Day 3

Did 21.67 km today in 6 hrs & 44 mins - slow but not bad considering a couple of stops along the way. Started in Lechlade, a lovely little town with an old toll bridge (ha'penny bridge) next to a park and camping ground. The local church (every town has at least one) and the pub (at least two per town) are worth seeing, at least from the outside.

From there, the path was mainly along the meandering Thames; close to it most of the way. There is plenty of water now, with lots of houseboats (with people living in them) moored along the bank. Interestingly there are several 'locks' that enable boats to go up/down stream - acting like ladders for boats. Massive gates enable the river to be dammed temporarily to raise the water level enabling the boats to rise to the next level and opening the next gate to proceed. First time I saw this.

We stopped in two little villages along the way. One had 'Tea Rooms' where everybody passing through this hamlet of Buscot appeared to go. It also had a 12th century church.

The Swan pub in Radcot was a real nice place - we had lunch there around 3.00pm.

The whole trip was mainly along the riverbank and through farmland - hardly any farm houses to be seen. The farmlands (mainly cattle) was separated from the path with an electrified fence. Between the path and the river was stinging nettle - we could electrocute ourselves or scratch ourselves to death - spoilt for choice, we were.

We did manage to walk about 1 km on the wrong side of the fence and rather than walk back, decided to throw the bags over the fence and crawl under it. Laziness wins at every turn!

Sometimes the path was quite isolated (here's Marg on the 'path')

Apart from the river and the farmlands, we also saw some marvelous houses. Here is a thatched house across the river from a herd of cows.

It was a successful day (we made it to the end). Tomorrow is a bit shorter; only 15 km.

Cheers