This was the day where I first drove to Abingdon, caught a bus to Newbridge and then walked to Swinford Bridge, reaching there by lunchtime. My planned afternoon walk would start at Iffley Lock and for this I caught a bus from Swinford Bridge into the centre of Oxford, followed by another bus for the 2 miles out to Iffley.

 

To reach Iffley Lock I had a half mile walk through Iffley village itself, somewhere I’d not been before since it is on the other side of the river from the Thames Path. Just 2 miles out of the centre of Oxford it truly had a village feel about it – really nice. As I’d not yet had any lunch, I bought a sandwich at the village shop and planned to eat it when I reached the lock.

 

Sitting by the side of the river eating my sandwich, I was quickly joined by a gaggle of feathered friends, some of whom I could well have seen as babies when I was there at the end of April. Having shared some of my sandwich, I set off towards Abingdon.

 

This is one of the less interesting sections of the Thames Path, not helped by the trees and hedges that obscure the river for large parts of it. That said, it was a pleasant enough walk. Iffley Lock with its geese and the proud lockkeeper at Sandford tending his roses were the highlights.

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I certainly got a lot of use out of my bus pass today. By the time I got back to my car in Abingdon I'd walked the best part of 18 miles. As I planned on doing more Thames Path walks over the next 2 days, I treated myself to a couple of nights at the Didcot Premier Inn. 

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