Thames Walk, Day 2
Trip Start
Aug 23, 1996
1
437
456
Trip End
Ongoing
Lechlade,
England,
United Kingdom
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Day 2
Start - Finish
Cricklade - Lechlade
Distance - 20 Kilometres
Parked up in the high street, we headed off back to where we had lost the path. The church looked nice at 08:30, but it was all locked up. Back on track, it was quite simple how we missed our turn, the signs were a little hidden, and as we turned on, we came across stinging nettle !!! There wasn't much, but it attacked my legs !!! The track took us back into town and again we lost the track. We looked around, found some signs and took off again. It was a little hard, as they kept on disappearing. The maps in the book we had, were ok, but most of the time we were relying on the little Thames Path signs.
After a couple of hours of walking through fields, we came across a forest of stinging nettle, I have never seen so much of it. There were a couple of different tracks, but they all ended in the same spot, where we had to force our way through more stinging nettle, until we came out in a field. As we walked, we saw our second wild deer. This one was jumping around, so much harder to shoot than the last, but we tried our best. After it had run away, we realised that we had missed our turn, so we doubled back and once again found it and headed off again.
During the day, we went further and further away from the Thames. We did come across a nice church, but the walk wasn't as impressive as day one. It became even more depressinf when we stopped for lunch on a major road, miles away from the river, this is not what I was expecting from the walk.
Once lunch was finished, we battled the traffic for twenty minutes, and then we were told to turn left. We could see Lechlade in the distance, but our book and sign said that there was a nice old church to see. Our book said 13, whilst the sign said 11th, anyway, much older than white man's involvement in Australia. Sad to say, it was locked up, but there was some nice headstones to check out.
Back on track, Lechlade was only a short distance away. As we got closer, we saw our first boat, and on top was a blue light !!! It wasn't the Police but the Environmental Protection Agency. The Thames was getting wider, deeper, fisherman were appearing, but it didn't look like they were cathing anything, and as we came towards the end of day two, a sign appeared, something that we would never see in London, you could swim here !!!
And that was the end of day two
Well it nearly was. Just around the corner was a Roman theatre, and as we have a love for Roman ruins, it had to be visited. It was all covered in grass, but you could make the shape out. Actually, it was a nice way to end the day.
And Finally
Total Kilometres so far - 45
Bridges Seen - 9
Bridges Total - 36
