Stanley Ferry Revisited

 Wednesday 1st September 2021.       Stanley Ferry Walk 

Today sees some of the lads returning to this canal side location on the outskirts of Wakefield, Brian and John are arriving there by means of Train and Bus but their journey didn’t run smoothly ,a cancelled train and rescheduled bus. However they did manage to meet up with Derek, Keith and Dave who had made their own way to Stanley Ferry by cars. 

Rendezvousing at a few minutes before 11:00 in the pub car park, the Lads began their adventure, this time travelling along the tow path in an easterly direction towards Castleford and the M62 motorway bridge off in the distance. This section of tow path as a fairly wide tarmac lane which makes for easier walking, enabling the lads to walk side by side instead of behind each other , which makes a change for group conversation. 

As the lads walked along discussing this and that , points of interest were noted ,such as the wildlife that as set up home on this stretch of water, mainly Swans and Geese, at one stage a Kingfisher was spotted swooping over the water parading its magnificent plumage while high in the skies above a Buzzard was giving fright to a flock of Gulls. As the lads reached Kings Road Lock a decision was made to halt this easterly walk and return towards Stanley Ferry and cover part of the walk they had done some weeks previous. , so it was about turn and retrace our steps, up to this point the weather conditions had been fine for a walk out here in the countryside in this particular area of West Yorkshire, not much sunshine and a rather cloudy outlook with the threat of light rain imminent, the lads ventured on and we’re soon back in  familiar surroundings here at Stanley Ferry.

A lunch time meal and drink  was enjoyed here at the restaurant, accompanied by various conversations about our future prospects and adventures, all in all another great day out here with the Lads.

With the time now reaching almost 3:00 pm it was farewell to this location and begin our journeys home, a distance of just over 5 miles was covered today in pleasant company.

Cheers Lads.

Edale Event

 25th August 2021.                A Ridge too Far

With good intentions of full filling their desire to conquer one of Derbyshires peaks, the Lads were bound for Edale, a small village nestled in a picturesque valley located in close proximity to Mam Tor, a local attraction for hill walkers in this county. Firstly they had to get there, previous plans were put in place and the train journey was booked, this would take the Lads from Leeds to Sheffield then from Sheffield they would take the train ride to Hope Valley then on to Edale. But as usual the best laid plans of mice and men came unstuck to say the least. Misfortune was to hit the Lads by means of disruption to their train journeys. Staffing problems for the lads at Leeds lead to a 40 minutes delay for their train from Leeds to Sheffield, meanwhile Dave had to change train midway through his journey to Sheffield, a line side fire was the cause here. Anyhow the outcome of all this was that Dave made the journey to Edale on his own leaving John , Colin and Brian to catch  a later train . However all was not lost because of this delay, Dave carried out a brief reconnaissance mission by chatting to two local residents who assured him about an easier  route to reach the top of this rather daunting range of hills. Bearing this in mind Dave now set off to meet the rest of the Lads has they arrived at the Station in Edale some 70 minutes later.

Greetings over the group of 4 now set out on this adventure to reach the ridge line that runs from Mam Tor and off in the direction of Loose Hill then down the other side and head for the railway station at Hope Valley. Little did they know about what was to become of this expedition , a rather slow uphill slog to start off with ,which included many rest stops along the way during which serious thought was given to whether we should carry on or turn round and head back down the hillside. We endeavoured to venture further only to realise this would be a somewhat{mission impossible} so after almost 90 minutes of uphill struggle  interrupted with brief conversations with other hill climbers we decided to call it a day, this decision was made with great regret for the views from up here were so fantastic not to mention what they would have been from the summit. Our decent was a bit less of a struggle interspersed with banter of what we should have realistically done, ie ; taken a taxi up to the car park and then climbed the much lesser distance to the ridge top, maybe on our next visit to this splendid location.

Once down at the valley floor we now headed for the nearby Ramblers Pub for a well deserved meal and much needed rest to recover from this ordeal. Upon reflection we didn’t fail ,we sort of bit off more than we could chew, a ridge too far was our thoughts, it was just a pleasure to have made the journey to Edale and see what this location as to offer to its visitors, undoubtedly we will at some point return.With this thought in mind and the next train back to Sheffield due at 16:33 we made our way back to the railway station  enjoying an amazing ice cream on our way.

Thanks Edale we certainly won’t forget this adventure.

 Sorry about the order of photos

Name Change

 23rd August 2021.                Change of bloggers email address 

Just trying a different contact email address. midweekramblers.