Set as close as
possible to the most southerly point of Buckinghamshire, I have had
to compromise in the placing of this cache. Due to the proximity to
Heathrow airport, and the fact that the cache is directly under the
flight path, it has not been possible for security reasons to place
a physical cache, which is the reason this is a virtual (thanks to
Eckington for his suggestion that I make it
such).
The county boundary runs round
the northern perimeter of Wraysbury reservoir, then off to
the north west
with Berkshire to
the west and the old county of Middlesex (now
Greater London) to the south and east. A short distance to the east
the boundary turns north and runs along the western edge of the
M25. Wraysbury and its neighbouring Queen Mother reservoir have
been used on more than one occasion by planes taking off from
nearby Heathrow to jettison engines that caught fire on takeoff, so
you may want to wear a hard hat when you visit this one! (fear not
- this was in the days before this practice was discontinued and
the standard procedure changed to smothering the fire with
foam).
There is no public access to
the land surrounding the reservoir, which is protected by
spike-topped fencing. The true most southerly point lies on this
fence line with the reservoir on one side and a high security
compound on the other. This virtual is therefore adjacent to the
public highway as near to the most southerly point as conveniently
possible. Parking is possible, but you may not even need to get out
of the car. You are looking for one of these signs (image
2).
The letter below the correct
sign will give you the information you need from these
alternatives:
A = 2 1 2 5 1 7 2
B = 4 2 4 3 3 2 1
C = 2 7 1 5 2 1 2
D = 3 5 2 7 4 2 1
E = 4 2 1 6 5 2 5
F = 1 2 3 3 4 2 4
To claim the cache, email the
owner with details of which is the correct sign and what it is
attached to.
Disclaimer: In arriving at the locations for this
series of caches I have used the 2002 Ordnance Survey 1:50,000
scale maps, on paper and running in MemoryMap. The Ordnance Survey is the definitive
mapping authority in this country, and comparison with other series
or other scales or other vintage of maps may give different
results. I stick with the Ordnance Survey (with additional
qualifications as specified for Compass Point East), and in any
case, as somebody well known in Buckinghamshire geocaching circles
once said, “It’s just a hunt for a lunch box, why be so
serious?”