20th January 2014

The weather in January has been terrible with so much rain that the ground has remained saturated for the whole month with many fields still under water and rivers very swollen.  Annie’s knee was giving her slightly less pain than usual so we decided to head out on a 6 mile fairly level walk.  We started in Stonesfield a small village about 12 miles north west of Oxford.  We set off down the hill to the river where we encountered our first problem the bridge over the river was accessible but we had to tread careful through a lot of water to get to and from the bridge. We then walked through a field that was like a water meadow.  The weather on the day was cold and dry with the threat of rain – in fact just right for a walk.  We had just crossed the railway line when we came across North Leigh Roman Villa (To my shame I had never heard of it).  It is an English Heritage site and not surprisingly was unattended. We had a look around before continuing the walk.  We eventually crossed another water meadow to reach a stile.

Our guide book said to go over the stile, cross the river and go under the railway.  As you can see we were defeated. 

We retraced our steps for about a mile and then used our map to work out a suitable walk. It was lovely to be in the fresh air again and we both realized how much we had missed our walking.  The sooner Annie can get a new knee the better!!

We completed our day out by heading to the Country Club for a nice long sit in the steam room and a gentle swim.