Kiveton Park to Kiveton Bridge via the Cuckoo Way

The Cuckoo Way

This morning, Sybil and I boarded a train to Kiveton Park station. We immediately turned right onto a small section of the Chesterfield Canal towpath, known as the Cuckoo Way. I always enjoy a nice bit of canal-walking, so I do.

The towpath and canal

We bumped into (not literally) two men walking a Labrador Retriever. Both dogs had a quick dash about after realising that neither one was going to rip the other's throat out. When the three of them had disappeared, Sybil decided she was thirsty and walked down the bank to the canal. Before I could call her away, there was a sudden SPLASH: my dear dog had fallen in the canal.

I quickly dumped backpack and camera on the towpath and ran down to help her out. I hoped to escape a dip myself; luckily she was frantically paddling away at the edge. I grabbed her collar and lifted her up onto the bank, where she gave me several good soakings shaking all the water from her fur.

No words, no words at all

Now she was safely on the towpath again, the next ten minutes passed with me laughing, and then laughing some more. I giggled on the train home when the incident popped into my mind again, much to the bemusement of the other passengers, and I'm giggling again now typing it up. Sorry Sybil.

Anyway, moving on. We were soon at the end of the towpath where my still-damp Sybil posed for a quick picture. We then crossed the road into a long field; soon reaching her usual 100 mph, fur-face quickly dried off. Unfortunately then it was back on the lead as we met the residents of the field:

Whatchu lookin' at?

Finally we reached Kiveton Community Woodland which, like my beloved Silverwood, is a former colliery site.

The site has a large number of footpaths running through and around it with plenty of long grass, which obviously Sybil enjoyed! We passed the waters, where several fishermen were enjoying, um, fishing, and paused to read this touching memorial noting the names of the men and boys whose lives were lost working in the colliery:

Memorial

We then came to the foot of the interesting zig-zag path. I suppose it does make the ascent somewhat easier. There is another, not so steep, path to the left but of course Sybil headed straight for the most energy-draining. Well, I suppose we have climbed Pen-y-ghent...

Summit, here we come!

 Some artwork at the top of the hill paid tribute to the days of the working colliery:

We wandered around, rather aimlessly, for the next hour and a half. Sybil occasionally looked up to see which way I was going, but other than that had her nose constantly snuffling through the long grass, picking up fox, small mammal and other dog scents, I should imagine. A few more doggy friends were made, but most of the time she was content to go it alone, doing her own thing.


Three and a half hours off-lead made for one happy dog, so we caught the half-past-two train home; that is, after I wiped down my mud-splattered trousers. No need to worry about Sybil: Teflon-dog looked as though she had come straight from the groomers, as usual. Even after her earlier mishap. Sorry, still giggling.

A few pictures from Silverwood

Regular visitors to my blog are probably bored of my walks to Silverwood by now, so I'll spare you the details and leave you to enjoy some of the photos I took today. Hopefully this week Sybil and I will be visiting more exotic climes :o)

A frosty start

Autumn colours

A tree

Icy puddles

More golden trees

And again

Approach to Silverwood

Frost again

Another icy puddle

Swan family

Pure fun

The sun was shining so we made the most of it. Hope everyone else does too, before the white stuff comes!

Cleethorpes

Sybil and I weren't quite rambling in Yorkshire today, as I felt it was time for a beach visit - and what better beach to visit than Cleethorpes? Well, when the summer season is over anyway. Dogs are allowed on the main beach from the 30th September, and the rest of it past the leisure centre - the best bit - all year round.

Queen of the Beach

The first part of the beach usually has several dogs running free, especially on a fine weather day like today was, and today was no exception as Sybil instantly found a friend in a fellow collie-cross who just happened to have the latest ball launcher. Luckily both dog and owner were very friendly and both dogs enjoyed a good game of fetch before we eventually parted ways, with a kind gift from the collie/lab's owner of a rubber ball for Sybil to play with.

"Thank you very much!" :o)

A good half-hour was passed playing with her new toy as we headed round to the dunes. This part seems to run for miles, and probably does, with plenty of plants and interesting "smells" for the dogs to enjoy.

Grassy paths

Pure fun

Mmm, that fresh estuary air!

We finally sat down on a piece of driftwood, Sybil already having had a two hour-long run. But with plenty of energy left (Sybil, of course, not me), we scoffed down our sandwiches and headed over to the country park across the road.

Cleethorpes Country Park

I thought it would give us both chance to get the sand out of our fur, but before long we found ourselves missing the beach and quickly headed back. Sybil found a piece of driftwood she desperately wanted to play with:

So desperately in fact, that she ended up digging it into a hole.

 

Cleethorpes beach is good for dogs, but it is also excellent for birds. Whilst keeping one eye on my errant dog, my other eye was keenly watching the birds. I had, of course, forgotten my binoculars again (I don't even know why I bothered buying them!) but I did notice an oystercatcher and an egret. To be honest I'm not that good at identifying waders anyway, but it is nice to have a good look at them.

Some birds I can identify: Starlings.

A walk back through the dunes resulted in us meeting up with yet another collie-cross, this time with a German shepherd. He was a handsome beast of a dog, name of Max, and was quite taken with Sybil. She certainly prefers to play with her own kind of dog, and they raced each other back and forth all the way to the train station. With this being our stop, we bid them goodbye and enjoyed a tray of chips and gravy before returning on the train home.

But, of course, we had another game of fetch first.