The walk that never was...

Or what to do when you get lost.

Sybil and I set off on the 09:01 bus to town, then onward to Maltby. This walk was to take us down from Maltby and through the villages of Hooton Levitt, Carr, Brookhouse and Firbeck, and back via Roche Abbey. However, due to my inability to follow directions unless every blade of grass on the way is accounted for (or maybe the directions were also a little unclear in places), we only made it as far as Carr before somehow ending up in Hellaby.

Beyond the Churchyard

We first managed to lose our way directly after the churchyard in Maltby, where we turned left instead of heading straight on. The directions did state: Follow the path to the left over the stream..., just so you know I'm not totally incompetent. And yes, we did cross a stream. Anyway, all was not lost as Sybil made several new doggy friends and we had a pleasant walk across some fields before realizing we were not heading the way we should be. I turned us round and asked a nice gentleman how to get to Hooton Levitt and he sent us on our merry way.

View to Maltby colliery

The next few paragraphs of directions made sense in relation to our location and we managed to get to Carr without further mishap. This is where is all went wrong. I turned left onto a footpath as instructed (obviously the wrong footpath) and headed down a field containing two demon horses. One was a young horse who demanded attention from Sybil and myself, touching Sybil with her nose and generally unnerving us as she trotted around us with her large hooves. Concerned that Sybil would be trampled I gently tried to move the horse away and was nipped on the arm for my efforts (it bloody hurt!). The other horse came over and both tried to block our way to the stile, but eventually we broke free into the next field.

We were headed to a civilization far too large to be Brookhouse, but rather than turn back into the domain of the demon horses we pressed on to come out in Hellaby. We admitted defeat and boarded the bus back to town and with the promise of a visit to the pet shop and a picnic in Clifton Park, Sybil was more than happy.

What to do when you get lost