Day Two

Another day done, and another day of fair weather too.

We started today's walk from the farmhouse, across their land to the Thames, which marks their boundary, without backtracking to Culham Lock. Don't worry though, we've not cheated on the distance, as our route last night from the lock to the farmhouse ran parallel to the Thames, and our route down to the river this morning was perpendicular to it, so it all works out fine. Honest.

More lovely villages and countryside today, some photos of which I've already tweeted. One of my tweets was of a small narrowboat at the edge of a field, some metres above the current level of the Thames. I joked about it being a victim of the recent flooding hereabouts. In fact, when we got closer, we found the following note, which shows that it was exactly for that reason that the boat came to be where we found it.


One of the lovely villages was Shillingford. The following three photos come from there. The first is of a corner of Shillingford Court showing the height of previous floods. One, from 1809, above head-height. The other two are of a 50 yard-long wisteria growing in front of appropriately named Wisteria Cottage and an adjacent barn.


Just before we reached our day-two journey's end, Wallingford, we had to follow a temporary diversion away from the Thames, owing to the footbridge across the wear at Benson Lock being closed. This was due to scheduled maintenance overrunning because of the floods.


Finally, we reached Wallingford, which is yet another photogenic Oxfordshire market town, with plenty of original charm. Well worth a visit.


Tomorrow, we walk on to Tilehurst, about another 13 miles downstream. The bad news is my aching feet have precipitated a visit to Boots for first-aid supplies. Bad times. The good news is tomorrow is Sunday, which means Juli can eat cake and I can drink beer. Good times.

TTFN - N