Josh:-
Rog woke at 6 as usual and woke me at 6.30.The usual porridge and tea, tetley though due to running out of Earl Grey. The M &S porridge had acuually turned out to be very nice, however ten times more expensive to our other favourite from Lidl.
The tent was much drier than the previous night which was good, and the fround under the tent was cleaner.
We set off at 7.50 walking to another well to do river dwelling and up onto the road to Moulford. Despite the morn being very cold, about - 2 , there was a suprising patch of unfrozen mud under the trees.
Due to the wet we plodded on icy path along the road to Wallingford buying pear drops at a petrol station to pass the time. We walked on path and road as alot of the path was just ice.
In Wallingford we tentitively made our way to Thames Street, amazed that any cars were moving. We had considered venturing into the town for coffee but thought we may as well crack on.
Following the tow path we crossed into Benson via the lock. As we made our way out we found a cafe called the Waterfront Cafe.We entered and was surprised to find it quite full of well to do clientel. We found a comfy spot and had a coffee and a half each charging the batteries of the phones.
We left an hour later having written our diaries.
Roger:-
There was a steady fall of fine snow, the equivalent of drizzle if it had be rain.
We walked the Abingdon road as the tow path appeared very wet , and a little further on we passed a McDonalds for, kicking our selves that we had not had breaky there. The price of the coffee in the past cafe would of bought a couple of baps and eggs each ....such is life! It was good coffee at the Waterfront though.
The road followed fairly near, parallel to the Thames and had a good cycle path. We passed a industrial estate advertising laboratory space, ideal if you were a mad scientist. Then passed the Culham Rail station. A mile on we passed the Independent European school and Culham village before heading into Abingdon.
Back on the riverside we plodded past numerous walkers out for a Sunday stroll. I abandoned J while I followed the google maps to Waitrose, I thought I had missed it as it was 4 but was allowed in and bought four litres of water and biscuits.
Returning to a chilled J we walked on a wet path with a woman in front appearing to be going nowhere, she obviously knew more than me as she peeled off.
It was very reed bed land which meant wet as we weaved around, would be great in summer! I got a decent glimpse of a Kingfisher, pleased to have seen one, I had had only one other glimpse in the entire Thames Path to date and had expected more.
We were looking for a pitch site and eventually found one by a rotting picnic tables. We scraped snow aeay and started to pitch, I said to J to be carefull with the tent posts as they would be brittle. We thankfully inserted them ok but Josh in a brain storm yanked the tent to pull it out and snapped a pole....so much for kid gloves! I was not happy. Icould not do a full repair so put a sleave over the break to repair at the hostel tomorrow...I hope!
We eventually had the tent up and all done for 5.15. Tea as usual followed a little later by porridge as our main course. It wad a cold damp eve listening to the radio...would book the Youth Hostel tom morn as the office is closed on Sunday. I hope we are able to book as we need the respite.
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