Elsecar

A six mile walk from Walking South Yorkshire, pages 119-122.

Today Sybil and I took a trip up to Elsecar on the train. Waiting at Meadowhall for the connection, I spotted my first wildlife creature of the day: a brown rat. Perhaps it was headed to M&S for some shopping. I was looking forward to walking past the reservoir in Elsecar Park at the start of the journey as there is usually some interesting birdlife to be seen. Several ducks, coots and moorhens were on the grass as we passed, and there were a couple of great crested grebes in the middle of the water. I really should start packing my binoculars for my walks; I usually don't bother as there is little wildlife to be seen whilst walking Sybil!

Elsecar Reservoir

Walking on, three buzzards were soaring over the fields. We crossed more farmland until we reached the road where I got a little confused, as the directions in the book weren't clear and the only signposts about were for drivers. Nonetheless I used my noggin and managed to find the track so we headed up the steps into Skier's Spring Wood, where luckily there were no skiers and the season was still very much winter. Sybil's attempts to get a Labrador to play with her failed, so we moved on to the flooded main road where the cars were playing "try our best to soak Natalie". A bit of a wash would have been welcome actually as by this point we were both covered in mud, but concerned for the camera hanging around my neck we ran to the grass verge and headed down the footpath.

Sybil playing with a stick 

Temporarily back in civilization (Harley village) we passed the pub and headed up towards Wentworth along the Trans Pennine Trail.Another farm track led us into fields where Sybil had a good run.

Above Wentworth

Through King's Wood and past the Heritage Centre (which we gave a miss due to our muddy state) and a look at the time told us we had fifteen minutes until the hourly train was due. This led to a stressed sprint up the aptly-named Hill Street, and we arrived in typical Natalie-style with ten minutes to spare.