It was a lovely bright Autumn day, and we wiggled our way, as much as possible besides the river as far as we could. We used the star facility on Google maps to plan our trip, so we could take in salient points as we travelled down the river. It was handy taking in street view to assess access to the river where the road was close to it.
We began with the river right next to Snuff Mill, along frog walk. The last time we saw this river was in Bingham Park when we visited the Shepherds wheel at the weekend. It was great to see it making a natural path through ghetto landscape, to be honest I was shocked how much of this particular river has been manipulated by humans for our own ends. Next we popped along to Summerfield road near to Waitrose, behind the old brewery, where the river is contained in a brick fortress. Natural river features appear to have been stripped the lack of tow path and headroom under the bridge, the small weir, are the only features that set it apart from a canal. This was the last we saw of the river Porter before it slipped beneath the road in pipes, the next we saw of this body of aster it had merged with the Don.
Here we are looking over the Don, this was the only section of the river we could literally step out if the
car and look at, the river. It was great to see it in such powerful, full state, and notice the fact that the river often accompanied Industrial parts of towns, this was noted in Rotherham and Doncaster as well as Goole.
Next stop was right in the heart of an industrial Estate, and showed part of the Lower Don Valley Walk - so Picturesque, and amazing contrast with the heavy Steelworks, as well as this beautiful boulevard besides the River.
Further along, past Meadowhall, before we got to Magna, we had a not so quick, unplanned stop at a place where a canal and the River Don sat side by side, and the overflow of the Canal dropped directly into the Don. The kids had loads of fun playing with the locks here, demonstrating their strength!
We left it a little while till the next stop, but this one was near to Wentworth, and demonstrated the awesome power of the river. The first view is from the road bridge, the second is from the bank that you can see in that picture, seeing the torrent in all its glory.
The next stop was another Canal and River stop - this time - near Stainforth. Many of these stretches of river had been very managed to service the infrastructure of the landlocked towns such as Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield. This was the last stop with the Don, but we did cross it a few more times before it met the River Ouse, which comes from the North.
Here is the river meadering its way to us.
Here it is on the path we were yet to take.
This was a great crossing over a huge amount of wetlands and river - it had flood barriers on the entrance to the bridge.
Here we are speeding across the Don for the last time on the M62.
Next we were at Goole, where the river Don has been totally manipulated and straightened out to be a "Dutch River". We visited the Waterways Museum whilst we were here in the heart of the docks and Marina, for a slice of life in a Marina town. Heavy industry, ports and docks litter this town, with cranes aplenty.
The day was nearly done by now, but we didn't feel our journey was over, so we headed to the Humber Bridge to view that spectular sight and vista across the water.
A very enjoyable day, and extremely great way to really kick our project off with a bang. A bit disappointed we didn't make it to the sea, but we were all pretty tired after our epic journey and adventures.
The next day, we finished off this section of the project with a trip to Kelham Island Museum where we talked about the flood of 2007, and the fact the museum is where there used to be lots of industry which used the waterways as an essential part of the process. These pictures are of the Don at this point.
