Day 2

Second day - 21km in 7 hrs - a bit slow but what do you expect from a three-pub day?

Spent a few minutes in Cricklade before heading off on the walk to Lechlade, 20km away. Cricklade is a lovely little town and the White Hart pub we stayed in was good too.

The path was through farmlands, mainly wheat with some dairy. However, the main attraction was the Thames itself which started doing what it's supposed to do - carry water downstream. Having been an insignificant trickle, today it turned into a lovely river - all reeds and overhanging trees (with a few swans thrown in). The path was mostly on the riverbank, narrow and weedy in places (stinging nettle included free of charge - ouch!) but broad and faint tracks on grassy meadows.

There is only one village between Cricklade & Lechlade; Castle Eaton. Naturally we planned to have lunch there. Castle Eaton's main (only?) refreshment stop is the Red Lion pub - considered to be the first pub ON the Thames. It's right on the riverbank in a lovely spot on the river. Pity it didn't open till 12.00 noon. We arrived 15 minutes early and, with three other walkers we met along the way, waited in their back garden until the doors opened. We decided that looking desperate is preferable to going hungry. Left the pub around 1.00 pm ready (?) to tackle the next 12 or so km.

The afternoon was uneventful (apart from a detour that added another two km to the trip) but tiring. Arriving at the outskirts of Lechlade, we saw the first houseboats on the river (the river is quite big at this stage). 

Another welcome site was the excellently-located Riverside pub; which we proceeded to put to good use.

To cap it all off, we had dinner in a Lechdale pub - time to hit the sack I think!