THREE MEN LINK UP IN
GODSTOW: It is nearly two months since Ratty, Mole and Badger met on the
riverbank. It is a grey July day and this time we were on our bicycles to get
as far as we could, the target being Goring some thirty miles along the Thames,
downstream.
Three miles later, peddling along the towpath we were in the centre of Oxford and stopped for a
moment Osney Bridge. Osney Bridge has the lowest headroom of any across the
navigable Thames and is known (as we discovered talking to a lock keeper way up
stream) as the ‘wanker filter’ as it
is impossible for really large big boats, often poorly skippered, to pass this
point and go upstream.
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| Osney Bridge! |
A different river and
in different weather: Once past Oxford the river is much broader than hitherto.
The weather turned to rain and we became soaked and ready for lunch
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| Morning coffee Sandford Lock |
Time to cheer
ourselves up: Lunch at the Nags Head right by the bridge at Abingdon. The pub
was recommended by the lock keeper, lock keepers were a continued good source
for which pubs were good. All three of us had fish and chips.
Wallingford for
afternoon tea; Yummy and much needed before the final push to Goring.
Broad bends. Most of the day is spent bumping along the
towpath with gates and styles designed to discourage cyclists from anywhere
near these stretches of the river.
By the end of the day
our discomfort with having to lift bikes shoulder height is palpable. I am fantasizing
about the next leg of our journey; might it be a voyage from Goring to Reading?
Might it be on a pleasure steamer if they run such a service? Dave is not keen though;
fearful of whom else might be on board (where’s is his sense of adventure?)
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| Wittenham Clumps |
We pass Wittenham
Clumps. This is a hill fort and place of mystery about half way between
Wallingford and Goring I guess. A place I have always wanted to see. A green enigmatic
view captured by the British Artist Paul Nash in his painting from Little Wittenham.
We press on.
Glorious Goring: And
so we ‘pull over’ and leave the river’s towpath here. This pretty town is in
the Goring Gap, the geography that separates the Berkshire Downs and the
Chiltern Hills. We are about 8 miles northwest of Reading.
There are grey skies
still and the feel of evening.
Three tired men
peddle up the High Street and find the railway station and a train takes us back
to Oxford. Our fatigue is offset with the thought that when we resume our quest,
later in the summer, we can catch a train back up here. No more cars are needed
for the rest of this excursion down the River Thames trip.
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| Didcot Power Station; a field of Borage in the foreground |
