Water Eaton House to The Red Lion at Castle Eaton
A beautiful day this time, blue skies and warmth in the air!
We parked at Castle Eaton and walked up the Isis (Thames above Oxford) along the Thames Path. A stunning walk, beautiful wild meadows, so many birds chirping among the rushes lining the banks and more butterflies and damselflies than I have seen in years! It was blissful and we didn’t see a soul.
Finding a suitable entry point near Water Eaton House, we slipped into the cool water, still wet-suited as we expected more fallen tree obstacles in the river. We weren’t wrong- there were many fallen boughs where luckily, the plastic bottles, wine bottles, tennis balls were nicely corralled, making letter collection relatively easy. Unfortunately, there was a lot of plastic and other rubbish but we came prepared with enough litter sacks this time.
The river was beautiful along this stretch: meandering with lovely swooshes here and there, through the reeds and so much birdsong as accompaniment! It was a mixture of wading and swimming, so useful to have our water shoes again. It has to rank as one of our favourite swims ever: beautiful, peaceful, only marred by the worrying amount of litter in the water…
Approaching our exit point at Castle Eaton, the water was ankle deep under the bridge, then an easy exit up the step onto the lawn of the Red Lion at Castle Eaton.
Thanks to the staff at the Red Lion, for allowing us to dump our many sacks of stinky bottles in the pub bins! We didn’t fancy driving home with all that in the boot!
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