The railway line to Sheffield is still closed on Sundays and so I have to rely on local buses to get me out into the countryside. I caught the first service to Arksey this morning, only about a couple of miles from Doncaster town centre, but quite a bit further by road because there isn't a bridge over the river.
The last time I took some photographs of the church there was scaffolding erected, but not so now.
I left Arksey by walking along Ings Lane, a wide track for about half its length, which eventually leads to the site of the demolished power station at Thorpe Marsh. There are plenty of wildflowers along here, and an interesting trestle bridge carrying a pipeline...there are also hops growing in the hedgerows, in fact more hops than I've seen anywhere else.
I turned left at Thorpe Marsh and about a mile later did a circuit of the nature reserve. Although the power station is no longer there, there are still a lot of pylons and overhead power lines and even though it was quite breezy I could still hear the electricity buzzing and feel the static in the air.
I was listening to Test Match Special on the radio but had to turn it off so that I could phone the signalman to ask for permission to cross the busy Easy Coast Main Line at Massarella's Crossing.
I hurried over the tracks and then re-joined the cricket commentary.
Fifteen minutes later I reached the hamlet of Tilts, somewhere I'd not been before, and then it was a short walk down the road to a stretch of the Trans Pennine Trail which runs to the north of Bentley Community Woodlands. This track came out at the southern end of Toll Bar, from where I walked into Bentley and caught the bus back into town. There was a strong smell of urine in the bus shelter and so I stood several yards away until I sighted the bus coming.
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