Eckington (circular) - Derbyshire/South Yorkshire - 17/05/14 - 6.25 Miles - Helen (Molly)

This being a new area for us to explore and taken from a route cut out from Country Walking magazine dating back to May 2009. Thus having started at Eckington Church we soon came unstuck trying to find our way out of the local housing estate to pick up the relevant trail (namely because an area of open ground we were meant to make our way across, had obviously been fenced off sometime in the preceding five years). Anyway yours truly soon wanted to give up and go home at this setback, but as the calmer voice among us insisted we had lunch first, we were then able to regroup and find the relevant path.

Once on our way though it was a nice mixture of gently undulating open ground and bridleways through Bramley on one of the warmest days of the year so far. Unfortunately for me I have been having (to put it politely) stomach problems for a few weeks now, so when the instructions said there was a pub en-route in Troway, that looked like the solution and I (erm) mentally relaxed. However when we got to the pub at 1457, only to be told they were shutting at three (serving us one quick drink), I was then kind of left in no-mans land. So having then continued on the bridleway, I then found I (erm) couldn't continue on the bridleway and had to dive under a fence into a field to (erm).......... Good job this wasn't a first date.

That crisis dealt with, we then found our way to a pub that actually stays open on Saturday afternoons called the Bridge Inn at Ford. There we enjoyed an ice cream in the garden, whilst Molly exchanged glances with a few other canines. After which we continued along the more wooded Moss Valley, coming across the Seldom Seen engine house on our way (and some scramble bikes going up and down a nearby slag heap).