Mike, one of my brothers-in-law, kindly helped me out with the logistics on this leg and started the walk with me. Mike is a very fit man. He plays a lot of squash and goes running in order to keep fit for playing a lot of squash. After about a mile he decided he’d had enough and needed to go home for a bit of a lie-down so he turned back and I continued alone.
Continue reading S2S Leg 15: Bampton to Cricklade →

I was joined on this leg by my mate Ian. He has two dogs and two teenage sons and is therefore much fitter than me. I have a cat and a grown-up daughter.

We met at Tadpole Bridge, our destination for today, and then drove to the toll bridge at Swinford which was to be our start-point. But instead of the usual bored teenager collecting 5p from each driver we found wacky charity collectors in fancy dress waving buckets. And much as I like to make my own decisions about charitable donations, well, you can’t just give 5p can you? So between the total of three crossings of the bridge we made today the charity (I can’t even remember which one) made twenty times the usual amount. You do the maths…
Continue reading S2S Leg 14: Swinford to Bampton →

On this leg I was joined by Christine, one of my lovely sisters. She knows Oxford very well which is fortunate because she knew where we could park for free and take a civilised comfort stop very close to the start of today’s route. It was also fortunate because she knew what to do when we tried to join the river at Botley Bridge but we confronted by those damned yellow signs saying “towpath closed”. In addition we were  helped by a lady with a pushchair who was very uncomplimentary about some new houses that we would pass on our detour. Nimby or councillor? You decide. So we picked our way through the roadworks that seem to be everywhere in Oxford at the moment, and soon made it to a towpath, albeit by the Oxford Canal. But it wasn’t long before we crossed Port Meadow back to the Thames.
Continue reading S2S Leg 13: Oxford to Swinford →

A relatively short sprint to Oxford on this occasion, the reason for that being that Oxford is the last railway station on the route. So the luxury I have enjoyed since Southend – that of always having an easy exit at the end of each leg – is now gone. I will now have to rely on having a walking (and driving) partner in order to do a park-and-walk. Hint hint. Ahem, anyone there?
Continue reading S2S Leg 12: Culham to Oxford →