Highlights Pishill, ‘Dibley’ and surviving driving through London!!!

We heard from Katherine when she was on the train so we headed to yesterday’s meeting point. The plan was to visit some of the villages on the Thames. The ‘villages’ covered a range of sizes and we ended up visiting small and large.

John had driven the first part of the route yesterday as we were on the motorway to Windsor first, but then we were onto the small roads near our first destination, Cookham. It was only as we were approaching that I saw a familiar name for a lock, and it clicked. When we stayed with our friends Margaret and Don in 2005 and Irene arrived a few days later, we all went here for her first day.

We parked outside, and walked through the main (only) street in the village as far as the entrance to the common. The street had a few pubs, second hand shops and 3 bridal places, which seemed rather random. It also had a tearoom, so we stopped for a cuppa and to get water.

Our next stop was Marlow. It was the only controversial place. We had not put it on the tomtom but had the next place marked instead. When I thought we had missed a side turning into the centre we went back on a side route and ended up on the outskirts. When we put Marlow into the tomtom we discovered the problem had been that we had not quite got to the centre. As all this took 15 minutes it was not really a problem. As Marlow was a big village, so we didn’t stop after all this, but we did admire it as we drove through.

We drove through Medmenhem and then on towards Mill End, looking for bluebells. We did a side step to see the Thames but the more attractive sight we could see from the road was only accessible by foot, from a carpark up a different side road, and it was not that attractive. We saw where the bluebells were but they were also well past their best (as we had all suspected) so didn’t stop for photos.

We found a carpark at Henley-on-Thames near a Waitrose. After carefully following the instructions to pay for parking we realised it was Sunday and parking was free. It had only cost 60p so we were more amused at ourselves than upset at the cost.

We wandered towards the river view and went past a church that was advertising cream teas in the afternoon as a fundraiser. It was too early for us or we would have gone, as we have found these fun in the past. We did stop however at the church for information about a cache, which we then found by the river, so it all fitted perfectly.

We had been admiring a pub by the river, and found it was offering Sunday roasts which Katherine and John were keen to have. However, it was a lovely sunny day and as we all wanted to sit outside, as did all the customers at the pub, and there was no space, we moved on. So we went back to the car to continued our drive. Katherine bought some flowers for Jess Herd who she is staying with for the next few days.

We then set the course for Pishill. The name had caused a lot of rather childish but fun puns/comments from us all when planning todays route. Jane and Ian had said there was a pub there where they had had a drink, and we were hoping it also had food. When we arrived we found it had both a choice of roasts and other food and a number of outside tables in the sun for Katherine and I, with shade for John. Perfect!

The nice Romanian server gave Katherine a glass of water for her flowers. He was amused that we all ordered the same roast pork. Katherine paid for the meal as a Mother’s day present for me and an advance birthday present for John.

The area is part of the Chiltern area of natural beauty with a number of walking circuits which we had seen by both the series of cache and by the public footpaths or bridle paths that showed. We not only did not have time to do these today but are unlikely to ever do them.

We did however see a church cache at Pishill which looked interesting. The listing said that the church was a highly unusual 'T' shaped country church in a tranquil location overlooking the Stonor Valley and not to forget to take a look inside the church. There is often tea and flapjacks in the porch with an honesty box. This is a welcome sight for the weary cacher. Even Katherine was intrigued so all three of us were happy to visit. As we drove up the very narrow road we first had to back track because of another vehicle coming down the hill, and then pause as a walking party of about 20 went past.

We admired the church and then looked for the information we needed. The last part gave us a wander around the churchyard as the coordinates were very suspect. However, while we were there one visitor did take up the option of playing the organ so we looked while the air was filled with…..’Happy Birthday to You!!’ Katherine spotted the extra memorial sign we required, and we saw this would take us a short way along the walk. We were all happy to do this, just hoping the final coordinates would be fine. They were so it all worked out well. Katherine had sustained her extra walk with a flapjack, not because she needed it, but because it appealed to her as a concept.

Finally we went to Turville. We would not have known to do this but Jane

and Ian had told us it was the village used as Dibley from ‘the Vicar of Dibley’ TV series. 

We parked at the pub there and went in for coffee/tea. That proved amusing. We waited while clearly a new employee was shown how to pull a pint. Then we ordered tea for 2 and a latte from a more senior barperson. He told us he would make the coffee and ‘his colleague’ would make the tea. The colleague was the new person. He disappeared into the kitchen while my coffee was being made. In the midst of this he was in trouble for not reporting that all the Lemon Tarts had been sold although he did say he had told someone he had sold the last 4. My latte was done but no tea. Then ‘my colleague’ appeared with 2 teapots, an empty jug and 2 cups and saucers and placed them on the bar. I took my latte to the table as the boss went past and said that a tray would make sense. John appeared a few minutes later, smiling. The tray had been put on another part of the bar and the rest not put on it until the boss told ‘my colleague’ to fill the jug and set the tray. Then John asked ‘my colleague’ for sugar and he appeared with a large container of sugar lumps!! ‘My colleague’ was also reminded to provide the customers with a complimentary biscuit.The tea was fine after all of this.

We decided we might not have clicked it was the Dibley village as we wandered around and found it interesting that no mention of the program was made in the area. The church and houses did look familiar however. It was interesting to walk though, and made a good finish to our tour of the villages on (or near) the Thames.

We had moved North a bit during our travels which seemed ideal to now take Katherine to Jess’ s house in Angel Islington. We had discussed the last part of the route with Jane as she had told us there were one way streets there and the UK rule allowing ‘wrong side’ parking is disconcerting at times when we suddently think a two way street is one way.

On the way John found himself driving down Euston Road which is certainly central London to us. It was wall to wall traffic and I was spotter of ‘hatches’ (no stopping spaces), clearways, pedestrians and lights. Katherine’s contribution was to sit quietly and not scream!!! Actually she had no problem doing that as she is not a driver so was not concerned really until she had a message form Jess saying John was brave to be driving. We parked outside Jess’s house after a nice easy final 500m. Then John and I had to retrace part of this to get to Hammersmith.

This part was slightly more stressful as at one point we lost the Tomtom connection and also ended up for a short time in a bus lane. This was my error as I saw a car in the lane, then on a second look saw it was a taxi. We also got redirected by the Tomtom into the Congestion area as there was some hold up on the original route. Luckily this was not a worry as the fees for the area don’t apply after 6pm or on a Sunday and it was both. Katherine had been concerned enough to ask us to contact her when we were home.

Back at Jane’s we had drinks before dinner as they were watching the last of the Formula 1. John doesn’t always have an alcoholic drink, but was keen to have a stiff gin tonight. We then had a nice curry for dinner and went to bed.