July 24th-25th – The Thames Path Walk

As planned, we were up early the next morning and left the house at 7:00 to make our rendezvous with Jerry Hodgins at Wolvercote, just northwest of Oxford. Jerry (see blog July 6th) had left West Wickham at 5:30 in order to get around the M25 London Orbital motorway before the serious traffic of the morning started. We contacted Jerry by 7:15 and he confirmed that he was having coffee on the M40 on his way and would be on time at the meeting spot, a parking lot in Wolvercote. We left the parking lot at 8:00 and walked 200 or so yards down the road, past the famous Trout Inn and on to the Thames River (Quote: “The Trout Inn and the picturesque riverbanks on which it sits upon has provided inspiration to Lewis Carroll for the magical Alice in Wonderland, and was according to some, the meeting place for Rosamund The Fair and King Henry II. The Trout Inn is also featured in Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse which is written and filmed within Oxford”.
It was a beautiful day and the section we were walking is one of the remotest sections of the river and does not pass through any towns until our final destination of Lechlade which was our final stop planned for Friday. Rosemarie, Ian & Alison of course were our support team and we had planned for them to meet us after about five miles, the first time a road gave access to the river. When we phoned them to let them know we were 20 minutes from the bridge, they were a number of miles away, near the old town of Burford, which they had visited, and were then in a very up-market garden center “exploring”. We told them we were doing well, and they should enjoy themselves and just make the next scheduled meeting at Newbridge. Quote: “Beautiful Newbridge, rather wrongly named since it is in fact one of the oldest bridges over the Thames as it dates from 1250! Here, despite being a remote spot, you'll find a choice of two pubs where you can stop for a well-deserved drink, The Rose Revived and The Maybush”. We found our support group at a table on the river bank at “The Rose Revived” but resisted all temptations to “imbibe” ourselves. Both Jerry and I were in great shape at this point, showing no ill effects at all, having already walked about 10 miles and were aware that once we left Newbridge we were committed to another 5-6 miles to the next road crossing of Tadpole Bridge. A couple of miles after Newbridge I started to feel soreness in my left knee which gradually worsened. I knew it was not muscular or tiredness, but rather a piece of debris in the knee (I have lots) that had obviously found its way into a critical joint. It was a similar situation to the problem I had with my right knee some years ago and ended up having to have arthroscopic surgery on it. There was no choice but to keep walking and by the time we reached Tadpole Bridge (and another “Trout Inn”), I was limping badly. Rosemarie, Ian and Alison had arrived at Tadpole Bridge well in advance of when they needed to be there, and while R&I had an afternoon snooze in the car, Alison started walking alone on the Thames Path in the direction we were coming from. She expected to meet us after about half a mile, but because of my slowness, she had walked well over a mile before she came upon us, and it was great to have her encourage me along to Tadpole Bridge. On arrival there, Rosemarie and Ian were watching out for us from the garden of another Trout Inn, and this time there was no question about “having a pint”! I should mention that on our walk we saw many, many “pill boxes” along the banks/fields of the Thames and have found the following information. “As late as 1940 further defensive measures were taken by the building of a chain of some 5,000 Pill-boxes along the River, from the Kent coast at Chatham to the west coast at Bristol, as a defense against a possible German invasion.”.
Jerry estimated that we had walked 16 miles. After our “pints” and Alison meeting a couple of lovely Spanish Water Dogs in the garden of The Trout, we drove back to Wolvercote, picked up Jerry’s car, drove back to Launton in the two cars, showered and walked to “The Bull” (the “top Bull”—closest to R&I’s home) for dinner. They walked, I limped! By this time, there was a lot of fluid around my knee and I knew my chances of walking the next morning were limited.
Here are two websites that include the section we walked, but where we started at Wolvercote was about four miles further upstream from the start in Oxford, just north of the remains of Godstow Abbey, built in 1133.

http://thames.joncombe.org/thames_oxford_northmoor.html
http://thames.joncombe.org/thames_northmoor_tadpole.html


Friday July 25th – Thames Path Walk: Day 2.

As I expected, the next morning my knee was “ballooned” and I had to inform Jerry that I would not be able to walk that day. His comment was “So you’ve finally matured!” After checking the map, we could see that the next road crossing after the restart at Tadpole Bridge would be about a four mile walk and Alison said she would walk with Jerry for that section. As Rosemarie & Ian had a lot of preparation (shopping) for the Saturday function to come, I said I would drive and there was no need for them to come. Once again we left by 7:00 AM, but of course had to drive a lot further to Tadpole Bridge to our start. Jerry also drove as he was leaving for West Wickham on completion of the day’s walk (10.5 miles): http://www.thames-path.org.uk/thames_tadpole_lechlade.html
We parked at Tadpole and took photographs and then they were on their way and I drove to Radcot Bridge via the ancient town of Bampton where I picked up a newspaper http://www.flickr.com/photos/oxfordshirechurches/2685180020)/ so that I could while away an hour or so waiting for the hikers. At Radcot Bridge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Radcot_Bridge there is The Swan Hotel, which only opened at 10:00 AM. I spoke nicely to a lady who I found in the kitchen and asked if I could sit on their riverside patio until they opened. “Absolutely, and would you like a cup of coffee?” was the reply. Shortly I was sitting in the sun, sipping coffee and reading my newspaper! Alison & Jerry arrived all too soon (before I finished the newspaper) and Jerry continued on his way alone. After a brief meeting at Kelmscot (I stayed with the car, and Alison walked back along the river path to give Jerry a surprise), we moved on to the final meeting place at Lechlade, where we surprisingly found another pub (Riverside Inn) on the river at “Ha’penny Bridge”, where the toll house still stands! Jerry duly arrived and we had lunch in the pub before we drove back to Tadpole Bridge and Jerry said farewell and returned to West Wickham. We drove back to Launton where Rosemarie had prepared a lovely evening meal and we relaxed before retiring early. It was a lovely two days.