The Thames Path: day 9

Day 9
Clifton Hampden - Oxford
24.47km / 15.2 miles
5:18:04
1,388 calories
Cumulative total: 214.86km / 133.51 miles 

Coming to Oxford always feels a bit like coming home. Walking up past Iffley Lock today I knew where I was, what to expect around the corner; I could see the bright blue doors and red brick of my college boathouse and the spires rising above the trees in the Meadow.

Oxford in July, mid-pandemic, is however an odd place. It's not the bustling university city I love so much, it's quiet and rather shut up. I had to leave my hostel to go in search of a fresh gas canister for my camping stove, and dinner, as the hostel kitchen is closed (Covid-19), and it was a bit strange.

However, today was lovely overall, if overcast and occasionally trying to drizzle. I met my friend Carrie and her gorgeous collie Bella about 3km down the path from my campsite, and so had company for the rest of the day. Bella seemed to never tire of her game of putting her ball down on the path and wait for one of us to kick it in her direction, whereupon she pounced on it and ran off to repeat. Carrie and I had a good catch-up about life as we made our way along the river, which seemed to be particularly languid and calm today as it drifted past endless green fields and borders of wild flowers.

At Abingdon we discovered a pretty old bridge and a café for me to acquire some lunch, and then we carried on. There was no detour from the river today, we hugged its banks the whole way. Past Radley College boathouse I reminisced about a particularly dramatic novice training camp from a couple of years ago (high stream, novices, damage).

We barrelled on past Sandford Lock although we both had sore feet, and I was sure Iffley Lock was only just around the corner. The section between these two locks, while becoming more urban and with pavement to walk on, was surprisingly nice, and I was surprised I'd never been down that far.

At Iffley we stopped again for a snack. Bella watched the geese, and a tiny dachshund chased the geese, and the geese generally hissed a bit. Then we were into the last 4k and home territory (or water), with Christ Church Meadows on the far bank, until a final goodbye at Oxford Station.

Here today's tale nearly turned into disaster, as I discovered I'd managed to book tonight's hostel for tomorrow not tonight. Luckily, they let me in, were open, and had a bed ready for me in a dorm room with nobody else in it. The rest of the trip is camping, and I'm heading into far more rural areas, so tomorrow I'll have to stock up a bit on lunches for two days. Only four to go!