Day 9 - Sonning to Marlow - Saturday 5 August

Distance: 14.25 miles
Time: 4 hours 47 minutes
Walking Partner: Bill (carrying my pack again for me.... handsome and useful)
Accommodation: Granny Anne's B&B (which turned out to be in the environs of Marlow as opposed to being anywhere near the Thames Path; a late and slightly painful discovery.)

Had breakfast in the bosom of my family with the usual comparisons of vivid dreams and a competition to see who had slept least (my Mum won hands down as usual. She actually hasn't had a wink of sleep in about 45 years.) Shortness of sleep or perhaps just an inevitable hangover is usually the reason for ritual humiliation of one's children I guess so this must be why my Mum saw fit to make me sit throughout the whole of the breakfast meal in the saloon bar of the pub wearing electrodes on my bare shoulders while the electric shocks made me jig about in an attention-grabbing way. To be honest that's enough explanation, I can't face reliving the whole thing but let's just say other customers were giving me a wide berth.

Having been dropped off at our starting point it was clear that today was going to be a warmer day than I was used to. But the typical Thames waterside meadows and tree lined tow path gave us lots of shade initially and preparations for the Shiplake regatta provided regular diversion. Bill was in seventh heaven when we came across a riverside residence with it's own miniature railway line complete with scaled down station and platform, going round the large garden ('Look! It's even got points!' was heard to be uttered with undisguised glee. I'll leave you to imagine which one of us was thus thrilled.)

We stopped at Henley for coffee and surveyed the growing crowds enjoying the pleasure gardens. Boats stacking up at the locks to go to the regatta, joggers, tourists, sunbathers, picnickers, a ship full of stags singing tunelessly - a complete contrast to a week ago and 100 miles upriver.

We stopped for lunch at The Flower Pot at Aston and I ate a huge plate of sardines and a half pint of prawns. Plied with such delights I was thus fortified for my next mission at Memenham (try saying that with a mouth full of fishbones) which was to earn my extra sponsorship by taking a dip! (Photographic evidence will be provided.) I have to say that having negotiated the muddy bank and the foot-tenderising stones, it was a very agreeable experience. Really cooling on what was by now a hot and humid day. Bill came in as well and we sunbathed ourselves dry before moving onto Hurley and then Marlow.

The long hike up to the B&B was rewarded by a warm welcome from Roger Taylor (no, not that Roger Taylor) and his wife Anne. Having seen me to my door, Bill taxied back to Sonning to get his car and I awaited the arrival of Gill my next partner in crime for the Thames Walk Challenge. We dined in the perfectly adequate Cafe Uno (Marlow did seem to be chain-restaurant-city, mind you isn't everywhere?) and retired for an early night chez Granny Anne on a still and balmy night.