the TransPennine Trail and was now following another abandoned railway almost to the nature reserve at Old Moor  several miles to the south east.

[Along this stretch a chubby male cyclist wearing only a pair of shorts was showing far too much bum cleavage...I never complain when attractive female cyclists approach me from the opposite direction at this time of year though...think about it.]

On the subject of attractive female cyclists; a few minutes later I passed two young attractive female cyclists having a ding-dong of an argument in Dutch; every third word sounded like a pornographic expletive...they didn't break off to say hello, or even smile at me.

I popped into the Ash Inn at Stairfoot for a cold drink; it's right alongside the TransPennine Trail and has a nice large garden at the back that I sat in, under the shade of some trees.

I left the trail and climbed up to reach the road that goes to Broomhill, briefly visiting Broomhill Flash Nature Reserve on the way there. There's only access to a two storey viewing hide though, you can't walk all the way round the lake.

Another argument, this time in English as I was passing by one of the houses in Broonhill; a man was unhappy because someone wasn't visiting him often enough.

On my final approach back to Darfield I wasn't concentrating and missed my turn-off and so had to go the long way round via Low Valley. I still got back with plenty of time to wait to catch the bus back to Doncaster though.