Stainforth and Fishlake

The local weather forecast for today was for it to be dry for a few hours in the morning and so I caught the Thorne bus to Stainforth and crossed over the bridge and within a few seconds saw the footpath that goes up onto the embankment and followed the River Don for about a mile to Fishlake. 

When I was looking at Google Streetview last night I noticed that there was an old fighter aircraft being stored in a field next to the village hall; unfortunately it isn't there now. I continued to walk through the village and then along a country lane for a mile or so until I reached a path, which according to my Ordnance Survey map led to a footbridge going over the New Junction Canal. Well, when I got there the bridge had been removed so I had to return to the road, a distance of a few hundred yards. A notice explaining the closure would have been helpful.

At the road there was another footpath going off to the left, heading south back towards Stainforth. After only a few yards my route was blocked again, this time by a barbed wire fence; it was obvious that this was a public footpath, you could see the sign at the side of the road. There were two female walkers approaching me, one of them checked her online app and that clearly showed that we were on the currect path; I decided to squeeze between the gap between the two wires and they managed to get around it by stepping into a drainage ditch.

After a few minutes the path continued along the top of another embankment - there were some decent views to enjoy.

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The embankment. and therefore the path, were now going parallel to the road that goes to Stainforth, there were a couple of gates I could have easily climbed over to reach the road, but I didn't. I thought I'd regretted that decision when the path made a sharp left turn because the route straight ahead was blocked by what I'm assuming is a flooded remnant of the old course of the River Don. I'm glad I had to go this way though because I got to pass through a beautiful area right on the western approach to Fishlake...it's shown in the photograph below.

I had a few hundred yards to walk back to the bus stop at Stainforth; fortunately the bus back to Doncaster was waiting there - I dashed to get on and as soon as I took my seat the driver set off.