Seems either Sat 4th, Sun 5thg or Mon 6th April is best for most (Pippa, Mike, JP, Jenny and me). JP suggested a Sat as cafes more likely to be open, so shall we say Saturday 4the April if that’s still OK for people? JP’s idea of meeting at midday also seems a good idea and would allow more time for those not based in Oxford to get there.
Where to meet? There are several pubs/cafes in Charlbury (see: http://www.charlbury.info/eat-and-drink) - can anyone recommend one?
Fine with me.
Where to meet: ISTR that the station is not particularly near the centre of town, but the main bus stop is, and is also just outside a pub, with another one nearby. I don’t know the café situation though. Will have a look at your link John. Diolch.
Time is moving on … is everyone happy to meet this coming Saturday 4th, at about mid-day?
Have looked at train times from Oxford, and the best train looks like:
Dep Oxf: 11:23 Arr: Charlbury 11:40 (17m) No changes.
20 mins should give enough time to walk to centre by mid-day.
(ones before and after are too early or too late really).
Single Off peak fare is £6. Not checked return, but it’s usually not much more isn’t it?
Edit: Off peak return is £6.10 and there are return trains at e.g. 16.03, 17.04, 18.08 and 19.09, i.e. roughly hourly.
Not looked at cafés yet. Happy to go with anyone else’s suggestion.
Hwyl,
Mike
Thanks for the train details, Mike. Yes, Saturday 4th at mid-day is good for me. Of the cafes in Charlbury, a quick bit of Googling suggests News & Things may have closed(?), Ciardi Coffee House may be expensive(?), so probably the Charlbury Deli & Cafe in Sheep Street would be the best bet (unless we go for one of the pubs).
If we need them, I’ve got details of a couple of 8 mile and one 6 mile circular routes starting from Charlbury (from one of the Oxfordshire Country Walks books) - the 8 mile Cornbury Park and Wychwood Forest route looks as if it could be a good one.
Hwyl am a tro, John
2 Likes
Happy to go with this.
(Can always check out the pubs later 
)
Sounds good to me. See you there. Pippa
Hope to be there,
would you believe it will take me three hours on the train, (replacement bus, Reading to Didcot).
All part of the fun.
Cheers J.P.
Dw i 'di anfon e-bost wrtho ti John.
@johnwilliams_6 and anyone else coming on the train from Oxford to Charlbury:
Mae gynnon @ramblingjohn a fi “Cunning Plan” 
to help mitigate the train problems mentioned by John above:
It turns out that the same train to Charlbury also stops at Radley before it gets to Oxford (I should have realised this before! 
) and as Radley is not far from my house, we have agreed that John will drive to my house and we will go on to Radley and catch the train there (at 11.14).
Hopefully we will see you @johnwilliams_6 (and anyone else who is coming that way, of course) get on the train when it gets to Oxford (at 11.22), which will give us a bit more siarad Cymraeg time, or if not, we’ll see you in Charlbury later.
Croesi bysedd there are no more train / transport disruptions that day. 
Plan gwych, Mike - I should be able to make the 11:22, so see you and JP on the train, FGW willing. Hwyl, John
1 Like
Hi all, just about to book my ticket on the 11:22. Would prefer to be back in Oxford earlier rather than later, i.e the 5ish train rather than the 7ish train if at all possible.
Well, we went and oedd y dydd gwych iawn.
Four of us got off the train at charlbury station then wandered towards the town center where a pretty lady said helo wyt ti’n rambling john, it’s always a surprise when strangers recognise me, i guess i look somewhere between an over age hippy and a tramp as i was wearing my work clothes which may have not looked perfect in this quaint town but proved the correct choice when we traversed mud, yes we saw some mud but i’m getting ahead.
So to start with lets find a cafe.
yep we found a cafe which proved ideal for panad a bechdan, plus interesting as the owner asked me why we were speaking Welsh when i didn’t sound welsh (so how did she know it was Welsh, yours confused as ever) anyway i gave an explanation warning her we may return.
Now we set off out of town guided by john williams map and he did a great job of keeping us on track around the roughly eight mile circuit. (and he quietly queried some of my word usage, which seeing as i probably mis-identified two cig fan was a good thing).
We soon started around some park land and the wildlife surprises started.
Fallow deer including a white one (poor photo but it’s a good memory).
