I encourage caching by public transport. Take the Northern Line
to Camden Town and continue on Bus C2 to Parliament Hill
Fields. Or, take one of bus lines 24, 46, 168 or C11
from various locations to Hampstead Heath, or a train to
Hampstead Heath station. In all cases, there's a walk of about 500m
(some uphill involved) to the start location. Alternatively take
the Northern Line to Hampstead and walk about 1km.
Bicycles are not allowed in this part of the park but will bring
you within close distance.
Hampstead Heath
Hampstead Heath is North London's largest and probably most
important green space. The wildest of London's parks has fields to
run in, long grass to roll in, woods to hide in and, most famously,
ponds to swim in. In north London this is THE place to get back to
nature. Strewn with picnickers, cyclists, families and the rest,
the heath is large enough and has enough copses, hills and mounds
that a quiet spot is never far away.
Parliament Hill
Parliament Hill has great views over central London from 98m
above the Thames (still not the highest point of the Heath though,
the White Stone Pond further north/east is at 135m). One
explanation for Parliament Hill's unusual name is that Guy Fawkes's
fellow plotters may have gathered here on 5 November 1605 to
hopefully watch the Houses of Parliament blow up. A more probable
explanation is the hill being a gun emplacement for the
Parliamentarian troops during the Civil War, 40 years later. Today
Parliament Hill is a popular spot for flying kites, the hill is
even nicknamed "Kite Hill" sometimes.
The Cache
Go to the above coordinates. Sit down for a moment if you want
to enjoy the great view of London or if you feel tired from the
uphill walk. Try to spot some of London's monuments.
Now look at the information panel and find the numbers below.
Note that the information is a bit outdated, Canary Wharf
development only started after the panel was placed...
June 19AB. A=____ B=____
CD = Number of marked locations/buildings (ie. number of
vertical lines). C=____ D=____
Now go to:
N 51° 33.(D-2)(B-C)(A-1)
W 000° 09.(D-1)(C)(A-C)
Sanity check: the calculated coords should be less than 100m
away. But don't go there on the most direct line - going around
(preferrably to the right) and attacking from below will make this
much easier. You can actually stay on the paved paths!
Cache has been downgraded - you are now looking for a 35mm
micro. Coords remain the same, just less into the bushes.
Please take care to replace the cache so that
it can't easily be seen.
Take note of the letter and number on the log book for the
bonus cache.
Original Cache contents: Logbook+pencil and some small gift
items ("magic" dinosaurs painting book, set of colour pencils, 4x
Spiderman 3 Panini stickers, and a special "wood pen" from the
English Heritage shop at
Kenwood House).
Wheelchair Users
Start location is wheelchair accessible (paved path) but there's
some good uphill to get there. Final cache location is accessible
over paved paths (some detour needed, and it's downhill now)
except last 10m for which a friend would be needed to get
the cache.
Hall of Fame
Congratulations to the first finders!
1. Gold went to... renatopivano on 8 October
2007
2. Silver for rodz on 11 October 2007
3. Bronze for bones1 on 12 October 2007 (closely
followed by goldpot on the same day :)