Good Walking Country

That's mostly what we have been doing over the last few days.  We moved on upstream just past Rushy Lock.

Mooring just upstream of Rushy Lock.  Might this tempt our friends Ken & Sandra?

Information for any interested boater:
Just upstream of Rushy Lock on the Thames Path side there are two or three stretches of bank good for mooring.  Being on the Thames Path side also means that you have access to other footpaths.


One day we did a circular walk crossing the river by means of a lovely old wooden footbridge called "Old Man's Bridge"

Quite a steep, narrow climb so those 'old men' must have been fit!

We did have to cross two separate fields full of cows and as dog owners will know, cows and dogs do not mix well!  The first field was full of cows and their calves but, amazingly enough, they paid very little attention to us.  The young heifers in the second field had different ideas, however.  The lock keeper, who was just going home for the night, told us that they were completely harmless but to keep the dogs on short leads.  Having about three dozen cows following you getting closer and closer and faster and faster somehow made that assurance null and void and we legged it over the first available gate!!  We then did a detour of about a mile to get back onto the Thames Path.

The next day we walked across the meadows and through some woods to the lovely little town of Bampton - full of Cotswold stone - very few bricks in sight.  There is, apparently, a very good butcher here who sells 'prize sausages'.  We think the 'prize' must be catching him open!  We've tried twice now and both times he has been shut.  We had better luck with the ice-cream shop and just across the road was a convenient (and very attractive) bench made out of re-cycled plastic.  Why are we not seeing more use being made of this material?

 Most of us are now very conscious about re-cycling and, put to this sort of use,

 it's well worth the effort.

Yesterday we turned around and started heading back down stream.  It was quite windy and there was still quite a strong flow on the water so steering the boat around the tight 'matchstick bends' (so called because there used to be tree plantations here used to make matches) was no easy task.  There were, inevitably, one or two close encounters with over-hanging trees and bushes.  Our friends, Gloria and Derek, are just getting onto the river today and we definitely want to see them before we pass Duke's Cut on our way through Oxford.  We will probably stay where we are until they catch up with us.  In "The Rose Revived" tonight is 'Curry and a Pint' - tempting.