Strolling through a deep tangle of beech trees to get some fresh air after a long drive, I think of the scene in Kenneth Grahame\u2019s wistful story The Wind in the Willows, where Mole gets lost in the Wild Wood. \u201cThere seemed to be no end to this wood, and no beginning, and no difference in it, and, worst of all, no way out.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve come to South Oxfordshire to explore what was once Grahame\u2019s old stomping ground. Although I don\u2019t share his character\u2019s fear of the woods, I do share his own wonder for this part of the country, close to suburbia yet wrinkled with pockets of wildness. It\u2019s one of those spring days when the light feels elastic and daffodils brighten the verges of muddy lanes. The moon is rising, however, and smoke drifts from the chimney of a cottage just beyond the woods. Nocturnal creatures may be rousing but I\u2019m feeling the pull of a cosy burrow. I leave the trees and head back to my accommodation, Bonni B&B<\/a>, in Hill Bottom.<\/p>\n Run by Koo and Denny Akers, the B&B is a spin-off from Bonni Outbuildings, the cabin business the couple set up during the pandemic. These distinctive corrugated cabins in shades of mint, moss and terracotta have been commissioned as everything from artist studios to yoga shalas and even golf-simulator games rooms. The option to order a Bonni fully fitted and decorated has helped define the brand and, although the B&B is located above a smart timber garage at the couple\u2019s home, it has just the same fittings, furnishings and paint colours as the cabins.<\/p>\n Inside the Bonni B&B<\/p>\n Created for potential buyers (a kind of try-before-you-buy experience), the B&B also makes a stylish base for a weekend away. Technically a one-bed apartment, there\u2019s an open-plan kitchen and living room, a shower room with underfloor heating and a king-size bed below a round window. Lined with panelling and painted in shades of clotted cream, terracotta and powder blue, details such as jugs of white tulips and salvage store swag \u2013 vintage mirrors and stripped pine drawers \u2013 add cosiness, but the star feature is the shower, with its bottle green corrugated panelling. Guests can pre-order a DIY breakfast \u2013 and I enjoy avocado on toast with velvety smoked salmon, poached egg and chilli flakes while looking out into a veil of morning mist.<\/p>\n By the time I\u2019ve finished eating, the mist is lifting and I pull on my boots to explore. In the summer, visitors come to follow Grahame and Jerome K Jerome\u2019s leads, messing about on, or by, the river (there are paddleboards or a boat with skipper to hire), or venturing out on expeditions to Oxford, Windsor and London (all reachable in under an hour by train from Goring or Pangbourne).<\/p>\n Koo and Denny both grew up locally and are generous with insider tips on the area. Borrowing one of their bikes, I start with a gentle 10-minute pedal downhill to Whitchurch-on-Thames. First stop is the Modern Artists Gallery<\/a>, where I watch light glinting off Alice Cescatti\u2019s gilded paintings as owner Peggy Brodie tells me of the farmhouse up the road where the seeds of Womad music festival were sown. Detouring east, I pass alpaca-nibbled fields and watch red kites circle overhead on my way to Lin\u2019s Veg Shed<\/a>; its wholesome-looking vegetables and salads can be bought steps from where they have been grown.<\/p>\n double quotation markThe landscape feels timeless as I pass pretty cottages, ancient churches, a mossy-roofed mill and pubs with elbow-polished bars<\/p>\n In Whitchurch I pedal past the Greyhound pub and over the river into Pangbourne. Grahame\u2019s former home is here, still a private house. Although he wasn\u2019t living here when he wrote The Wind in the Willows, Pangbourne has echoes of picnic-loving Ratty, with its cheese shop, bakery and Italian deli.<\/p>\n Cycling back to Hill Bottom to drop off the bike, I finish my day on foot, walking a few miles to Goring-on-Thames and Streatley along a riverside route through the Goring Gap, a topographical half-pipe where the Thames slices through chalk hills. My route joins the Ridgeway, Britain\u2019s oldest road, as I cross the river, and the landscape feels timeless as I pass pretty brick and flint cottages, ancient churches, a mossy-roofed mill and pubs with elbow-polished bars.<\/p>\n The Swan at Streatley. Photograph: Greg Balfour Evans\/Alamy<\/p>\n