Wittenham Thames Walk #5: Fence-zig-tree-zag-fence
This cache has moved within a few metres of the original title location due to muggle activity.
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This is a series of twenty two geocaches forming a 8km / 5 mile circular walk entirely off road or very quiet roads. We start in a wildflower meadow, crossing over the picturesque Days Bridge and Days Lock in Little Wittenham, before meandering along the Thames, across farmland and to a playground and the start. There are no stiles and the path is good, so is suitable for pushchairs and mountain bikes.
This walk is peaceful now but in 1642 the Thames Valley became the centre of a bitter war between King Charles I's Royalists, headquartered in Oxford, and the Parliamentarians based in London. Upstream Abingdon formed the outer defences to Oxford. Downstream, Wallingford Castle was restored and held for the Royalists even after Abingdon fell, before eventually being slighted (deliberately destroyed) by King Charles to prevent it falling into enemy hands.
These caches originally contained a series of stickers to collect but a very wet winter has convinced me a riverside walk is not the right place for paper-based collectables! I'll leave old ones in situ for kids but unfortunately the series will be moved elsewhere.