Blog No 27, Walk with Graham from Tadpole Bridge to Kelmscot, 7 miles Sunday 24th August.

Graham has already put out an account of our walk on Facebook plus photos and so I will be taking some of his photos to use for this blog, He also wrote an eloquent description of our walk and so I will try to live up to his interesting account.

Here we are again, 

We began at Tadpole Bridge It was sunny but with a breeze so good walking conditions. We chatted as we crossed the usual mix of narrow path opening into meadowlands or fields which seem to be marked more frequently with electric fences. 

Lovely photos of this section.

Soon we reached Rushey Lock, not very busy, but boats were stirring on the river and so no doubt business would be brisk. Reaching the lock was just under a 3rd of the walk we set ourselves. Graham teased me about walking the last 4 miles to Lechlade after Lunch which we were having with his family when we reached Kelmscot. 

We then saw Old Man's Bridge, but stayed on the same side of the river.

It would be interesting to find the origin of this name. As we were chatting I had not realised that this was the half way point. We had walked for a couple of hours but I was unaware of the time. Such an amiable walk I was comfortable just walking, minding where I was stepping and on what. We passed through a field clearly inhabited by cows fairly recently.

Graham is involved in a house renovation and is working on the roof, whilst I am not technical concerning such matters, it seemed to me to be a huge undertaking. Graham commented that doing a roof, there is nothing to show for the hard labour as it will look exactly the same as it did before. Bit like this walk I thought. My walking the Thames will not exactly affect its flow.

As we walked this stretch it appeared that there were far more pillboxes than I had seen before. 

They were placed at regular intervals along the stretch we were walking. Graham commented that perhaps other stretches of water the pillboxes may have been demolished. We got to talking about the  defence systems and how they would have served us had they been used in action, They were stretched too far apart for easy communication.  It seemed that the  soldiers would have found it very difficult to defend our river and countryside against invaders.

We passed some beautiful views of the river and also saw a family of swans just a little further along.

 

The next landmark was Radcot Bridge. We crossed over the river at this point. We expected to walk  another hour and a half  until we reached Kelmscot.  I remembered a very pleasant afternoon with Elizabeth as we cruised around this part of Oxfordshire, stopping at the Kelmscot Manor. Unfortunately it was closed that afternoon but we did get a chance to look at the garden. We chatted about what the Morris's life would have been, sharing with close associates, Rosetti and GBShaw, giants of the literary and artistic world at the time. 

When we reached  Grafton Lock which was much busier by this time. 

Although it was only 7 miles in total it only seemed a tough walk when we were nearing our destination. This paddleboarder made it look easy, 

The walk from the river to the Plough at Kelmscot I felt as though I would never get there. On our arrival everyone had arrived and were about to be seated ready for our lunch. A slow affair but lots of chat and time to relax and enjoy the surroundings. 

Next walk will be from Kelmscot into Lechlade. Hoping to do this on Monday 25th August with Elaine.