The Cuckoo Way

What a grey and very dull weekend it has been here in South Yorkshire - yesterday we even had 2inches of snow in the morning! (which thankfully didn't hang around too long). As it was a rare weekend of for hubby, we wanted to get out and about - and I'm glad we made the effort because we discovered a fabulous new walk once again on our doorstep that we never knew existed. I was alerted to this walk by blogger lovely blogger Debs over here. We started the walk from Kiveton Park railway station. To my shame, even though this are is only about 10 miles away from me, I have never been here before - although I have passed by the end of the road a million times on my way to other places.

This walk is part of the Chesterfield Canal and the old horse-drawn canal boats were called cuckoo's.

I just love an information board along the way, but they always make me want to step back in time to when places like this were in their hey days.

Canal walking is perfect for me - because its mainly flat!

Although the weather was very dull, welcome signs of spring and colour could be found if you looked hard enough.

It really was as peaceful as it looks.

Hubby and I once had a canal holiday and its something I would love to do again.

We were amazed to find how many locks were on such a small stretch of canal. We started out walking with the red boat by our side. Chatting to the owner, he said it would take him over 4 hours to do the 2 mile stretch back to the marina because of all the locks.

What Debs didn't tell me was that there is the most fabulous cafe by the side of the canal at Shireoakes (again, somewhere I had never been). What a discovery! The Cafe is called Nona's and is really small - but don't be put off by thinking that there is no room. The lovely owner Dawn and her mum will fit you in. They even use Dawns own dining room in her flat upstairs if they have to! Nona's is a very very special place. I knew I would love it when I walked in and saw Dawn's home made cakes cooling off on a table. Its like eating in your granny's kitchen. We decided to have a cooked breakfasts and it was superb. We had a lovely chat with Dawn, her mum and two cyclists who were also in the cafe, and I was reluctant to leave. However I will be back soon as the coffee was excellent and I need to sample the cakes! Shireoakes looked interesting for a look around too.

We headed back along the canal. I learned that the Chesterfield canal was completed in 1777 and was designed by James Brindley. It was very advanced for its time and was mainly used to transport coal, but stone, corn, lime, lead,timber and iron were also carried. The final commercial cargo was carried in 1956. We picked up a leaflet about the canal whilst in the cafe, so we will do other parts of this throughout spring.

We saw lots of wildlife along the way, and the birdsong was really loud.

I think this duck is a Goosander - but feel free to correct me if you know differently. I really do need a better camera with more zoom!

And this swan was very territorial! but extremely beautiful with it.

Many thanks Debs for featuring the walk. The economic downturn does have its benefits as I discover more and more places on my doorstep for fascinating walks whilst saving petrol money!