Jane’s Walk 2022 – Day 6

David decided to stay with us for the night so he could join us again today.

Back to the bridge at Abingdon, we walk through a pleasant park along the river out of the town and into the countryside. It’s a perfect walking day, warm and slightly overcast. We arrive at Culham Lock. According to the information board, Culham was a thriving community, wiped out by the coming of the Black Death and a series of poor harvests in the 17th Century. Nearby is the town of Sutton Courtney, where Asquith is buried, as is George Orwell. Tom is sad not to be able to take a detour to go and visit their graves, but we have not the luxury of time as we have a long day’s walking ahead of us.

The river looks particularly beautiful today, gently flowing through wide flood plains with many channels disappearing in different directions, so it is sometimes difficult to identify the main channel.

At Clifton Hamden, we meet up with Richard, who has bought us a picnic today as many of the pubs are closed on a Monday, and it is a nice day. After having a snack with him, we take the rest to eat later as it is a bit too early for lunch. We cross to the other side of the river and soon see why. This stretch has a number of large properties on the opposite shore. Obviously, a footpath running along the bottom of their gardens would not be popular. After about an hour, we stop for lunch on the bank, watched keenly by five swans who hiss fiercely each time Moses comes near. They obviously expect bread, but we are cautious of throwing any food to them in case Moses jumps in after it, and they go for him instead. They eventually give up and swim away, leaving a lone female eider duck to receive our scraps instead.

We cross back over the river at Wittenham lock. The lock keeper is clearly a passionate gardener, and the whole area is a blaze of pot plants of every type and colour.

We arrive at our finishing point in good time, where we say goodbye to David, who is going back to London by train.