A Bimble down the Thames from Cricklade to Lechlade

After Cricklade the Thames path often diverts from the river due to property rights.  I decided the best way to see this part would be afloat. Cotswold Canoe Company dropped a canoe in Church Eaton for me and I paddled blissfully down to Lechlade.  The river is still a baby and it was difficult to guide a canoe through the upper reaches, full of reeds and overhanging branches. This made for quite an unexpected work-out. Without the path the isolation was often total. Hordes of Damselflies flitted about and reed warblers trilled at my passing.  The flow of the river pushed me on so that steering was my main concern.    It was hard to imagine a more idyllic pastime, floating through a natural oasis, undisturbed by man’s presence.  What a way to travel ! 

A mile felt like several as the river wend its own twisty way but I did not mind as time had stood still. A couple of intrepid kayakers passed as I neared Lechlade as I reconvened with humanity. Wonderful reflections of a willow and a quirky stone round house which looked as if it rested in the river hid the entrance to the canal system that once linked the Thames with the Severn and allowed waterborne transport to bisect the country.  Doomed to failure this ambitious project lasted until 1927 when the lock-keepers shut up shop. The River Coln also enters the Thames at this point and the final push into a town now lined with tourists was more vigorous. I looked like the full riverman as day-trippers pedaloed their pink flamingos. They could only wonder at the things I had seen in the far reaches of the river. 

A canal boat emblazoned with ‘Rooster No 1’ was tied up on the banks of a meadow as the rooster-man sat in the evening sun watching the cows go home.   He could walk into Lechlade for beer and a curry or watch the sand martins swoop in the dusk.  Lazing in his director’s chair he had not a care in the world. Top of the food chain this rooster he was in tune with the tone of the river.  Below lay locks and activity whilst here time slowed and you needed to slow down too to appreciate it fully.  I envied the river-man with his beer in hand.  What more do you need than a boat and an ever-changing view?