CANAL KNOWLEDGE (Bucks)
PLEASE NOTE: The co-ords given at the top of this page (N51° 47.636 / W000° 42.796) are for the closest sensible parking for this cache. From here walk the 200ish feet to the canal and then head towards... Well, that's where Who Wants To Be Quite Rich with you genial host, Chris Tarrant comes in...!
The history bit:
The Wendover Arm of the Grand Union Canal runs from near Marsworth to (unsurprisingly) Wendover. It was opened in 1797 but within 5 years it became obvious that there were serious problems with its design. The original plan was for it to feed much needed extra water into the main trunk of the Grand Union (or Junction, as it was then) Canal but because of leakage by 1890 the arm was actually drawing water from the main canal. Several attempts at fixing the problem were made but eventually the canal was abandoned in 1904 and a stoplock built at Tringford. Some of the springs which fed it were redirected underground into Wilstone Reservoir (home of Dan and Pid's Duck Hunt cache) and that section of the canal soon silted up. Today that part of it has all but vanished. The three miles of well surfaced, wheelchair friendly towpath from the parking co-ords given to Wendover is the nicest bit, I think. This is one of my favourite places to cycle (nice and flat!) and the main picture at the top of this page was taken by me on one such ride on the 1st of January 2000.
Have a happy hunt in this interesting and attractive location!
The smallish cache originally contained:
2x Smelly candles
1x VCD of my 2003/4 trip to Norway. 18's and over only. Contains language!
1x Party popper
1x Small green toy car
Plus the usual: Cache notice (Thanks Bugs!), log book, pen.
While you're in the area, I suggest you try Dan & Pid's
Gravity Hill? or my own
Chess themed Geocache No.7 - White King cache. They're both within short driving distance. This cache is also passed while doing my Canalmania series.
A small experiment - Please feel free to rate your visit to this cache out of ten in your log.