Chester has been out
on many cache hunts with us and has rather got to enjoy this
pastime, so much so that he now recognises our GPSr and gets
excited on seeing it. Recently he has been asking if we could help
him create some caches of his own, so of course we agreed as he is
not too good at this internet thingy (and if the truth be known he
is only really any good at three things, walkeeees, spotting
squirrels and burying bones, but don't tell him I told you that).
He said that he would like them to be located in some of his
favourite types of places that his doggie friends would like and
suggested that one in each of the Oxford City Parks would be a good
place. Foolishly we agreed to this before checking out how many
parks Oxford actually has, and to our surprise their is eighteen of
them. I hope you all enjoy this series of eighteen caches, and do
post some picies for Chester, especially if you have one of his
canine friends with you.
Grandpont
Park
The 3 hectares of
Grandpont were once the site of the former gas works which were
demolished in 1960, the only visible remnant of which is the
ornamental rail bridge which was used to carry coal from the main
line across the Thames to the furnaces. The area was re-landscaped
in 1985 by planting trees and sowing wildflower seed to create a
patchwork of shrubberies and hay meadows. The park has matured into
an attractive setting for a lunch break and a haven for wildlife -
a stone's throw from the City centre. Look out for the Green
Woodpeckers which like to forage for insects in the short turf
created by the abundant rabbits. In spring cowslips flower along
the edges of some of the paths and later in the summer look out for
the tall pink spikes of Sainfoin near the main entrance. On the
South side there is a football pitch, a basketball court and
kick-about goals.
Liked this park as it
had plenty of places to explore a a nice nature reserve
attached.
A rare treat so close to
Oxford city centre, is FREE parking at N51 44.644 W001
15.652, for 2 hours Monday to Saturday between 08:00 & 18:30
(plenty of time for this cache), no restrictions at other
times.
Chester has hidden a
Bone'us cache full of special doggy treats for all those cacher's
who have managed to complete his COPQ series. To find this cache
you will need to collect the letters on the lids of all the COPQ
caches, and use them to work out the start location for
Chester's Bone'us. Be warned, you will have to go for Chester's
favourite type of walkieeees to complete it; a long one.
As my employer has decided that it would be a good idea to
move the whole organisation to Bristol, the Phillimore's (Mad H@ter
and Muddy Legs) will be moving on to pastures new and some fresh
caches. Unfortunately this will mean that it will become difficult
for us to maintain our Oxfordshire caches, so we will therefore be
gradually archiving the majority of them. We shall start our
program of collecting the caches and archiving them in the new
year, but as we have one or two caches out there this will not be a
five minute program! If you would particularly like to find this
cache before it is archived please get in touch and we will try and
hold off archiving it.