Nice sunny morning today, so I took the bus out the Wolvercote and walked back to Oxford along the Thames Path. This is all well-mapped territory, but I was keeping an eye out for Shakespeare's Way waymarkings, to see if I could fill out any more of the route relation for that hiking trail.

I had previously observed Shakespeare's Way waymarks pointing south where the Thames path crosses the road by the Trout pub. I found a Shakespeare sticker on the Thames Path signpost by the Rainbow Bridge, which I have taken as sufficient evidence to extend the route along the Thames Path that far.

I suspect that Shakespeare's Way actually follows the Thames Path all the way around Oxford, but there seems to be no evidence on the ground for this (after Rainbow Bridge the next time one sees a Shakespeare waymark along the Thames Path is on a lamppost where the path heads east from Folly Bridge, on the south side of the city centre).

Set out this morning to see if I could follow Shakespeare's Way from Woodstock to the parts already mapped along the Oxford Canal by Wolvercote.

Picked up my first waymark coming south out of Woodstock, along a footpath to Bladon which had not previously been mapped. Reached Bladon and realised that much of the village away from the main road wasn't actually mapped. Collected GPS traces for a number of residential roads and local footpaths, and picked up Shakespeare's Way again on the bridleway leaving south-east towards Begbroke.

Followed the trail to Yarnton, had lunch at the Red Lion, then found the next stage of footpath which took me across the fields to the Duke's Cut (small stretch of canal connecting the Thames with the Oxford Canal).

It hasn't been walking weather around here today, and I'm recovering from a cold anyway, so I spent the afternoon writing up a wiki page describing some thoughts that I've been having recently about the Thames Path relation:

osm.wiki/Thames_Path

As described in that page, I am inclined towards creating several new relations for bits of the Thames Path that don't fit in the "main" 184 mile route (the Shepperton alternative route, the north bank route through central London, the South East Extension, etc). However, I want to garner opinions from other people with an interest in the Thames Path, or route relations in general, before tinkering. Feedback welcome as a comment on this diary entry, by private message, or on the wiki entry's talk page.

Sunday's ramble took me south from Eynsham (West Oxon, UK) down the bridleway "Pinkhill Lane" to the junction with the Thames Path, then across to Stanton Harcourt. Mapped the pubs there, and some missing footways and residential roads, then worked my way back to Eynsham via a previously unmapped public footpath between Stanton and the Thames.

My good deed for the day - added seven pubs in Eynsham, plus a handful of postboxes, a public telephone box, and a couple of pedestrian alleyways.

I caught the bus to Lewknor Turn this morning, walked the Ridgeway to the point where it crosses the Oxfordshire Way, and walked the last section of the Oxfordshire Way into Henley on Thames. That is the whole 65 miles of the Oxfordshire Way walked in five separate days-out over the course of this spring/summer.

I have mapped the footpath across Henley Park from Middle Assendon to Henley (which was missing up until now) and added to the route relation both this path and all the other ways needed to take the route from Pishill to the outskirts of Henley (ways for Pishill->Middle Assendon had already been mapped by others, but were not in the route relation).

OSM now has the whole long-distance path as a route:

osm.org/?relation=68685

I have stopped the route relation where the footpath meets the A4130 main road; there doesn't seem to be any waymarking of the trail along the streets into the centre of Henley.

I walked the Cotswold Way national trail for my summer holidays between 24th July and 1st August, and carried a Wintec G-Rays 2 track logger with me. Over the last few weeks I have been turning the track log and the photos that I took into mapping. The Cotswold Way route relation is now largely complete. There is one gap - I accidentally wandered off-path while crossing Painswick golf course and so haven't mapped the whole of the trail in that area.

The tagging of many of the ways could no doubt be refined - with so much distance to cover, and doing the mapping from memory many days after I walked the ground, I have tended to just categorize ways by right-of-way designation (footway or bridleway), so tagging about physical nature of the tracks could usefully be added in many places. I also haven't mapped all the gates, joining footpaths, etc.

osm.org/?relation=65239

Walked the Oxfordshire Way long distance footpath between Tiddington and Pyrton this afternoon, and have now mapped that section. The Oxfordshire Way route relation is now 89% completed by distance. Another nice walking day should see it finished entirely.

