Wednesday 1 June 2022
Chauffeur Graham dropped us as close as possible to Buscot Weir, a warm but cloudy morning to start Walk 4.
Both feeling fine and ready for the walk ahead.
The lovely Rachel from @yogachronicles had spent some time with us, working on some great stretches to do pre and post walk, and they really helped. As well as giving us the mantra "squeeze your glutes" to keep in mind whilst walking!
Catching up on the past week's news we couldn't quite believe it when we turned the first corner and Susan uttered the words "there's a cow on the bridge" ..... "we're not going over that bridge are we"?
We got closer, and realised yep our bridge, our cow ...
But we took deep breaths, did plenty of shoo-ing and made it across and past the rest of the herd. And now, we see a cow it doesn't phase us at all. Result.
This was a pretty section of the river, very gentle and soothing with not a soul in sight.
Lots of rushes in the water and very dark clouds, but luckily no rain.
We spotted this bird watching over the surroundings at the top of this tree trunk, at first we thought it was a heron as we had seen a few of those, but after zooming in, trying to focus in the greyness of the day, and Susan identifying at at home afterwards, we believe it to have been a cormorant, as they have been seen increasingly inland up amongst the rivers, the younger ones have a paler breast. They are a sea bird and are usually black all over.
(More than happy to be corrected though, let me know if we are wrong).
Our first boat of the day was this beautiful barge, we loved the colour and had to shout to let him know, poor chap had to turn the engine off, either he couldn't hear us or he couldn't understand the scottish accent!
And to Julie our friend and follower from Switzerland this one is for you!
"Just Julie"
Next we spotted our Tree of the Day, a Poplar
We found ourselves at Eaton Weir, just a rustic bridge and a tiny weir-keepers cottage being worked on ... but no weir.
We were still spotting the pillboxes dotted around the fields; concrete defence posts from the 2nd World War.
After about 2 miles from Buscot Weir you reach a decision, you can either carry on the Thames Path, or you can turn left to Kelmscott Manor, the beautiful Elizabethan house that William Morris made his country home for 25 years. He described it as 'heaven on earth'. Make sure you check it's opening times, we weren't able to visit today as it's currently only open Thursday - Sundays.
There is also a pub here called the Plough Inn which is closed Monday & Tuesdays. It looks lovely and serves lunch from 12-2:30pm. You can also sleep here.
We carried on walking through the Eaton Hastings area, just a few farmhouses and beautiful houses dotted around.
The photo below really shows the grey skies and grey reflections in the water!
... and swans with their cygnets
We are now about 4 miles into the walk, tummies starting to rumble ...
We reached Grafton Lock, built in 1896, and were met by more swans and cygnets and a large bush designed to be a cat, and a real cat in front of the lock office. The flower beds and lock sites are beautiful and kept so neat and pretty by the lock keepers.
Reaching Radcot, you can see that the river divides, we kept on the left hand side to go through a gate and wooden footbridge to take us to our pub for lunch. The other branch of the river flows under the older Radcot Bridge, the oldest bridge across the Thames. (Radcot means cottage by the road).
Radcot was the border between the Saxon kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia (and later between Berkshire and Oxfordshire)
There has been a bridge here since 958!
In 1837 apparently the Earl of Oxford had leapt over the river here on his horse when fleeing from a battle, the bridge would probably have been built by the Normandy Monks who lived at nearby Faringdon.
On his way to Faringdon in 1645, Oliver Cromwell is said to have fought a 'skirmish' at Radcot bridge.
We stopped here at Ye Olde Swan and were welcomed by this beautiful garden alongside the river.
Open every day with lunch 12-2pm and 12-3 Saturday, 12-5 Sunday
Simple fare but filled us up.
Susan tried one of these Moving Mountain plant burgers and said it was really good.
Susan headed inside to ask for the pudding menu
THERE ISN'T ONE!!!
So for those of you have walked miles to this point, there are no sugary treats to give you a boost, make sure you pack some.
We even texted Chauffeur G to google some tea shops near to where he was picking us up, a walk with no cake ... unthinkable....
We managed a cappuccino and hot chocolate, but Pam said there was something wrong with the frother, so we had them with no froth ..
Before lunch we had walked 4.52 miles and walked 11,940 steps, time to get going again, over the bridge and through a campsite. Further along there were some gorgeous camping spots.
As you can see the sky was now blue and it was lovely and warm on our backs.
Radcot Lock was found further along from the bridge and pub.
Walking through tall grasses, we were glad we had our walking boots on again today, the ground is so uneven, we would definitely recommend that you wear them.
Also if you have hayfever don't forget your medication during May and June!
Below is Old Man's Bridge, it was an important foopath to connect the villages, in the late 1800's there was an Inn on either side of the weir. The Spotted Cow on the southbank and The Trout on the northbank.
Due to it being such a secluded spot, and the police far enough away, there were said to be many shady things going on, gambling, cock fighting etc
It was just endless fields of buttercups, so pretty and peaceful.
But then the Emily urge to just lie in them proved too much, so we downed bags and collapsed into them, bliss, well Susan sat incase she couldn't ever get up again!
This is definitely an indie album cover shot of Susan 😂
Whilst sitting there Susan had a panic that her walking boots were on the wrong feet and she'd walked almost 7 miles in them ....
But on closer inspection and a repositioning of her legs and feet it was revealed she was OK. This really was our mad 15 minutes of the walk. It happens. So good to laugh. A big drink and a couple of polos and off we continued!
We know the days of it being just us in wide open countryside won't last forever, we will soon be battling the crowds in Oxford, Henley, Marlow & Windsor before reaching London.
Through some more fields for a mile and we arrived at Rushey Lock and Weir.
The Lock House was once a guest house and had guests such as Douglas Fairbank and Errol Flynn, it was built in 1896 and still has it's original manually operated beams.
We saw a barge approaching so we opened the lock gates for them ..
The family had travelled down from Leamington Spa to finish at Lechlade, had had heavy rain at Didcot a day or so previously, but were enjoying their trip.
We were feeling great and the weather was fab but we had decided to have a slightly shorter walk today, so that Walk 5 works with a lunch spot. The next stretch is quite remote with not many roads accessible to being picked up.
We stopped at Tadpole Bridge, a simple late 18th century bridge which carries vehicles across connecting Burford and Bampton. From a map in 1761 the spelling is Tadpoll.
Next to it is a lovely pub The Trout Inn, open daily with lunch 12 - 3pm (Sunday 4pm). They also have rooms and a large garden right next to the river and the busy bridge. There is a carpark but only for guests.
It's really pretty, we loved the lights and heaters under this tipi.
And here comes Chauffeur G bang on 4:30pm, we greeted him with a drink of thanks 😁
Today's walk totalled just under 9 miles and 21,534 steps.
It was a really lovely walk and we look forward to our next one which takes us through Chimney Meadow Nature Reserve, one of the largest areas of unimproved meadlowland in England.
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