What we did in 2010

As we are now getting ready to continue this walk, here is a long-overdue account of our walk from the source to Oxford in August 2010. It is, necessarily, rather summarised, as we are only now catching up.

We arrived by train at Kemble. Day 1 was a chance to wander up the path (against our policy) to see the source of the Thames. 

The river was totally dry all the way that day. Fortunately the Thames Head Inn was not. We had arranged to stay overnight at the Fleece in Cirencester, and saw the Corinium Museum.

Day 2: Kemble to Cricklade

From Circencester we took a taxi back to the Thames at Kemble and began the walk proper. Gradually, as we walked on, the river bed began to look damp, then a few puddles, and eventually it was flowing water. We lunched at the White Hart in Ashton Keynes, which was lovely - and very quiet that day.

By mid-afternoon, we arrived at our destination, Cricklade, with time enough to look around the village and churchyard. We stayed overnight at the Red Lion, in a very comfortable room just off the courtyard behind the pub.

Day 3: Cricklade to Lechlade

The day started off well enough, but we had planned to stop for lunch at the Red Lion at Castle Eaton and found that we arrived too early for their opening. We decided to press on: it wasn't worth hanging around, especially as it was starting to rain.

As we carried on the rain got worse. It didn't help that the path later just went along the A361, so we were stumping along the grass verges, single file into oncoming traffic and oncoming rain. (The newer version of the guide, published in 2012, advises taking a taxi or bus at this point, but we didn't have that at the time.) As we approached Lechlade, a chap approaching us showed us his catch of crayfish, which cheered us up a little bit.

Our night's accommodation, the New Inn, didn't particularly cheer us up, even after a bath and trying to dry off our wet clothing. We ate out.

Day 4: Lechlade to Kelmscott

This was a relatively short walk, but we had wanted to stay at Kelmscott. This stretch of the Thames is interesting for the frequent second world war pillboxes at regular intervals.

We stayed at the Plough, which we had stayed at once before. They gave us our usual room, the one with the huge four-poster bed. The food was good, and they were also rather wonderful in offering to wash and dry our dirty clothes before we carried on with the walk. We patronised the second-hand book stall at the Inn and admired William Morris's distinctive gravestone. Unfortunately, Kelmscott Manor wasn't open at the time, or we would have gone there.

  

Day 5: Kelmscott to Tadpole Bridge

We had to pause our walk towards Radcot as a family of eleven swans made their way to the water. They then continued alongside us all the way. We stopped to admire the medieval bridge, which underneath looks like a cathedral, and to have lunch at the Swan.

Then it was onwards to Tadpole Bridge to stay at the Trout.

Day 6: "Rest Day"

We had booked for two nights at the Trout, thinking that by now we would need a rest from walking. The trouble was, although the Trout was very nice indeed, there wasn't a great deal to do, it was far from anywhere, and we had no transport. We ended up walking into Bampton for a look around, so it wasn't much of a rest day after all.

Day 7: Tadpole Bridge to Bablock Hythe

Resuming the walk, we observed that day the Oxfordshire had invested in a number of huge, wheelchair-friendly kissing gates. good idea - except that the path between them, in places, was so constrained by vegetation, that you wouldn't fit a chair on the path itself.

We sheltered from a brief shower, but otherwise the weather was fine as we continued to Newbridge. There, the Rose Revived was busy, and didn't seem especially keen on walkers when we stopped to enquire about food.  The Maybush, on the other side of the river, was most welcoming and served us excellent food and beer.

At Bablock Hythe we stayed at the Ferryman. While the food and accommodation was wholly satisfactory, we felt that here, too, walkers were a just a little out of place.

Day 8: Bablock Hythe to Oxford

The last day of this section of the walk was a splendid walk on a sunny day: we were getting used to it now. We did a good long walk in the morning and stopped for lunch at the Perch in Binsey, on the outskirts of Oxford.

Arriving in Oxford, we had booked to stay in greater luxury at the Randolph. As we had been carrying everything with us, we were travelling light but by now a little grubby. We had sensibly arranged to forward a pack of our better and cleaner clothes to await our arrival, and were able to emerge refreshed for dinner.