Martin's Mag.

Park Street, Bristol.

Bristol’s mayor George Ferguson has endorsed another “Special Sunday” in Bristol. “Park on Park Street” saw the steep road shut to traffic today, with stalls, music, food, etc. Bristol is becoming an increasingly fun place to live, and our new elected mayor is a great publicist for the city.

Looking up Park Street, Bristol, towards the University’s Wills’ Tower.

(Slightly defaced) graffiti by Banksy on Park Street.

One of the benefits of not working much any more is that we can go away at short notice when the weather forecast looks good. We took the newly-tarted-up Freda to the west coast of Wales and spent a few days cycling, walking, eating, drinking and gazing out to sea.

Caerfai Bay, Pembrokeshire.

Coast path.

French students at war memorial in the City of St David’s.

Checking the map outside Trefin, Pembrokeshire National Park.

The Harbour Pilot’s Office, Porthgain, Pembrokeshire National Park.

Porthgain, Pembrokeshire National Park.

The Sloop Inn, Porthgain. Brilliant, unpretentious pub.

St David’s Cathedral, during repair work.

Pembrokeshire Coast path.

You have been warned!

View from the Pembrokeshire coastal path.

Estuary at Solva.

Litchen-covered post at Solva.

Waterfall on beach by campsite at Caerfai Bay.

Beach by campsite at Caerfai Bay.

Snail on fence at Caerfai Bay beach.

Pembroke.

Camper by Pembroke Castle (with old bike rack).

Tenby. The Robbins’ holiday house, Sheerwater.

Cauldy Island ferry.

The Old Tenby Lifeboat Station, now converted to private accommodation.

Tenby street scene.

A few years ago we walked The Thames Path, from the Barrier in London to Lechlade in Gloucestershire. There are some photos here: wolffsys.co.uk/albums/thamesPath. We didn’t go further upstream, to the official source of the river, because we’d been told it was rather boring. We were young and naive then, though, and believed anything. Recently, we have been following the course of a disused canal, The Stroudwater, which connects Saul Junction, on the Gloucester-Sharpness Canal, to the River Thames. Today we made the final east-west link from Cricklade, in Wiltshire, to Lechlade, in Gloucestershire. 

We drove the camper to Lechlade, rode our bikes to Cricklade, then walked the ten or eleven miles back to Lechlade. Nice day, good weather. Slightly sore bottom.

Field of oilseed.

River Thames NE of Cricklade.

Sitting by the Thames at The Red Lion, Castle Eaton.

Relaxing dog at cottage near confluence of rivers Thames and Coln (and end of Stroudwater canal).

Our old camper has “had some work done”, as they say. Her top has been touched up and she’s been tightened a bit “down below”. The old girl’s looking good for her age!

We walked the eastern part of this disused canal, from Stonehouse, under the M5 motorway (nearly as exciting as it sounds!) ending at the Saul Junction Marina on the Gloucester-Sharpness canal.

The canal (actually at this point the river Frome navigation) goes under the M5.

Haven’t been to Kew Gardens for a while. The nearest we got recently was walking past when we were “doing” the Thames Path.

Kew Gardens.

Kew Gardens.

Kew Gardens.

Kew Gardens.

Kew Gardens.

Kew Gardens.

Afterwards, we walked along the south side of the river, over Chiswick bridge and back to where we had parked our car on the north side of Kew bridge.

Filling in the bit we missed on previous visits.

The eastern entrance to the Sapperton canal tunnel.

Between Sapperton and Siddington.

Between Sapperton and Siddington.

The source of The Thames.

A mile or so from the source of The Thames.

More of the partially-derelict Stroudwater Canal. This stretch out of sequence due to vagaries of the Saturday bus schedules.

Cricklade cottage.

Lock between Siddington and Cricklade.

Our shadows from bridge between Siddington and Cricklade.

We took our camper to Sidmouth on the south coast.

Sidmouth, Devon.

Sidmouth, Devon.

Above Sidmouth, Devon.

A while ago we walked a short part of the Stroudwater Canal, to the west of Stroud. Today, we walked east from Stroud to Sapperton. The canal is being renovated by a team of keen volunteers. The canal will join the Gloucester-Sharpness canal to the Thames, when the work is completed.

Repairs to a Lock on the Stroudwater Canal.

Brimscombe, Glos.

Mill building (disused) on the Stroudwater canal.

Stroudwater canal.

Canal-side house.

West entry to the Sapperton tunnel.

East entry to the Sapperton tunnel. We didn’t walk through it – there’s no path.