Following 2005's successful D'Arcy Dalton Circular walk, in August 2006 I walked the Oxfordshire Way. This visits the valleys of the Rivers Windrush, Evenlode, Glyme, Cherwell, Ray and Thames, and parts of both the Cotswolds and the Chilterns. It uses 6 miles of a Roman road called Akeman Street.
To help me, I used the book The Oxfordshire Way: A Walker's Guide. It's edited by Faith Cooke and Keith Wheal and was published by Oxford City Council Leisure Services in 1993. Its ISBN is 1-900478-01-3. I also used the Ordnance Survey Explorer maps. The appropriate ones are OL45, 180, 191 and 171.
Each day I returned home to Abingdon, and then the following day I went from home to where I left off the day before. For this I made considerable use of public transport. I would also like to say thank you to the people who maintain the web pages I used for sorting out which buses and trains to use. I used www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk. Here is a link to their web site. Their web pages are excellent. Not only does the web site sort out connections and give you the timetables for each route, but it also gives you maps showing the position of each bus stop.
If you use the 7 links given below, you'll find a page containing the details of each day's walk. You'll also find my diary of what happened together with links to some photos I took.
| day | date | start | finish | Oxfordshire Way | ons and offs | total |
| Day 01 | Tue 22nd August 2006 | Bourton-on-the-Water | Shipton-under-Wychwood | 9.8 | 9.8 | |
| Day 02 | Wed 23rd August 2006 | Shipton-under-Wychwood | Stonesfield | 9.8 | 9.8 | |
| Day 03 | Thu 24th August 2006 | Stonesfield | Kirtlington | 8.0 | 8.0 | |
| Day 04 | Fri 25th August 2006 | Kirtlington | Beckley | 9.8 | 9.8 | |
| Day 05 | Sat 26th August 2006 | Beckley | Tiddington | 10.0 | 10.0 | |
| Day 06 | Sun 27th August 2006 | Tiddington | Lewknor | 10.5 | 2.4 | 12.9 |
| Day 07 | Mon 28th August 2006 | Lewknor | Henley-on-Thames | 10.7 | 2.6 | 13.3 |
| 68.6 | 5.0 | 73.6 |
Barry Cornelius
August 2006