Today's diary:

Today's photos are available in a set at flickr called tsow_day4. One way of looking at them is to go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrycornelius/sets/72157602699155622/show/

Well it was overcast all day and I don't recall seeing the sun out at all. But to be fair: it was not particularly cold and it didn't rain until I got on the bus to go home.

The route out of Long Wittenham is not very exciting: there ia about 1K of tarmac and it's a straight road. There was a relatively new recreatinal woodland area (called Neptune's Wood) halfway along, and that relieved the boredom.

And then across some fields with cows before getting to Little Wittenham. The final approach went through many people's gardens.

When I arrived at Wittenham Clumps, I decided to go a bit off route and aim for the bird hide in Little Wittenham Wood. I've been there once before and really enjoyed it. But disappointingly I didn't find the turn-off: maiybe it's out-of-bounds this time of year. I did find an area that is fenced off to stop the deer eating orchid shoots.

Having detoured to Little Wittenham Wood, I managed to get pass Wittenham Clumps without climbing up to it. I chose not to backtrack. Some will say I was lazy. Yes, OK, I was lazy.

Instead I walked part of the way up to Brightwell Barrow which is at the top of a hill to the SE of Wittenham Clumps. This time the path (not me) decided not to go to the top but instead to descend on its Southern side. Like many times before this trip, this path was diagonally across a field but there was a well-defined path.

And so to the village of Brightwell-cum-Sotwell. This village has one shop which I did not see and a pub. It also had a car-servicing place but apart from this these attractions it was asleep. The main street is off the main road and I nearly didn't see anyone whne I walked down it.

I got to the pub at about 1230. Last night when I was researching Brightwell-cum-Sotwell on the web I couldn't find any reviews of the pub ("The Red Lion") and in my mind it would be 50-50 as to whether it would be open and whether it would be serving food.

But it was open and it was serving food. I had a three-cheese ploughmans which I thought didn't have enough cheese and bread. I think it was 7.50 UKP. They did have some cheaper food. I also had a half of Loddon Brewery's "Hoppitt" and two halves of West Berkshire Brewery's "Good Old Boy". For some reason, I didn't enjoy either beer. They were OK but weren't exciting to taste!

Even though the pub was off the main road, there were a steady stream of customers.

The route from Brightwell-cum-Sotwell to Wallingford was along footpaths which ran a short distance from the main road behind people's houses. In the outskirts of Wallingford, the route starts to take footpaths through housing estates. I took the wrong turn near the park and had to walk round two sides of the park instead of aiming for the castle which I didn't see.

Alongside the Thames at Wallingford Bridge I found a family fishing. Immediately after Wallingford Bridge, the route first goes alongside a field and then diagonnaly across another field. This was just 1K from the bus stop and I guessed the bus was imminent. So even though there was no foot path sign and no sign of any track across the field, (See the last photo.) I boldly aimed for the hedge on the opposite side of the field about 0.5K away. When I got to the hedge, there was a stile and so I guess the route I'd taken was right. This hedge was adjacent to a roundabout and I got to it just in time to see the bus go!

So I just hung around for 30 minutes waiting for the next one. And as I got on the bus, it started to drizzle lightly.