Showing posts with label orienteering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label orienteering. Show all posts

Saturday, November 24, 2018

Meadowhead, Dronfield, Dronfield Woodhouse, Mickley, Totley Bents, Fox House...and then Sheffield

I caught the X17 bus from Sheffield and travelled to Meadowhead and walked south at the side of the dual carriageway over into Derbyshire.


I turned to go down the local road leading to Dronfield but soon branched off to the right taking a country lane which goes under the bypass; I was now heading west towards the Peak District. Once the metalled surface ended I took a sharp left, briefly walking south again through a lovely tree tunnel for quite a long distance until there was open sky above my head again.

I soon reached a spot where the word 'aqueduct' is marked on the map. I was very disappointed; all there was to see was a boxed pipeline crossing over a railway cutting - the railway is the busy Midland Main line which goes all the way to London.

The countryside was quite pleasant but I couldn't really enjoy it because of the weather; it was quite misty and dark.

About half an hour later I ended up walking through a housing estate at Dronfield Woodhouse by mistake, but I soon picked up my route again at Mickley...where I found an interesting subject at a farm to photograph in black in white.



You can take your pick as to what you call the next section of footpath I walked along.



I continued westwards until I reached the bus terminus just to the south of Totley; there was a bus waiting but it was only 11:30 and the weather was improving so I walked along the road for a short distance and then took the footpath down to Totley Bents.

I joined a well-maintained narrow country road for a few hundred yards before picking up the Sheffield Country Walk again. A couple of minutes later I was startled by the noise of a train passing through Totley Tunnel - I was standing only a short distance from one of the air vents



I couldn't work out where the path went next and so re-traced my steps and continued to walk on the road, leading up to the moors. When the metalled surface finished there was a broad track going across the moors all the way to Fox House.

Recently there had been an orienteering event held here.





I had twenty minutes to wait for the bus at Fox House; the sun was just breaking through the clouds and presented me with the opportunity to take these two photographs from the back of pub car park.





I bought some salmon bellies and Bakewell tarts from Sheffield Market...and took some more photographs as I made my way back to the railway station.






Saturday, November 27, 2010

GPS

I've just bought a basic GPS locator and have been trying it out in the park; it's very simple to use, even with one gloved hand - the hardest thing was attaching the lanyard before I set off. The unit, apart from being able to locate my exact position, accurate to thirteen feet; also has a multifunction trip odometer, an altimeter function (that I suspect might not be particularly accurate though) a compass, and various functions more suited to orienteering or geocaching.

Because I usually hike alone on the moors, above all it will give me piece of mind...but I'll still have fun with the trip statistics when I get home.