I planned to catch the number 57 bus to Oughtibridge from Sheffield Interchange. I arrived at the appropriate departure stand to see the bus just pulling away; I could have easily caught it but I didn't rush because I didn't realise that the early morning services leave at forty five minutes past the hour and not ten past as they do for the rest of the day. So...I walked over to the nearest tram stop. I thought the same thing was going to happen again but fortunately the tram driver saw me running and waited for me. Throughout the journey there were six trainee conductors standing near to me and listening to their conversations was quite interesting.
The tram only goes as far as Middlewood though and so I had to start the walk from there, adding two miles to the distance. It wasn't long until I reached the park and was able to walk near to the river for a few minutes, followed by an equal length of time walking along the road until I stumbled upon a footpath sign indicating Beeley Wood, precisely where I needed to be.
Probably half an hour later I reached Oughtibridge, the original starting point for the walk today; it was easy walking along a gravel or concrete track never too far from the river...quite boring though really.
I walked up Station Lane until I reached the first path on the left as intended, heading off towards a factory but then turning to the right towards Wharncliffe Woods; just inside the woods there's a rustic tattoo parlour. It wasn't long until the walking conditions were very similar to how they were in Beeley Wood, well-maintained forestry tracks - by now I was able to listen to the cricket commentary though to help to pass the time, and the miles.
For quite a while now I'd been walking along the TransPennine Trail, but I left it at Finkle Street and walked along the road to Wortley.
It was a pot of tea and a slice of cake at The Countess Tearooms in the village and then I spied a lovely rabbit pie at the farm shop next door but didn't buy it because I didn't fancy having to carry it home and it ending up in pieces at the bottom of my rucksack.
I was glad to be out of the woods as I walked across the countryside on my way to Worsborough. I noticed something a bit unusual though, something I've not seen before; sunflowers growing among a field of maize...I wonder why?
Just beyond Hermit Hill, for the first time ever in all my years of walking and thousands of miles covered, I was able to use a stile with some comfortable handgrips added by the landowner, wooden bedknobs in fact...many thanks for that, it's much appreciated...together with the clearly indicated entrance into the wood using copious amounts of bright yellow masking tape.
The section of the walk passing close by the Northern College campus at Wentworth Castle was familiar because I walked here a few years ago when I was on a residential mapreading course. A few hundred yards further on the path goes quite near to a large obelisk associated with the Estate, but I couldn't get a close-up look because builders were working in a neighbouring property and scaffolding and their vehicles ruined every photograph I attempted to take.
I went inside the working watermill at Worsborough Mill Country Park.
I picked up the TransPennine Trail again a few hundred yards further east but soon left it to head for the hamlet of Swaithe and then a walk of about a mile and a half along the busy road to the bus-stop at Stairfoot: the bus to Doncaster was ten minutes late.
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