Way Down Upon the Thames River

 

   Teresa and I were looking for a long walk in a flat region so we went to the Thames Valley in England. There's a company there that will line up your lodgings and transport your bags from inn to inn. They're very flexible. You tell them when you want to walk and for how many days and what parts of the river you want to walk along. 

   We wanted to walk for five days and we wanted to walk ten miles per day and we wanted to end up at the source of the river which is 183 miles west of London in the beautiful Cotswold area. The company said fifty miles from the source would be around Oxford. They booked us into an ancient inn in Oxford and into five more inns in towns along the way. They also provided maps and a guidebook to the path.

   The path along the Thames is a popular walk. There are no figures on how many people complete the entire 183 miles per year. Lots of people do shorter segments like we were doing. Lots of other people use the path for jogging or walking the dog, especially close to the towns. The path was quiet during our walk the first five days of October. We chatted with a couple of groups who were doing shorter segments and there was Ann, the 83 year old woman who walked with us off and on as she completed her walk from London which she had started in mid-September.

   We were surprised to find that a good 60% of the path was across farm fields and sheep and cow pastures. We could have been walking along the Roseau River near home. The animal hooves had made divots in the path which don't match human feet and it was always a relief to get into a wooded stretch where the path was smooth and hard.

   The weather during the walk was ok. It didn't rain 80% of the time. The first two days were cool and cloudy. We were happy with that. The forecast for the third day was for light rain in the morning gradually becoming heavier. We put on our rain suits before we left our inn. Our Frog Togs©️ had the advantages of cheapness and lightness. But would they keep the rain out? By one pm we reached the town of Kelmscott, home of the famous 19th century designer William Morris. We had joined Ann by this time and we all agreed we were stopping at the tea room attached to Kelmscott Manor.

   One of the great things about England is that there's a tea room attached to just about every business and point of interest in the country. By the time we reached the tea room the rain had picked up. Our Frog Togs were still keeping the rain out, but they lacked breathability, so our personal moisture was building up inside our suits. It felt great to take off our gear and tuck into a cream scone. We didn't want to leave Kelmscott even though we knew the rain would be getting heavier by the hour. After some Christmas shopping in the gift shop, we got back on the path.

...unless it's raining

   As predicted, the rain got progressively heavier. These are the times the traveler asks him or herself, what the heck am I doing here? But there's no off ramp. It's still three miles to the inn, so the traveler soldiers on. About now our rain suits' resistance to moisture gave up. We weren't sopping wet, just exceedingly damp. And to top it off, there was confusion about our route. We were still a mile from Lechlade, our goal for the day. I remembered my guide book saying "don't go this way" at some point, but I didn't feel like digging my guide out in the rain. Ann always held her guidebook in front of her like a steering wheel. The path is generally well marked except at points of ambiguity such as we had now reached. Ann had a different book than mine which didn't say don't go this way, so we went that way. It was the wrong way, but since the inn was a good walk up from the river the distance proved to be the same either way in the end.

   When we checked in, Teresa asked if they had a clothes dryer we could use. Yes, an industrial dryer. The clerk suggested we hang our clothes on the radiator. The radiator in our room was cold. Back at the desk the clerk told me the radiator would come on at five. At 5:15 the radiator came to life. Soon we had every hangable spot in the room festooned with our clothes. By morning everything was dry. The following day was bright and sunny, but a cold front had moved in and the strong west winds would prove to be almost as bad as the rain.

Stay on the Path and latch the gate behind you.