24/7/2013 - Capital Ring Disaster

Distance - 3.2 Miles
Start - Hackney Wick Station
End - Not Where I Expected
Caches - 8

Capital Ring 14 - Greenway Shut

Phase 14 of the Capital Ring is planned.  There are a disappointing number of caches on route - a grand total of 1.

Slightly more epic than usual train ride on the Jubilee Line and Overground and I am back at the Hackney Wick Badlands and a short stroll to the Olympic Stadium and the canal.  There is a lot of work going on - obviously getting it ready for the Irons new home - so a photo of the stadium would have be obscured by the scaffolding.

Surprisingly pretty down here.

Not too Shabby for a canalside walk

Move on and get to the Greenway, which is a long strecth of my anticipated walk.  There is a gate.  The gate is locked.  There is a sign.  Oh Bugger.

It had to be today, didnit it.

Don't worry, I am an explorer.  But what to do now then?  Scaling the fence is not an option.  I look at the Map - looks like I will be getting more than 1 cache after all.  I can follow the Lee Navigation and pick up quite a few on route to Canning Town.

So its all canal/river side walking today.  The caches come quick and fast and in the main are easy to find.

I only have one problem - a cache hidden in the wall that is guarded by muggle fishermen.  I try and discreetly put my head in the foilage but I cannot have a good look.  Looks like I will have to leave this one - even if it does put a nasty unsmiley in the middle of trail on the Geocaching Map.

Architecturally, Three Mills is the highlight of the walk.  This is the largest tidal mil in the UK.  Geocaching is educational.

Wanna See the Biggest Tidal Mill in the UK?  You Got It.

Next up on interesting places is Bow Locks, with a nice view over Canary Wharf, but its here that the river and the canal part ways.  And the towpath is not taking me to Canning Town after all.

River or Canal - The choice is nealy mine.  Except the River has no path

Check the map and I can head into the heart of EastEnders country and pick up the DLR back into town.

One last cache and then, as there so frequently is, an end of walk hostelry to quench my thirst.  This is the sort of thing that I love.  When I get back home a couple of days later - a book that I ordered called the "strangest pubs in britain" arrives.  On the cover is this very pub - all because the woman that used to own the building lost a son in the navy.  She baked a hot cross bun for his return and when he never came back, continued to do this every easter.  After it was turned into a pub, a tradition developed where a sailor would arrive at easter with a bun - which is added to the pile in a net suspended from the roof.

I had no idea whilst in there.

Oddly Named Pub

Looks like I will be back in Hackney Wick to have another crack at Stage 14.