Took the train out to Charlbury today, walked over the Saltway, and did a circular walk around the Wychwood Way through Lidstone and Chadlington. I joined up with the segment that I previously mapped on my Oxfordshire Way walk, then followed the Oxfordshire Way back to Charlbury. Most of the ways that make up the walk are already mapped, but I added a few missing bridleways and made a few corrections and refinements around the route.

Also noted a few segments of Shakespeare's Way.

Wychwood Way route relation is now about 70% complete by distance.

Yesterday I walked the Oxfordshire Way from Islip through Noke, Beckley, Waterperry, Waterstock and ending up at Tiddington. I have added to and refined the mapping along the route, and added the ways to the route relation.

The route is now approximately 75% complete by distance.

Attempted a comprehensive survey of the public footpaths of the Blenheim Park estate today. Wychwood Way route relation now approximately 42% compete by distance.

I walked 33 miles of the Oxfordshire Way on Saturday / Sunday, from the start of the route at Bourton-on-the-Water through to Islip. Today I've mapped the footpaths and bridleways that were missing and updated the route relation.

On route I also noted several sections of the Wychwood Way and Shakespear's Way, and mapped a couple of missing churches and a postbox into the bargin.

Did a 10km ramble around Farmoor reservoir this afternoon. Mapped the footpaths down to Bablockhythe, some of the paths and service roads around the reservoir, and a section of tow-path along the Thames.

Went out for a little wander yesterday and filled in some more of the public footpaths between Dean Court / Cumnor / Farmoor, including a couple of paths which were ploughed over when I surveyed the area last.

Walked from Abingdon to Nuneham Courtney yesterday afternoon, along the CPRE Oxford Green Belt way, with a little detour to map some footpaths around Clifton Hampton (hoping for a pint or two in the Plough Inn, but it seems to be shut at the moment).

Route relation for the Green Belt Way is now around 35% complete by distance.

Yesterday afternoon was good walking weather, so after my compulsive trip down to Shillingford/Benson I returned to Oxford and headed out west, across the footpaths and farm tracks towards Farmoor reservoir. On the route that I'd picked for myself I started noticing CPRE Oxford Green Belt Way waymarkings. Oh dear - another route relation to start "collecting". :-)

Went around the southern end of the reservoir, met the Thames tow path on the right bank, walked north until the Thames Path joined at Pinkhill Lock, and mapped another missing section of the path up to the loop north of Wytham woods.

A user called Velella is adding great chunks to the upper reaches of the Thames Path as I type this, so I shan't update the completion percentage just yet ...

After my editing session this morning, I was looking at the Thames Path relation using the "Relation Analyzer" checking tool, and the little gap between Shillingford and Benson bugged me. In terms of a day out, catching the bus from Oxford down there just to walk a mile or so of river made no sense. So, of course, I went anyway ...

There is now one lovely unbroken segment spanning 147km from upstream of Oxford all the way down to the Shepperton ferry.

I walked the Thames Path from Windsor to Shepperton yesterday afternoon, and
spent this morning tidying up some of the Windsor map around Riverside station,
adding missing footpaths around Dachet and Old Windsor. OSM ways already existed
for much of the rest of the route (Egham, Staines, Chertsey, etc) but having
walked the ground and observed the waymarkings, etc, I felt confident adding those paths and roads to the Thames Path route relation.

Walked from Woodstock to the beer festival at the Woodman Inn at North Leigh yesterday along the Wychwood Way footpath. This morning I added the Woodman to the map, added several previously unmapped footpaths, and created a route relation for the Wychwood Way.

Spent today visiting four points where there were breaks in the Thames Path relation: Pangbourne; Purley; Cookham; and Maidenhead. Mapped some extra ways and there is now a contiguous segment from Benson to Windsor.

Mapping of the entire trail is now approximately 56% complete.