A veneer of Oxfordshire mud

Viv and I were visiting the other pair of grandchildren and their parents this week and yesterday I managed to sneak off for a day's walk which was rather more for distance training than training for climbing up and down. Oxfordshire is just not as demanding as the south west coast path but a walk is a walk and not before time.

It was, in fact, full of interest on a day that managed to be more sunshine than showers and covered territory that I hadn't visited on foot before. I did a loop, starting at my daughter's house in Botley and returning there some 21 miles and 8 and a bit hours later to be greeted with cries of 'grandpa' as I stripped off my muddy boots. For, in parts, it was a very sloshy walk and I have brought back home a fairly large dollop of dried Oxford clay.

I sauntered out of Botley over Cumnor Hill and past Cumnor Folly (whatever that is - it was entirely obscured by trees) then through the village of Cumnor which was part of Berkshire until 1974 when boundaries were reorganised. Although this part of the walk was over the low hills to the west of Oxford there were no decent views of dreaming spires though three huge cranes and an ugly line of flats were easy to see. And I caught a far glimpse of Farmoor Reservoir towards which I was walking passing early blossom in the hedgerows.

It's a big reservoir, split into two sections that are enclosed in high banks created from the excavation of the central area. It's alongside and above the Thames from which water is pumped and then mostly delivered to Swindon, and it is a fishing, sailing and bird-watching centre. In fact, my son had a dinghy there for some years until diy, including children, shifted his priorities.

Then onto the Thames path where the walking became flat and muddy though the first bluebells were in flower and a small number of boaters were out doing what boaters do. I paused for the obligatory cheese and pickle sandwich lunch at Eynsham Lock where the best of a poor selection of options was to sit on a bench in the rain.

The very sloshiest bit followed as I climbed through the edge of Wytham Great Wood which is owned by Oxford University and is said to be one of the most researched pieces of ancient native woodland in the world. Then past two very sorry-looking and very pregnant sheep and down the slope to rejoin the Thames path as the river passed beneath the Oxford by-pass.

Then it was a slog along the path, past Bossom's Boatyard which was founded in 1830 by one of the early boatbuilding families of Oxford. Then over an old footbridge and down to Botley Bridge where I sat with the geese and ducks and decided that, to make this a really demanding bit of training, I should loop southwards before returning to Botley. So I went on down the riverside path then crossed through a suburban area and over the railway to South Hinksey, where the noise from the traffic on the by-pass is deafening (how do people living there tolerate it?) and climbed, rather wearily, back up to Cumnor Folly and Hill and so to a very welcome mug of tea and a shower.