As the weather is taking a break from being in the 30s, we decided to get in another leg of the Thames Path. Because of our desire to only use public transport wherever possible, we chose to only go as far as Eynsham today. This is because to get home (and therefore back to the start next time) would have required two buses if we’d walked all the way to Northmoor. This made the walk the shortest we have done so far, narrowly beating the Cholsey to Shillingford leg, which was 6.97 miles, and will make the next leg the longest.
Will it Never End?
Getting to Oxford was straightforward enough, taking the train from Reading. We arrived at Oxford station and looked at how long it would take us to get back to where we left off last time, The Head of the River. It would be 20 minutes there and then another 20 minutes back along the Thames to bring us right back to the station. We felt that wasn’t necessary, so for the first time, we skipped a bit of the path, knocking about a mile off our journey.
Normally, when visiting Oxford, we would head straight out of the station to the city centre, but today we needed to head in the other direction down Botley Road. Doing this isn’t as easy as it was a few years ago, as the never-ending Osney Bridge works make finding the Thames more of a challenge than it needs to be.
Anyway, we were quickly at the path and on our way. It was surprising just how quickly we lost sight of the city and houses and were in the countryside. Helped by the attractive allotments that you see on the opposite bank almost as soon as you hit the river.
It was a beautiful stretch of the river and for the first time the river seemed to have visibly narrowed.
We now have the next two stages booked in back-to-back in October and after that we will be in spitting distance of the source.
To Date
Day: 17
Start: Oxford
End: Eynsham
Distance: 6.19 miles
Cumulative: 140.74 miles
To go: 47.31 miles