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This week, we decided to tackle the next section of the Oxfordshire Way, from where we'd left it at the crossing of the Oxford Canal to Islip. This only got us about 7 miles further on the Oxfordshire Way itself, but worked out as a 15.5 mile walk once we'd added on the five and a bit miles back along the canal to join it and the three miles from Islip back to Oxford Parkway station, where we caught the bus home rather than walking another couple of miles home through Kidlington.
We walked on Saturday rather than Sunday, because T wanted to be able to spend today watching the cricket. Saturdays seem to be a lot busier than Sundays; we passed several large groups of walkers along the canal towpath and near Kirtlington, though it got quieter after that. With the Cotswolds left behind and the Chilterns to come (though visible in the distance at points in yesterday's walk), the Kirtlington to Islip section of the Oxfordshire Way starts off with a small climb out of the Cherwell Valley into Kirtlington and then descends again to head across parkland and farmland to reach Weston-on-the-Green, adjacent to the A34; it's a fairly flat walk, but the landscape is varied, which made it more interesting than, say, the Thames Path, which I find utterly boring in its sameness. After crossing the A34, we headed through more farmland on what proved to be the worst-maintained section of the path so far; possibly the fact that the post confirming that the darker green line across a field was the turning we were looking for was on its side was simply because haymaking was clearly actively in progress in the field, but we also encountered fields planted very close to the hedges, leaving little space to walk in between, and gates and footbridges choked with brambles and nettles. Finally, we pushed through a very overgrown copse to reach a shiny new bridge over the Oxford-Bicester railway line (the walk directions talk about following the track and crossing with great care, but clearly the upgrading of the line has led to the construction of a bridge for walkers instead) where I only just restrained myself from giving in to the urge to wave at a passing train in a Railway Children-esque manner. After this, there were only a few more fields to cross before we arrived in Islip.
Getting back from Islip was made slightly more difficult by the discovery that the bridleway to Water Eaton, which had looked like the obvious route on the map, involved crossing the Cherwell via a ford which was only really passable if you were on a horse, or possibly wearing waders*. Lacking either horses or waders, we retreated and instead crossed the River Ray at the weir where it joins the Cherwell and followed the east bank of the Cherwell to a bridge near Water Eaton Manor, where we could pick up the bridleway to join the main road near Oxford Parkway.
*To be fair to the map, it was marked as "ford", but I hadn't realised that meant that it might be a ford that wasn't passable on foot. And I'm pleased we discovered this when attempting to walk home *from* Islip, rather than coming the other way, which would have required retracing our steps for a much longer distance.
We walked on Saturday rather than Sunday, because T wanted to be able to spend today watching the cricket. Saturdays seem to be a lot busier than Sundays; we passed several large groups of walkers along the canal towpath and near Kirtlington, though it got quieter after that. With the Cotswolds left behind and the Chilterns to come (though visible in the distance at points in yesterday's walk), the Kirtlington to Islip section of the Oxfordshire Way starts off with a small climb out of the Cherwell Valley into Kirtlington and then descends again to head across parkland and farmland to reach Weston-on-the-Green, adjacent to the A34; it's a fairly flat walk, but the landscape is varied, which made it more interesting than, say, the Thames Path, which I find utterly boring in its sameness. After crossing the A34, we headed through more farmland on what proved to be the worst-maintained section of the path so far; possibly the fact that the post confirming that the darker green line across a field was the turning we were looking for was on its side was simply because haymaking was clearly actively in progress in the field, but we also encountered fields planted very close to the hedges, leaving little space to walk in between, and gates and footbridges choked with brambles and nettles. Finally, we pushed through a very overgrown copse to reach a shiny new bridge over the Oxford-Bicester railway line (the walk directions talk about following the track and crossing with great care, but clearly the upgrading of the line has led to the construction of a bridge for walkers instead) where I only just restrained myself from giving in to the urge to wave at a passing train in a Railway Children-esque manner. After this, there were only a few more fields to cross before we arrived in Islip.
Getting back from Islip was made slightly more difficult by the discovery that the bridleway to Water Eaton, which had looked like the obvious route on the map, involved crossing the Cherwell via a ford which was only really passable if you were on a horse, or possibly wearing waders*. Lacking either horses or waders, we retreated and instead crossed the River Ray at the weir where it joins the Cherwell and followed the east bank of the Cherwell to a bridge near Water Eaton Manor, where we could pick up the bridleway to join the main road near Oxford Parkway.
*To be fair to the map, it was marked as "ford", but I hadn't realised that meant that it might be a ford that wasn't passable on foot. And I'm pleased we discovered this when attempting to walk home *from* Islip, rather than coming the other way, which would have required retracing our steps for a much longer distance.
