Thames Walk to the Source: Newbridge to Rushey Lock

This was the hardest and longest walk so far, nearly twelve and half miles into a strong headwind. The picture above is of the Chimney Marshes which is a nature reserve rich in rare wild flowers and wading birds. We were unlucky on this walk in that we arrived at The Trout at Tadpole at three minutes after two O clock when they stopped serving food. So nought out of ten for the Trout for stopping serving food so early and for refusing to be at all flexible even though they were still serving puddings to people after we arrived. The last few miles of the walk were all the harder for this, especially the ascent of the north face of Marriage Hill. We were being heavily rained upon and having to dig our fingers into bare earth and drag ourselves up the escarpment clinging onto branches. After all that we found ourselves having to walk along a B-road - after another footpath had been fenced off - and deal with incredibly aggressive drivers who tried to force us off the road into the roadside ditch. To cap this we were unable get food at Oxford train station and the so-called fast train crawled along the slow track with a window close to the only available seats jammed open.

After leaving Newbridge we passed to the north of Harrowdown Hill which was the place where the body of Dr David Kelly was found in 2003. His evidence had raised questions about Saddam Hussein's possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction - the official justification for the UK government's decision to invade Iraq. There is some speculation that he was murdered and forensic experts have thrown doubt on the official verdict of suicide. Radiohead's Thom Yorke wrote what he described as the angriest song he had written in his life about Harrowdown Hill. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AS37ZSYOwTA.

Radiohead seem to have an association with hills next the river Thames. They also filmed the video to one of their songs on Wittenham Clumps which we climbed on the Wallingford to Dorchester walk.