Day 3 - Unexpected Day of Orienteering

Woke up at 8am in my bedroom that now had the odour of a kebab shop. After marinating in my bed for nearly an hour, I had a cold shower (not by choice) then rushed down to get my continental breakfast. I was still stuffed from last night’s late night kebab, but the breakfast was free so I had no choice.

I forced down two coffees, two yoghurts, half a bowl of bran flakes and a couple of slices of toast with real butter. At 10am sharp, I checked out of my room and hit the road.

The plan for today was to visit the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, somewhere I had been promising myself to visit for many years now. I love a good sculpture!

The fastest route was straight up the M1, which I wanted to try and avoid so I set my SatNav to go via Penistone.

Penistone is located at the foot of the Pennines and is surrounded by beautiful and historic landscape
Penistone can be dated back to 1066 and is listed in the Domesday Book. Several pre-19th Century buildings still survive, the oldest being the Grade I listed medieval parish church, Saint John the Baptist Church; the White Hart pub in the town dates from 1377 and the secondary school, established in 1342 is said to be one of the oldest in the country.

The above text is taken from the Visit Penistone website. Goggling Penistone is a tricky business!!

The reason I was in Penistone was because Penistone Fell is referred to in one of my favourite New Model Army songs, Summer Moors. Penistone Fell doesn’t actually exist.

After a quick ride around the town, I continued on to Yorkshire Sculpture Park and parked my bike at The Weston entrance.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park Overview
Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP), nestled in the expansive 500-acre Bretton Hall estate in West Yorkshire, stands as a premier international center for modern and contemporary sculpture.
Celebrated as the UK’s first sculpture park, it harmoniously blends the works of icons like Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore with its open-air landscape, offering a unique and immersive experience in viewing contemporary sculpture.

After paying the £9.50 entrance fee, I entered the enormous park in glorious sunshine, where I was initially confronted by two massive Damien Hirst sculptures - Charity and The Virgin Mother. I walked around the southern shore of the Lower Lake, then marched over half a mile up a hill to get to round wood and the Seated Figure. I walked back down again and continued around the wooded path around Upper Lake. Up to now the sculptures were few and far between, but when I reached the Lower Park I was inundated with random sculptures all over the place.

The signage in the park was fairly non-existent and I had to rely on the free map to try and ensure I didn’t miss a single sculpture. It was an exercise in orienteering.

My visit lasted 4 hours and 20 minutes during which I had walked a knackering 9.38 miles and burnt 1,224 active calories (whatever that means!). I felt confident that I had burnt off last night’s kebab and this morning’s breakfast. It had been a thoroughly enjoyable visit made all the better thanks to the gorgeous weather.

It was a 75 minute ride to Damon’s Motel about 5 miles outside of Lincoln town centre. I checked into my supersized room around 5pm and just lay on my bed too tired to write my blog or do anything useful.

At 7.45pm, feeling fully refreshed, I rode into Lincoln, parked my bike in a free spot outside St Swithin’s Church. After a quick 10 minute hike, I arrived at The Engine Shed whilst The Autumn Saints were half way through their set. I managed to get myself into a spot right at the front with just one row of people in front of me. I was amongst the elderly, women and disabled!!

At 9.15pm, Justin and Dean took to the stage and to my delight played my all time favourite NMA song, Snelsmore Wood. It was again a great set with 4 changes. Out went Justin’s solo of Better Than Them, All Of This, Language and Green and Grey. The replacement songs were Snelsmore Wood, Better Than Them performed by all the band except the drummer, Michael, If I Am Still Me and Get Me Out.

I was able to get some fairly decent video footage of more favourite songs. (I recorded 2 minute segments, because FindPenguin used to only allow up to 2 minute length videos to be uploaded. I have since discovered that has now been extended to 5 minute videos).

I stopped for the usual photograph, then hurried back to bike and rode back to motel. I should have gone straight to bed, but instead I stayed up a couple of hours writing my blogs.

NMA Song of the Day - Summer Moors by New Model Army.

Non NMA Song of the Day - (My Baby Does) Good Sculptures by The Rezillos.Baca lagi