Marr, Sprotbrough, Mexborough, Old Denaby, and Hooton Roberts

It's only eleven minutes on the bus to Marr and I caught the earliest bus on a Sunday to start my walk today, at  09:21, according to the timetable. I took photographs of the church and then walked across the fields to Sprotbrough - I passed a group of about two dozen metal detectorists busy at work in a field just before I reached Sprotbrough. Since the field was right next to where I was walking I asked a couple of the men if anyone had found anything interesting; as usual they were somewhat reticent with their replies.

After taking some photos of the church at Sprotbrough I went down into the Don Gorge but then slowly climbed some of the way back up through the woods before descending again using the steep steps in Pot Ridings Wood to join the TransPennine Trail going along the river, heading upstream.

Beyond Conisbrough Viaduct the Trail follows the course of an old railway, still running parallel to the river though. I easily found the path through the woods which leads to the lock on the canal [it's actually a navigation] therefore shortening my route by about half a mile...and it's a lot more interesting walk.

When I arrived at Mexborough I had to walk through a housing estate to reach the footbridge and walkway that crosses over the canal, river, and railway. By this time it had clouded over quite a bit, but the weather was still pleasant.

I didn't stay long in Old Denaby before I climbed up a grassy hill and then walked across the fields and down the lane to Hooton Roberts. On the way I noticed something that I couldn't identify hanging from a hawthorn bush near a gate; I photographed it but didn't touch it - it looked like it really ought to be in a chemical laboratory.

There are three buses an hour going to Doncaster from Hooton Roberts; luckily for me I had only two minutes to wait for one of them.

Don Gorge Discovery Day...and a Cruise on the River

A very pleasant surprise today, an unexpected short cruise on the River Don.

I went to Sprotbrough with Marshall, my support worker, as we usually do most weeks on a Thursday - just to eat our sandwiches and go for a short walk along the river or up into the woods. However, today we were pleasantly surprised to find out that it was the Don Gorge Discovery Day, and this year free cruises on the 'Wyre Lady' were being offered. Our timing was perfect; we arrived at 11:45, just in time for the twelve o'clock sailing to Conisbrough and back.

When we arrived back on dry land we were able to visit the stalls and exhibitions...and also go inside the lock house to have a look at the equipment.

A Bit Of Boatspotting At Sprotbrough

One of my regular runs out to Sprotbrough, concentrating on photographing the boats today; as usual I went in the car with my support worker Marshall...Sprotbrough is easy to reach on the bus though - it only takes fifteen minutes from the bus station.

After sitting in the car and eating our sandwiches because all of the benches were taken by members of a walking group we arrived at the lock just in time to see a barge from Leeds passing through.

Nearby, and right next to the towpath, a swan was making a nest.

The Wyre Lady was moored in its usual place; it's the large blue and white boat on the left in the photograph. It does weekend cruises up to Conisbrough and can be hired out as a party boat. The red boats are all dredgers.

The next photograph features the 'Sapphire,'  one of the boats owned by Yorkshire Narrow Boats, based at Sprotbrough; their other boat the 'Emerald' is slightly smaller...and I've rarely seen it on the river.

On our way home we called at the supermarkets on Barnsley Road and York Road. At Aldi I had to take a photograph of this, both myself and Marshall have never come across this term before and looked on the shelves if we could work out what 'Swimming Noodles' might be.

I do know now what they are though - here's a link to the Google Images search result page:

https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1920&bih=946&q=swimming+noodles&oq=swimming+noodles&gs_l=img.3..0l6j0i30k1l2j0i8i30k1l2.1896.5804.0.6180.17.17.0.0.0.0.76.980.16.16.0....0...1.1.64.img..1.16.980.0.MchBdaHABMA

Scawsby, Cusworth Hall, Sprotbrough, and Conisbrough

I had planned to end the walk at Mexborough, but I decided to cut it short at Conisbrough because my camera battery went flat; I'm a bit mad about this because when I checked this morning there was no 'low battery' indicator showing. A major part of a walk for me is taking photographs, so I lose a lot of the enjoyment if I'm not able to do this; there are a lot of interesting things to photograph walking along the river from Conisbrough to Mexborough; old railway structures and canal locks; I'll have to shoot them the next time.

I got off the bus at 'Teeside Close at Scawsby. 'Teeside' isn't close to anywhere at all though because it doesn't exist; there is no 'River Tee' anywhere in the country...the name of the street is a spelling mistake. It used to make me feel quite angry seeing something like this, knowing that I would never a mistake like this, having a keen interest in, and detailed knowledge of,  both geography and the English language. I like to think I would have made an excellent proofreader, editor, copywriter, or technical writer, but it never happened because of my Asperger's syndrome...and the lack of opportunities that I've had. I just felt sad this morning as I was taking the photograph; if you're reading my blog in the United Kingdom there's a good chance that through your taxes you're helping to pay my benefits and pay for my support package from social services; maybe you're the one who ought to be getting mad.

It's only a walk of a couple of minutes to the gatehouse at Cusworth Hall.

I approached the house along the driveway and took some photographs of both the front and the back of the house, although I'm not sure which is which.

It started raining as I was walking across the fields to Sprotbrough; although there were a few sunny intervals during the rest of the walk, it rained as often as it didn't - not quite as the weather forecast predicted.

As I was approaching 'The Square' I noticed that a group of cyclists had gone inside the wine bar, somewhere I've not patronised myself before when on a walk; but if cyclists are going in, I thought that I might as well give it a try. It's lovely inside; very unusual decor, tabletops made out of hundreds of corks from different varieties of wine from all over the world, and empty wine bottles used as lampshades on the walls...very romantic for an evening meal I should imagine. I ordered a pot of tea and a slice of very heavy and sticky chocolate cake which was delicious. I did end up having a bit of an accident though, a very loud accident involving the lid of the teapot and loose leaf tea being hurled into my face and hair.

I scurried out of  the wine bar and crossed the road to take some photographs of the church.

I then went down the hill towards the river, and as I was crossing over the bridge I noticed that the Wyre Lady was getting ready to start a Christmas party cruise up the river to Mexborough, and back.

It started raining again as I approached the fish pass, or 'fish ladder' as I tend to call it. I took a photograph of the newly installed piece of sculpture.

It took me quite a few minutes to reach somewhere suitable to shelter from the rain, a partially blocked up tunnel going beneath the railway. I ate my sandwiches here as I waited for it to stop raining. 

Within only a few minutes of it stopping raining it turned out to be quite bright and I thought I'd get some decent photographs, but when I tried to take a short piece of video of the Wyre Lady returning along the river I got a 'low battery' error message. I managed to take another three or four photographs after this point and then the camera went dead....so I decided to go for the quickest way to get to the road the comes out of Conisbrough and catch one of the frequent buses back into town.