Ray, Natasha and myself walked the eleven-mile, twenty-seventh stage of the Thames walk on September 20th. Apart from a couple of short summer strolls at Gravesend and at Chiswick, it was the first Thames walk for more than five months.
Having missed the only bus for hours at Swindon we took a taxi to the start of the walk at Halfpenny Bridge at Lechlade.
For a few hundred metres upstream of the bridge there were a few boats moored, but from then on none at all. Lechlade is the limit of navigation for narrowboats. It is only possible to get further upstream by canoe. 
Saxon sculpture of the virgin Mary inside Inglesham church
Swans passing by the garden at the back of the Red Lion at Castle Eaton.
Clock on barn at Castle Eaton 
Red marshy plants in meadows next to the river between Castle Eaton and Cricklade. In several places it was obvious that the path had until very recently been under water. The fields around here smelt like a cross between wet dog and seaweed.
In places the Thames looks little more than a sluggish drainage ditch or a small stream but then for short stretches it appears to regain a faint echo of its status as a grand river.
