Ridgeway:Day 5

• Start: The Swan, Streatley
• Finish: The Fat Fox, Wallington
• Distance Walked: 27.5km
• Total Time: 9 hours
• Drugs consumed: Ibuprofen 12 tablets

My laptop died today ⚰️. It has had the same reaction to five days of walking as my feet. However, unlike my feet, I can just send it back to Dell to be fixed!

However, as I am now typing this on my phone, I have no real idea of how the formatting will work, so apologies in advance if it is difficult to read!

• 

• 

Breakfast this morning continued the theme of last night, being excellent! I had pancakes and Craig had eggs & avacado. There was also a lovely view to start the day.

We began the walk at Goring on Thames, just over the Bridge from Streatley.

Goring is a pretty little place, famous residents include Pete Townsend and the late George Michael, so we were not surprised when lunch from the ‘Goring Grocer’ nearly bankrupted us!

The first 10km of today’s walk were a flat walk alongside the river. However, due to the premium price of waterfront land, the first five of those were mostly narrow corridors wedged between the backs of the waterfront properties and the front gardens of the next (less expensive) layer. We got better views of the railway than we did of the river.

Finally, we reached the river and had a lovely walk along its banks.

Highlights included this wonderful viaduct designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel to take his railway across the Thames.

We passed over this bridge only 5 days ago, full of enthusiasm about the start of our challenge!

This afternoon was completely different! At Mongewell we turned right, heading away from the river and onto Grim’s Ditch.

A massive dyke at least 5km long, it dates from the late Iron Age and probably marked a defensive border. A little research this evening makes it clear that there are Grim’s Ditches all over this part of the world, and that the name might have come about because the Anglo-Saxon’s couldn’t comprehend that these massive earthworks had been created by the Ancient Britons and so attributed then to God! Grim is one of the names they had for Odin.

We found a lovely little copse beside the Ditch to eat our lunch, which was really nice – which given what we’d paid for it was just as well 🙂

After lunch we headed towards Nuffield, where William Morris, Lord Nuffield both lived and is buried. Morris not only endowed Nuffield College but was also the founder of the Morris motor company, creators of the Morris Minor.

In Nuffield we stopped at a lovely little Cafe, Maker Space . We were sadly far too enthusiastic about consuming the cream tea we purchased,to photograph it, but it was wonderful!

After that the route was up and down and up and down, beautiful little wooded sections and fantastic fields.

• 

• 

but as we are both now maxed out on Ibuprofen, we struggled. Craig finds the ascents hard, which I can cope with as I have better cardio. However, the very steep descents which he takes in his stride are agonising for me, because of my blisters.

By the time we reach Watlington we are well ready for a shower, a beer and a hot meal. We are staying at the Fat Fox, just off the high street. But there is a problem!! The Fat Fox is busy, understaffed and overrun. Our room has been given to someone else!! I suspect that we look rather woebegone at this point, we explain to the nice waitress that we have been walking for 9 hours and might fall over at any point. Eventually, after half an hour and a free pint we have a room, yay:-) The Fat Fox’s problems don’t end there however.

• 

• 

We eventually got dinner, though it was quite burned. It tasted nice and I’m sure if they were less stressed it would have been fine, we’ll see what breakfast brings!

We are both struggling physically now, maxed out on ibuprofen! (Did I mention that before:-))

Probably, we didn’t do enough training, but also this is just hard!

Fun though!