A long walk

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Vaughan fancied doing a long walk and the Thames path was right on our doorstep. He chose a loop walk which would take in a few of the surrounding villages along the Thames, a total of around 15 miles! That was way too long for me, I had a strained calf muscle from running so would only walk as far as I could as it was sore. We set off along the path towards Shillingford, the path along the river was very picturesque, Shillingford was only about 2 kilometres up the the river. We continued to walk along the river until we we approached Dorchester and then our path took us inland where a heard of cows was crowded around the gate we needed to get through. A lady came towards us walking her dog and asked if we liked cows as she was chased by the heard that was crowding around the gate. She said if you had saw me you probably would have laughed as I really legged it across the field with the cows hot on my tail!! I can only imagine it was the dog that set the cows off. When we approached the cows they didn't seem bothered by us and moved out our way to let us through.

Dorchester had a nice Abbey and museum which we stopped to look at. The Abbey dates back to the 13th century and was once an Abbey but now a Parish church. It was a lovely Abbey and definitely worth a look. It was lunchtime and we saw there was a tea room in the village so walked down the main street to find Lilly's Tea room where we enjoyed some cream tea. My leg was sore and I was tired so from here I would catch the bus to take me back to Benson. Vaughan walked with me through the village and to the main road where I would pick up the bus he then continued on with his walk leaving me to catch the bus back to Benson.

I had a nice quiet afternoon to myself, Vaughan turned up about three hours later foot sore and very tired, he had walked 15 miles and enjoyed every minute of it. Tonight both my nephews were off to cubs and beavers and we promised to be there to watch. It was very pleasant, being a village the cubs and beavers do their night together where in Melbourne where Vaughan was a cub leader there was enough kids to have them separated. It was a highlight for Vaughan to spend an evening at an English cub pack and help out, Lisa was there as well, as a parent helper. The night was spent in a cute garden where the kids played games and there was a ceremony for those kids going from Beavers to Cubs, it was all interesting to watch and the boys appreciated is being there.

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