It soon became obvious that one of the great learning opportunities of such a meeting is the old adage that everyone knows something i don’t and with Welsh we seemed to take regular turns with. Beth yr gair am…, yep someone would come out with the answer, and my memory was surely tested by the question beth ydy yr gair am (evergreen) , wow i had to search deep in the gray matter for that one but felt thrilled when it eventually popped out.
OK, how many trees and plants can i name was part of the day and plenty of planhigion oedd dechrau tyfu including these violets of some type.
But name the violet is not the question of the day, oh no, when you go walkabout, you never know what may appear nailed to a post, so today’s quiz is name that skull
Yep there it was nailed to a trail marker post, many suggestions were put forward, and everyone thought different so i won’t put my suggestions here, leaving it wide open.
So we had seen pretty buildings, a couple of churches, very little road walking, plenty of wildlife and now in the middle of woodland someone produced welsh cakes (that’s a sure way of gaining friends), nice iawn, a little further on saw a slippery slope (mud) i wont say who failed to stay vertical during their demonstration of mud skating but today it was not my turn to go horizontal. Problem soon corrected and no plasters needed.
Not long after this, a distant Muntjac deer was spotted.
Amazing how well they can hide amongst a few old blades of grass.
The next couple of miles across farmland included passing barns with to lechi and then we were heading back into town nearing the end when of all the surprises to finnish of the day.
Yep a welsh sign (they get everywhere).
Then we found a pub to replenish the necessary liquid while agreeing this had been a rather good idea and meeting again gets thumbs up from all.
The suggestion is probably a walk from Oxford next time and one other venue is possible, then a return visit to Charlbury to see it in summer clothing.
Thanks all for tolerating my warbling, i felt everyone gained from today, it just felt so good to ymarfer yr iath.
Cheers J.P.
3 Likes
Diolch John, nice photos. It was indeed a very good day & so good to have the cyfle to ymarfer yr iaith. Soooo many new words today. I’ve googled the skull and I think Jenny has the gwobr for that one. Thanks too to John for steering us in the right direction & for the Welsh cakes. Tan toc, Pippa
2 Likes
Thank you for sharing John. Sounds brilliant, I do enjoy your posts and pictures too. Very jealous though as you seem to have such an interesting life! Diddorol iawn!
I may try to copy!
Diolch yn fawr
1 Like
Diolch yn fawr, JP. Dw’in cytuno efo Pippa - very nice photos and an enjoyable narrative, hefyd - you’ve captured our ramblings (in both senses!) very nicely.
And after the ‘Dim Parcio’ sign in Charlbury, a postcript:
Some may have heard about Saturday’s EDL Oxford march. Well, when Jenny and I got off the train at Oxford the station concourse was full of police drafted in from Wales, ‘Heddlu’ in bold letters on jackets and vans - y Cymry a Cymraesu in control of y Saisonl Owain Glyndwr would have allowed himself a smile bach, dw’in siwr!
2 Likes
Clicking the little heart logo seems inadequate to express how much this made me titter! Pippa
1 Like
Diolch yn fawr iawn am y lluniae a testun John, a i JW ar gyfer y map/llyfr a navigation a i bawb am eich gwmnu chi. Braf iawn.
@johnwilliams_6 John P and I saw the police on the platform from the train, but didn’t realise there was also a Welsh contingent - yet another coincidence in a day of surprises.
Wish now I had looked more closely at that map on the wall behind me in the cafe, and wondering if it was a map of Middle Earth…just today having been looking at one reproduced in a newspaper illustrating an article about fantasy fiction, and was struck yet again by the obvious influence of Welsh on some of Tolkien’s place names.
Café perffaith i ti John (a i ni) - “Rambler’s café”, and the lady John mentioned said her name was Jones and she wished us “hwyl” as we left.
1 Like
The more i think about it, the more that cafe may have been a stoke of luck which will be good to revisit in the future and chat more with the staff.
It would have been nice opportunity if some police (welsh) had got on the train, that would have been some end to the day.
Oh: and if i ever meet Iolo williams i certainly need to ask for a cut of his book sales, this welsh wildlife may turn out to be a fine relaxed way of extending vocabulary.
Cheers J.P.
1 Like
For those who didn’t make it for the Charlbury ramble on Saturday and who may be wondering about the regular 1st Tuesday of the month meetup scheduled for tomorrow, it’ll still be going ahead starting at the usual time and place, 5:30pm, downstairs at the Jericho Cafe, 112 Walton St.
Hwyl,
John
Mae’n ddrwg gen i bawb, but I’ve just realised I won’t be able to make it due to a clash of commitments.
Very sorry,
Hwyl,
Mike