A soggy morning greeted me on the Old Hatfield Road across from the demolished public house The Rising Sun. At least I had the A614 flyover to shelter myself. The East Yorks member duly arrived at 08:15 then Adrian a visitor from Leeds arrived a little late as the roads into Thorne had been thrown into chaos as the A614 had been closed this Sunday due to road workings.

The three amigos set off in a drizzle along the Stainforth and Keadby canal towards Thorne Lock where we found the first of the Sykehouse floodplains wild animals, first up a hippo.

Continuing past the marina we found the Poltontoft where the coal from Hatfield Main was put onto barges. We passed the first pipe bridge then the New Inn public house and over the first bridge onto West Lane where we found a giraffe! A style took us a short way along one of the many River Don banks to find an Engineering marvel, and a dead leopard the last of the wild animals today.

It is here The New Junction Canal crosses the Don by way of an Aqueduct. At the next bridge we TR and found Kirk Bramwith church for elevenses.

A short road walk took us to the next bridge over the New Junction canal and we TR again for 2.5 miles towards Sykehouse Lock.

The first wet field took us Sykehouse where we had lunch on the parish benches. It is here we began to remove our wet gear as the sun had finally come out.

Leaving Sykehouse (the longest village in Yorkshire) we found yet more wet fields back to the Lock.

Now the fun begins, green lanes in this part of the world need as much careful footwork as you would need on a mountain arete. The first was a long one that took us to the road to Fishlake.

Where we had a late afternoon stop at the Hare and Hounds as the sun was fully out now and was very welcomed.

A quick jaunt to the Church to admire the doorway an Pete the church fella popped out and gave us a little talk about the origins of the archway and the door (it was very very old)

[url]https://www.fishlakestcuthbert.org.uk/fishlake-st-cuthbert---history[/url]

back onto the Don Bank took us to more green lanes (The Thorne Round Walk) towards the Jubilee bridge to negotiate the A614 and the M18 j6 roundabout to enter capital park and back to the Stainforth Keadby canal but the other side to find our cars in good time and all three had an enjoyable day with not a contour crossed all day.