Oxford to Culham on the Thames Path, with a good deed

With a gig on Saturday night, and a forecast for a hot and humid weekend, an early start on Saturday was the best time for our walk. There are only two trains from Culham to Oxford on Saturday mornings - at 7:56 and 10:01 so we chose the earlier one to walk as much as we could before it got too hot. This meant we had to leave the house at around 7:00, but also meant that we were walking out of Oxford station at around 8:15.

As we got to The Thames, it became clear that an event was about to start - this initially seemed to be a 'bicycling with a megaphone' gathering, but turned out to be Oxford Royal Regatta. Even at this early time, the towpath was busy with runners and walkers as well as people wearing blazers connected to the regatta.

As we approached the finishing line of the regatta course, the towpath widened in front of one of the many boathouses. A teenage girl was cycling towards us when she suddenly flew over the handlebars as the bike stopped abruptly. We rushed over to help and untangled her from her bike. It was clear that the incident had happened because she had her handbag dangling from her handlebars, and it had caught in her front wheel.

She was clearly in a bad way, and  told us that her wrist hurt badly. We were soon joined by an official from the regatta who'd seen the incident from the balcony of the boathouse. We helped the girl into the shade while he summoned the regatta's first aid launch. As we waited for this to arrive, the girl (who we learned was called Myna) was getting more dazed, so Rosie sat with Myna's head on her shoulder and did a great job of comforting her as the official called an ambulance. Before long, she'd lost consciousness so we were relieved when the regatta nurse arrive and took over. There were a lot of people around by that time, so we didn't wait around for the the ambulance crew to arrive, even though that would have been quite a spectacle  because there is no road access to the boathouse, so a stretcher trolley would have been wheeled quite a distance along the towpath. We hope that Myna is recovering well, and doesn't dangle her handbag from her handlebars again.

There was a  short stretch more of 'city' river, but few views of the famous spires. The path remained busy until we got to Iffley lock - although this has a'portage' route for rowers, it was clear that few ventured downstream. The path as heading South  at this point, and it was warming up - certainly shorts, sun hat and sunglasses weather for me, with regular drinks stops.

We had a detour near Sandford Lock in order to avoid a bull that was taking a very close interest in the groups of cows on the main path. There were no further building on the river until Radley boathouse - a boater close to the house told us about a very welcome drinking-water fountain.

The path turned West towards Abingdon, with lovely scenery. Rather than following the river, we decided to head into Abingdon, and ended up eating out lunch in the park, where there were fountains for young children to play in, and a pool for the older ones. Both were probably having their busiest day of the year! We'd not been to Abingdon before, and we left with impressions of a pleasant market town.

It didn't take us long to do the few miles from Abingdon to Culham Lock, where we'd left the path on our previous visit. However, we were still 1.5 hot miles on the road from Culham Station. As it happened, we passed a pub so stopped for refreshments and a rest before the final slog along the busy road.

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Dorchester, Culham and Wittenham Clumps

We both had arranged not to be working this Friday so we would have the option to do a multi-day walk along The Thames. Although the weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday was poor, Friday's looked OK, with just some light showers. So Rosie quickly worked out a circular walk along The Thames from Dorchester to Abingdon, and then back via Wittenham Clumps.

We parked at the bridge in Dorchester and crossed to the South bank at Day's Lock, where we'd  left the path a couple of weeks ago. The first stretch was a big loop, alongside a typical water meadow, and opposite some very nice houses. There were hardly any other walkers around,  and we made very good progress and crossed to the North bank at Clifton Hampden too early to stop at the pub for lunch.

As we approached Culham, the path got very muddy and slippery, and sloped in random directions. We picked our way carefully as it passed through patches of nettles but, in my case, not carefully enough - I slipped over and ended on my bottom with my elbow in a nettle patch and my knee covered in mud.

Rosie realised when we got to Culham Lock that we'd walked around 7 miles already and her planned walk would be a lot longer than she'd thought, so she worked out an alternative route back, again via Wittenham Clumps. Google Maps showed three pubs in Sutton Courtenay, all with good reviews. Our route took us past The Fish, which is not a pub at all, but a small French restaurant that had a 'two courses for £13.50' menu. It didn't take long for us to change our dinner plans. Luckily they didn't mind my muddy knees or our boots.

Ordering was interesting. The staff were all French. Our waitress had almost no English (you'd think any waitress in England would understand 'we are ready to order our food').  Perhaps because the menu was in English, we didn't think to switch to French ourselves. It would certainly have been quicker. There was a notice asking that customers inform the staff if they were in a hurry. We weren't  and we didn't. The food was simple and lovely. We hope to return, probably better dressed.

The return leg started through a series of gravel pits, with a clear view of Didcot Power Station. The path then had an official diversion away from the gravel pits and along an unwelcome stretch of road to Appleford. At this point we were close to the river again, but headed Southish en route to Wittenham  Clumps, a couple of distinctively shaped small hills, topped by beech plantings. One of them was the site of an Iron Age hill fort. It was a steep climb to the top, but a great view when we got there. After having walked around 15 miles, we were both pleased that it was downhill all the way back to Dorchester. We were too late and too full to visit the super coffee shop on the main street.

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