Hot and horrible

Day 12 Goring to Wallingford and day 13 Wallingford to Dorchester. We are all suffering quite badly from the heat. These were 2 of our shortest walks - 7 and 5 miles - rest days - but we are feeling very tired and when we got to Dorchester today I slept for 2 hours and only woke when Mel started to get ready for supper. There have been long diversions along busy roads - not at all pleasant. Yesterday we walked through shoulder high nettles and cow parsley which seemed to trap the heat and the smell of the cp was quite overwhelming but thankfully today we have passed through more open grass meadows with the grasses doing their own Mexican waves as the breeze caught them. Today we walked over a weir on a sort of metal walkway with the water churning below us which I found quite exhilarating on a very enervating day and we did stop for a naughty Danish pastry at a riverside cafe which raised my spirits a bit as did the first poppies I have seen this year. We saw the first little shoals of fish today in the river which is pretty swollen still, but the paths are mostly very dry with cracking mud, which suggests its not long since they were a quagmire and bodes well for the later parts of our journey. We met a couple who had left Edinburgh in March and were touring the country on foot, visiting family. Well there's an idea for my next adventure! The b&b last night was very luxurious and tonight we are staying in an old coaching inn, evidently used by the caste of Midsomer Murders. Meanwhile the red kites circle overhead waiting for one of us to drop, I suspect (or have I been watching too much TV?)