The Royal River Thames

We are all enjoying being back on The River Thames – “Ellen” is loving the deep, clean water, Lola is loving the open spaces where we have managed to moor, John is loving having stretches of the river to ourselves and room to manoeuvre and me?  I just love it all!

     

     

We stopped off at Oxford for a walk around – we hadn’t really done that before.  The city of Oxford was busy!  Lots of people, lots of traffic (with the exception of London I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many buses in such close proximity before!) lots of shops and lots of bicycles.

           

We decided that we also wanted to visit Dorchester – Dorchester-on-Thames that is, not the Dorchester in Dorset!  In order to do this you need to be able to moor somewhere near Days Lock and, in the past, moorings have always been full.  This time we were lucky!  What a brilliant spot!  And, what a pretty little place Dorchester-on-Thames is – lots of thatched and half-timbered buildings, a huge Abbey church which is now the parish church and the happiest, friendliest little Co-op I’ve ever shopped in!  From where we moored it was a really nice 20 minute walk across the fields.  Our friends, Gary and Joan drove from their home in Wargrave and came to have dinner with us.

On the other side of the river, accessed by crossing over Little Wittenham footbridge, you can walk to – or rather up to – Wittenham Clumps.  These are clumps of beech trees on top of hills (Round Hill and Castle Hill) where there are remains of ancient hill forts and spectacular views of the river and surrounding countryside.

       

Spot Ellen’s red back door.

Wittenham Clumps

There are also waymarked paths through Little Wittenham Wood and dogs don’t even have to be on leads!  Red kites are becoming more and more numerous the closer we get to Reading.

Well worth a visit.

xxoo