Pottering Around

Today we were greeted with rain and it was forecast to hang around all day...not bad really as it was the first day since we had arrived in England where the weather wasn't perfect. After starting the day with the mundane task of washing our clothes, we set off for drive to explore the area around Radley. Heading first towards Oxford, we stopped off by the Thames at Sandford Lock.

A Narrow Boat leaving Sandford Lock

Looking to find a way across the Thames, we continued north towards Oxford until we hit traffic at the A34. I got a bit confused with where I was and ended up on the A34...not going where I wanted to go at all! Taking the next exit, we ended up in Abingdon...so while had started heading north from Radley, we were now a few miles south. Still, it was not all bad as we could get across Thames. With our late start to the day, we stopped in Dorchester-on-Thames for lunch.

High Street, Dorchester-on-Thames

Abbey Church, Dorchester-on-Thames

After lunch we continued our exploration. Our map indicated some sort of viewpoint and so after driving in a rather large circle through Shillingford, Wallingford, Long Wittenham and Little Wittenham we came at last to the Wittenham Clumps. By the now the weather had improved and the intermittent rain had seem to have passed so we went for a walk up Round Hill and then across to Castle Hill. The views from both were fantastic and well worth the little exercise. And of course, there were a couple of geocaches up here...England is awash with them so one is never very far away...so I decided to go find them while I was here. That didn't take but it the process I did discover first hand the "delights" of stinging nettles...not overly painful but I did know about for the rest of the day.

A lovely view from Round Hill...except for Didcot Power Station

Looking down from Round Hill on Dorchester-on-Thames

The view from Castle Hill

After returning to our car, we headed back to Radley and went to the Village Fete to buy our afternoon tea.

Radley Fete