Cricklade to Lechlade - Day Two

Day Two of our Thames Path walk started in Cricklade with another great gourmet breakfast from the Red Lion Inn.  We were fortunate to have a terrific day weather wise with temperatures around 20 degrees C and sunshine most of the day.

We passed the Old Norman church across the street from our pub which really dates back to the Norman times around 1065 AD.

On our way out of Cricklade we passed many small typical Cotswald Cottages with beautiful gardens as you can see below.

The Thames is now starting to widen as we follow it along its winding path through the Cotswald countryside.  We are enjoying the ease of walking along a river as opposed to the usual hills and mountains we've had to climb during our previous walks.

Our group posing as Rock Stars for an album cover (photo credit to Shelagh Doyle, conspicuously missing from the photo).

The river started to get a lot deeper today with many long reeds floating in the current.

Below:  somehow left the "shit" out of the sign.

By lunch time, we had navigated our way to our first pub, another Red Lion in the small village of Castle Eaton.  We enjoyed a pint, had a few conversations with the locals and then watched some of the practice rounds for the air show that is to take place on the weekend.  It is apparently the largest airshow in the world with a 3 mile runway, only a few kilometers from our walk today.  We saw world war two fighter formations, modern fighter jets, massive old bombers . . . everything flying acrobatics around us all afternoon.   Fantastic!

Here are a few pics we were able to get of the planes.

A picture of the Thames bank just behind our lunch pub.

As we approached Lechlade the river started to take shape and look like a real river.  We even saw  the first small pleasure boats along this part of the river.

Finally arrived at Lechlade at around 3:30.   First pub sighting along the river surrounded by swans.

Bridge made of typical Cotswald stone to get us into Lechlade.

Today was our easiest day with only a little over 11 miles.  Yesterday's stats measured around 33,000 steps.  Today was just over 24,000 steps.  Two great warm up days to harden our feet and get us ready for the longer days ahead.  Can hardly wait!