Gig

Over the Rhine, St Giles in the Fields

Many of Over the Rhine's songs either make direct reference to old hymns or sound like they would sit comfortably in a hymnbook. That's not to say that they frequently tackle faith head-on, but rather blow it a kiss from across the room.

It's fitting then that for their first UK date in eight years Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist are here in a beautiful church in London's West End. The setting nods to the literary (it's a street away from Charing Cross Road) and musical too (that street is Tin Pan Alley — Denmark Street).

I'm never going to be able to review Over the Rhine without bias. I've loved these people and their music for over twenty years. Too many songs hold too many memories for me to be impartial.

This was a truly special evening. There's no doubting the talent in the room.

But don't take it from me. Take it from the stage manager. "Not another band," she told us was her pre-show thought. Afterwards was a different story. "They were amazing," she said as she sprinted to the merchandise table to buy her first OtR CD.

Thames Path

Shillingford → Reading

Distance: 21.39 miles
Ascent: 166 metres
Duration: 6 hours 16 minutes

Racing the sun
« Not walked | Not walked »

We've been racing the sun today. It didn't help that the clocks went forward this morning with the end of summer time. After getting the first bus from Reading to Shillingford it was always going to be a push to make it all the way back before sunset, but we just sneaked in with half an hour to spare.

For the first third of the walk the path was sticky and slippery after recent rain. We thought it unlikely we'd make it to the end in time, but after Streatley conditions improved and we were able to enjoy the crisp, autumnal air.

Thames Path

Oxford → Shillingford

Distance: 19.88 miles
Ascent: 43 metres
Duration: 5 hours 41 minutes

Through villages and towns
« Not walked | Not walked »

Eight years was too long last time; so this time we've returned to the Thames a fortnight after our previous outing.

Oxford was a horrible town to walk through. Early on a Saturday morning the river was teeming with rowing boats, and cyclists did their best to dominate the narrow towpath.

Downstream of Sandford Lock we had the towpath to ourselves, but this is no longer the lonely Thames of last week. We've seen the last of the isolated riverside pubs: all now come with villages and towns attached, although the word "charming" is still an appropriate adjective. Looking at the map of the route ahead, I don't think that will be hold true for long.

Gig

Bruce Cockburn

A last minute decision took me to The Stables in Wavendon tonight to see Bruce Cockburn.

I was disappointed last time I saw Cockburn. At Greenbelt it felt as though he was just going through the motions. However, tonight he redeemed himself. His seventy year-old lungs don't quite have the power to drive his voice as they once did, but the dexterity of his fingers mean his guitar-playing as as good as ever.

It was a bit of a Greatest Hits show, and even then he didn't play my favourite (See How I Miss You) but that's OK. Over the years Cockburn's been prolific; he'd need to play a five hour show to cover everyone's choice. (Indeed, the number of songs requested as he prepared to play an encore was verging on ridiculous.)

Unsurprisingly Wondering Where the Lions Are was in the set though I doubt it made anyone else in the audience think of barn dancing on a farm just outside Perth. (For yes, somehow that song fitted in perfectly to the Hallenshankers ceilidh that closed Solas 2015).

If I don't ever get to see Cockburn play again, tonight's gig has created more than enough memories.

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... and we're back!

Finally, the blog is fully caught up.

Latest additions are all walks:

• Finishing the LOOP in the Spring and early Summer, passing Coulsdon, Kingston, Hayes, Moor Park, Elstree, Enfield, Harold Wood and Purfleet.

• An autumn week coast walking in Angus Aberdeenshire, from Carnoustie through Arbroath, Lunan Bay, Montrose, Stonehaven, Aberdeen, Footdee and Balmedie to Cruden Bay.

• A warm weekend along the Thames from Lechlade to Oxford.

Thames Path

Newbridge → Oxford

Distance: 13.82 miles
Ascent: 35 metres
Duration: 4 hours

An English Sunday
« Not walked | Not walked »

A thin mist veiled the landscape around the Oxfordshire Thames this morning. The main signs of civilisation on this stretch are the isolated riverside pubs. We started at the Rose Revived, passed the Ferryman and stopped for lunch at the Trout. Between the pubs was a sequence of wide open meadows stretching to from the embankment to the horizon, heavily laden trees marking the water's edge. (We've come home with a bagful of jewel-like sloes.)

Stopping for a pub lunch is a rare luxury for us, but the Trout Inn at Godstow couldn't be passed. Sitting on their terrace in the warm afternoon sun, with ducks and the occasional peacock coming to inspect our plates of Sunday roast, felt decadent but quintessentially English.

Beyond the pub the path suddenly grew busier, and before long we were being bumped into by cyclists as the centre of Oxford approached. It's a cliché to refer to the weather, but today felt like a midsummer's day rather than early autumn, and we're delighted we took the opportunity to come out and enjoy it.

Thames Path

Lechlade → Newbridge

Distance: 16.36 miles
Ascent: 41 metres
Duration: 5 hours 7 minutes

The lonely river
« Not walked | Not walked »

It's been too long! We really meant to walk the entire Thames Path over the course of one year, but here we are eight years later having hardly started. Time to rectify that!

The stretch from Lechlade to Newbridge is perhaps the most remote, and the least well served by public transport so its logistical difficulties have hung over us somewhat. Curiously it wasn't until last night that we realised that the problem could be solved by staying with a friend overnight just a few miles from Newbridge.

So this write-up comes while we wait for the bus in the garden of the Rose Revived, a charming pub that no doubt is packed to the rafters in the height of summer but today provides a wonderfully relaxing spot to look back over the walk.

Today's stretch of Thames is quite unlike the legs we know so well. Whereas the Thames between Windsor and Marlow feels somewhat rural, it never escapes from the expensive houses, posh shops and boatyards that occur every mile or so. Here though, the river is really out in the countryside. Vast fields stretch away from the banks, doubling as lush grazing and a flood plain. Brambles have been left unharvested, and wild flowers are in abundance.

But the signs that this is an important waterway are already present in the occasional bridge and the navigation channels and locks.

The river will transform itself as we head further downstream. If we don't wait another eight years it'll be fascinating to see the changes.

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A few more

I'm getting there; back in April I had my first encounter with an Apple Watch. Sadly I didn't quite get a Watch app ready for Greenbelt, but there was something else to be excited about at the festival.

Up next: completing the London Outer Orbital Path (LOOP) in the Spring, and an early Autumn week north of the border.