Lechlade to Tadpole Bridge, with lunch at The Trout

Cooked breakfast was on offer at the New Inn. As usual when I have no faith in the quality of the sausages, I ordered a bacon sandwich. Rosie had an almost-full English, if only to prove that my judgement of the sausages was correct.  Once again, the best aspect of the hotel was the price.

We were under way in good time and headed back towards and across Ha'penny Bridge and onto the towpath.

We soon reached St John's Lock with its statue of Old Father Thames. This was originally at the Crystal Palace, then moved to the source and ended up here.

The river and towpath meandered a lot in this area and made good sport for some noisy pleasure boaters - to remind us that we were now in the navigable section.

We knew that Kelmscot Manor, William Morris' home for 25 years, was not open to the public, but thought we'd detour to take a look at the outside. Despite the high wall, we could tell that this is a place that's worth a visit for its own sake so we'll be back at some point.

There followed another winding section, by this time somewhat quieter, and we soon reached Radcot, site of one of the oldest bridges on the Thames, a sizeable marina and a nice looking camping and caravan site.

The Swan was close to our route, and we'd been walking quite quickly, so we decided to have a rest and a quick drink. It wasn't quite noon, and the pub wasn't obviously open, but the door was not locked so I went in. The landlord was near the bar who, when I asked him whether they were open yet, replied "The door's open isn't it". Nice to be welcome. However, the beer was good and so was the riverside deck.

Radcot Lock was shortly after the pub and was followed by a long quiet stretch that crossed the river a few times. We reached Tadpole Bridge, where we left the Thames Path and will resume another day.

We'd planned to eat at The Trout, which gets good reviews. The idea was that Rosie would stay at the pub while I walked the mile and half to Bampton to get the car before eating. However, it was around 13:15, and I found out when ordering drinks that they stopped serving food at 14:00. So I chose what I wanted to eat and dashed to the car. Rosie waited until 13:55 before ordering.  I managed to get back before the food was served and noticed that Jon Boden (of Bellowhead and Spiers & Boden) was at the next table with his family. Both my 'pork three ways' and Rosie's duck were very good. I had to drive home, so I can only vouch for one of the beers.

This was a super weekend, helped a lot by the sunny weather. I'd not worn a hat or used suntan lotion on the final day so I returned home to find my face and, especially, the top of my head had suffered. I was also more tanned on my right arm than my left after having walked Eastward for three days.

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