Today my legs felt better - I've no idea why as we had to walk further than yesterday when they were feeling sore - so I'm not complaining .. just grateful! The walking today was much easier - much flatter ground to cross and more clearly defined paths to follow.
The Trout Inn did themselves no favours today. When someone did turn up yesterday they were very apologetic. First we were offered free drinks but I said we just wanted to get to our room. Then they offered us 2 glasses of champagne with our dinner - after we had already got ourselves a drink. I suggested something off the bill would be more useful, meaning a refund of the room rate for the inconvenience of sitting in the garden for two hours. When I went to pay the bill this morning I queried the total - I was told they had knocked off the price of our drinks from last night! Big deal! We'll be writing to them when we are back home pointing out how cheaper, better value establishments we have stayed in along the way have showed us a lot more care in how they look after their customers. Let's just say the words in the Trout Inn's guest booklet describing how they will look after you during your stay, bear little relation to what actually happens.
During today's walk it was noticeable that the river is continuing to narrow. And as we approached Lechlade it meandered much more than before. We were lucky with the weather again - it had been sunny and hot again but it rained while we had our lunch in Kelmscott. We put on our waterproofs before setting off - this was of course the cue for the sun to come out once more. Later in the afternoon we passed St John's Lock where the statue of Old Father Thames resides. The statue used to be at the source but was moved to St Johns some years ago. The final mile or two found us walking back on ourselves at times as the meanders became more and more pronounced.
Now we are into home territory we have mixed feelings. We only have 25 miles walking left and what seemed a big challenge at the start now becomes more and more possible. But after almost three weeks we have had enough walking and it will be so nice to be at home and rest. There are just two more long walks left (to Cricklade, then Ewen) and then its the short walk to the source itself. However, we met some ladies today who told us it was still flooded at the source. So now we wonder whether we may be paddling the last few hundred yards.
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