Ellie and Sarah's Road Trips: October 2010

Another academic year has begun, and so have our road trips again! However, this time we decided, rather then risk guessing our way around Oxfordshire, we would invest in a very large road map of the UK (just incase we did end up in a completely different county - which was not at all impossible :P), and so with Sarah masterfully driving, and Ellie map reading (although not always a wise decision - but through lack of anyone else in the car, and although Sarah is very skilled at most things, driving and reading a map was not in her repertoire, Ellie had to direct!), and with sweeties readily available, we ventured off towards Gagingwell (and yes, we did laugh hysterically for a good few minutes).

As we were trundling along a big road, with a fair few cars, (not quite a motorway, but something like that) Sarah started to laugh hysterically again as she had caught sight of a sign pointing to Glympton - and of course we had to make a detour! And so we drove down the little country lanes towards Glympton, very slowly, to save traumatising ourselves with a pheasant massacre (they were everywhere - not all were alive however, but luckily none squashed by us), passing many walkers, and an interesting looking man with his dog, and quickly came to a junction in the road. At this point, Ellie was forced to make a quick decision about which way to turn, left or right...ignoring the map in front of her, and with Sarah pressing her for a decision, she chose left...we so wanted to go right! A quick u-turn later, we were heading down Glympton way - a really pretty village, with the biggest houses, and a little waterfall - what more could you want! More pheasants later, and a bit of guess-map reading, we found ourselves on a road, and thinking we were in the right place, carried along that for a good while, before realising that we were not so much heading towards Gagingwell as away from it! Another random left turning later, and we found ourselves on a quaint, very steep country road, heading back in the right direction!

Gagingwell was in our sights, however we had to turn down the right road first - which sounds easier then it is...with Ellie engrossed in conversation - and hoping a sign to Gagingwell would jump out at her, she completely forgot that the one job she had been trusted with was to find the right road, and we went straight passed it...onto a road that had no turn offs for atleast 10 miles. Sarah was forced to do a bit of an interesting manoeuvre - which if gone wrong...we would have ended up like the pheasants - a little squahsed! But luckily it was pulled off with such skill, and Ellie, now aware of her job again made sure we reached Gagingwell safely.

Gagingwell - what a place, a bit like Narnia and Ginge - you aren't sure it really exists unless you've been there to see it for yourself - and even then, you aren't sure you'd ever be able to find it again. There were approximately 5 houses in Gagingwell - almost as if a group of friends got together and said - lets live together, but lets not do it in a ready made village, lets create our own, and give it a name that will make people laugh...and thus Gagingwell was born! And as quickly as we'd entered Gagingwell, we left it again, definitely worth it though!

Our desired destination had been reached, and so we decided to head back in the direction of Oxford, (Sarah having a moment of panic that a land rover had been following us for a while - Ellie not helping matters by taking a picture of the land rover - which did not in any way actually pose a threat to us) knowing full well that we'd get distracted...and we so did. We came across the village of Thrupp - a tiny village on the A road going into Oxford...like a little hamster - so small, but o so precious, and if you get too excited...you're likely to squash it. We entered the dead-end road, with very little knowledge of whether we'd be able to get out again, and turned a corner, and the most magical sight greeted us - a river, but not just any river - for today was Banbury Canal Day...there were laods of Barge Boats - it was the prettiest place ever...and at this point Ellie decided she was going to live on a barge, and just go where the river takes her...a bit like in 'James and the Giant Peach' where the peach gets into the sea, and they float all the way to New York - it could be like that for Ellie - although not so much New York as Reading...anyway I digress! What a wonderful way to end our new semester of road trips!

Check out some photos below: