Stage 22: Tadpole to Lechlade (backwards)

Dear Bertie,

It's day 2 of our August mega family walk with Me, Lola, Papa and Mamie. 

The sky was a bit grey and drizzly as we packed up the car and headed out East, this time along the big river. 

You helped Mummy in the posh cafe to get a lovely pastry-tastic picnic lunch for today and bravely petted a big yellow dog. 

Back on the Thames path, we walked through the cow field opposite our hotel and you said 'good morning' to everyone living in their boats waking up for their breakfast. We were very brave marching through 3 big cow fields today and you were very friendly to them 'hello vache'. 

We passed our first lock of the day, St John's Lock. 

Here is the famous Old Father Thames statue next to the lockeeper's house. The statue was commissioned by Crystal Palace, but was rescued from a fire there in 1936 and positioned at the source. After it was vandalised, it was brought to this lock instead where Old Father Thames reclines in glory - 

We crossed a rickety old wooden bridge and crossed into fields with enormous tall slim trees. 

Dotted along the river were a number of pillboxes, on the GHQ stop line, a 300 mile long dense line created across southern England as a second line of defence in case of invasion in World War II.  You loved looking into their hidden doors. 

During our morning snack break you practised your skiing with the walking poles, while Lola learnt to roll for the first time!

Next was Buscot Lock and weir, where we stopped for our picnic lunch, but you were too busy working at the lock to eat! You learnt all about how locks work, and used your strong arms to push.

You loved waving to the retired people cruising through the lock. 

Then you stood on the jetty next to the lock with Papa, being careful not to fall in, and watched 2 young paddle boarders climb in to head upstream like us.

We then walked through a very nice village called Radcot and saw a big camping site and some teepees which you would like to stay in 'when my bigger'.  We also saw lots of houseboats and you picked a yellow flower to give to a young boy playing in the mud which was very kind, you made him so happy. 

We walked along the river just south of RAF Brize Norton, the largest RAF station, with over 5,800 service personnel working there. We saw lots of large carriers coming in to land which we thought might be from the Afghanistan evacuation from the Taliban occupation, which you may learn about at school one day. 

On the latter part of our walk, the sun came out and it was getting rather hot! We kept seeing the paddle boarding couple, but Papa's short cuts through the thick grassy fields meant we beat them to the pub end point. 

We crossed our last lock of the day, Rushey Lock and weir. 

Just before the end you went to sleep in a rather uncomfortable side slump and woke up quite surprised as we approached our end point, the Trout Inn at Tadpole.

We had a lovely afternoon at the Trout Inn with hot chocolate, rocky roads, dipped our feet in the chilly water and explored the pub with our bare feet! Before heading home  via (another) pub for dinner and back to your bed and toys at home. 

Well done Bertie - that was a big 2 days of walking the big river!

TOTAL DISTANCE: 17 KM

GPS route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/37254471

Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/5854685735

Feeding stops: 2

Nappy changes: None, in big boy pants now!

Crying episodes: None, you loved today

Feeding stop:
Lunch - Picnic on the river

Afternoon drinks and cake - The Trout Inn, Tadpole

Travel:
Parked in Lechlade, walked Lechlade to Tadpole, Papa got taxi back to Lechlade then picked us up in Tadpole before heading home.

Accomodation: New Inn Hotel, Lechlade