Abingdon Bridge

Here we are in Abingdon at the end of our walk.  We liked the look of Abingdon and we had a welcome cup of coffee with Andy in the garden of the pub on the bridge right next to the Thames.

We liked the approach into Abingdon.  The undergrowth was a bit off-putting on the rest of the walk - it was difficult to walk through and it cut down on what we could see.  Maybe it would be better earlier in the year before it has grown so high.

Horticultural Hazards

We weren't too keen on the tall grass but were even less keen on the tall stinging nettles!  Good job we weren't wearing shorts.

Power to the People

We got a little bit obsessed with Didcot Power Station during this walk.  It was with us for a lot of the way but it kept moving - sometimes it was directly ahead, sometimes to the left of us and sometimes to the right.  When we thought about it we realised it was actually us moving as the river meanders quite a lot here and I don't think power stations can walk!  Angela is so excited by it though that she wants to text a friend, once she gets the phone switched on!  We weren't sure about the look of the power station in the rural scene but we decided that by and large we didn't really want to do without electricity.  We do take it for granted that we can just plug in our appliances, press a button and off we go.  It isn't the same in the school in Grandcess where they have to use a generator to provide electricity.  The generator is in constant use and so often breaks down which makes life very difficult.

This is very topical with the World Cup going on at the moment. The people of Grandcess love football and this generator is used to power a TV in the school when football is on. This is a good fundraising scheme as there is an entrance fee to watch the football and the money raised is used to fund fuel.

The End?

Bet you think this was the end of the walk because Angela is standing on a bridge but you are wrong.  We had to cross the river by this bridge in Clifton Hampden.  The Thames Path signs here were very helpful because they told us that we had come 3 miles from Day's Lock and it was 3 miles to Culham.  It is the first walk we have been on where the signs have given distances and we have often said that it would be good if they did.

Tall Grass - Swishy, Swashy - We Must be on a Bear Hunt!

This walk consisted of a lot of meadows with very tall grass which was a bit challenging and did cut down on how much we could see.

Scary Sign

We are not too happy when we see signs like this one but we managed to get passed the cows without incident.

No Way Through

A fallen tree is blocking our way - now what do we do?

Luckily Catherine has found a way through.

By the Thames?

We were very glad to see the Thames as we were in a bit of a muddle between the River Thame and the River Thames.  The village of Dorchester isn't on the Thames so we set off down the road we had come up when we arrived in Dorchester back in April.  We came to a field and walked through it and reached a river after passing by some other water that we thought was the River Thame.  All set to walk along the Thames we checked with a passing runner if we were right only to be told that this was the River Thame and that we had to follow this river until we reached the Thames.  The way next to the Thame didn't look the same to us as it had when we walked next to it in April so we weren't convinced that we would find the Thames but we did and here we are at Day's Lock.  Brendan left us here to go back to Dorchester by another path - I hope he didn't have as much trouble on the way back and isn't still walking around somewhere between the Thame and Thames!

River Thame to the left, River Thames to the right.