The Thames Path with Jim

We completed the top loop by Oxford as a one day trip, The rest was undertaken as a three day journey using 2 cars staying at Lechlade.We always suspected this bit was going to be boring & you can understand why people walk the Thames from source to estuary, so it gets more interesting as you go along.....just to guarantee the exciting effect we chose the middle of November.

Mind you, there is nothing like wandering round in a dark field, because you have run out of light, in a slow but persistent drizzle , to know that somewhere out there is a pint with your name on it.The reason we ran out of light was because we searched for cappuccino in the morning to keep the wheels turning.

I had seen pictures of the source stone years before & I had tried to prepare Jim to be 'under whelmed' by the whole experience. I think I could have pulled it off if we didn't have to walk another half mile to find something that looked like a dried up river bank & another quarter of a mile to find some water.His kind and as ever cheerful note on my return summed up the whole experience.

"As one gentleman of total leisure to another, I'd like to thank you for your unremitting good company during our three day expedition to the source of the Nile.  The difficult-to-read marker stone and the dry depression in the ground  were probably one of greatest "non-events" of my walking year!. Even if there had been a bit of cheating and an underground hosepipe had squirted some water a couple of inches into the air, it would have given the place a tiny sense of theatre, rather than a feeling of "where is it ,then?".  It really needs a bit of Walt Disney magic, if it's going to be a major tourist attraction!."

The stage up to Oxford & into the western end of Reading were carried out as one day activities on dull days. The stage in between these two lesser events was gold platted, because we were walking in April & it was gloriously hot.....Shorts, paddling in the Thames, using the outside swimming pool at the hotel, yep the whole nine yards.