Grindleford to Dore and Totley

My first station to station walk. The route is 6.6 miles, but add a bit extra on due to the unexpected detour we took (we are getting quite good at these) a.k.a getting lost.

I chose this walk as it goes through Padley Gorge and the Longshaw Estate, my favourite part of the Peak District (so far). Sybil made her usual human friends in the train station and on the trains, as well as staring down a couple of other dogs but not reacting! She is getting better. We left the train at drizzly Grindleford and headed on up through the gorge to the Longshaw Estate.

Longshaw Estate

The rain soon stopped, so thankfully we didn't get soaked trudging round looking for Little John's Well and the stone steps we needed to climb. I did however find these stones below; I thought they were companion stones, but I haven't been able to find these ones on the website. If you can't make out what they say, I have written the phrase/poem in the caption.

Hold our hands Big Fella and we'll walk these paths together

We eventually left the estate via Totley Moss. This was a very enjoyable stretch of well-used track leading through miles of moorland.

On Totley Moss

The only other people we saw until we reached Totley were two mountain bikers heading the opposite way. We soon lost the view of the national park behind us and another view opened up in front. Apparently on a good day, and with binoculars, you can see Lincoln Cathedral.

Now it was just a case of heading down into Totley over a series of quiet roads. Sybil made a friend with a terrier at Totley Brook and I had a chat with the owner before we finally managed to find the train station, arriving with just ten minutes to spare before the next train. Highlights of this walk included hearing my first cuckoo of the year at Granby Wood, and another one (or possibly the same one) on Moss Road. I also saw a greater spotted woodpecker on the Longshaw Estate.

Spring walk through Listerdale Woods

After hearing reports of spring finally arriving in woodlands throughout the country, I was impatient for it to arrive in the woods Sybil and I walk daily. The bluebells had been biding their time with just their leaves above ground for awhile, since the last snow fell in fact. Over the last couple of days just one or two had started to come into flower, however today the majority of the plants on the sunnier slopes of the wood were flowering.

It's nice to finally see leaves on the trees, too; last year the leaves had started coming out in March! The chiffchaffs were singing, as they have been for a couple of weeks now in this wood. We headed straight up through the wood, then up and round to the Wickersley side, where the wild garlic was just starting to come into flower.

The smell was delicious, and we loitered a bit to give Sybil a rest in the shade and a play in the stream before heading down through the old parkland where the daffodils had sadly finished flowering. I did however find one left:

Then it was down to the fallen tree where I had noticed some unusual looking fungi on the bark. My first thought when I saw them was King Alfred's cakes, and the Internet seems to agree however I am not sure if there are any similar species it could be.

Then it was along the top path and through the fields towards home, where on the way we usually see swallows, house martins and other farmland birds swooping over the fields and twittering in the hedges. 

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