28/09/13 - Capital Ring Phase 15 - The Closed Circle

Start - Royal Albert DLR
Finish - Woolwich Arsenal DLR
Distance - 5.4 Miles
Geocaches - 6
Summary of all 15 Stages

Capital Ring Phase 15

This is it.  There must be a German word for the feeling of sadness that you get when you complete one of your goals in life.  This has taken me three summers and with 2013 Summer nearly at an end, I have to make a weekend trip to complete.

Train ticket prices are ridiculously cheap on the weekend - 10% of those costs of a weekday if you book in advance.  I can even have a relative lie in - getting a discount ticket on the 8am from Birmingham International.

The train steadily fills up.  I feel left out that I have neither a piecing or a tattoo.  And yes, my merrily adorned fellow travelers are all drinking cider for breakfast.

Arrive at Euston, tube to Bank and then the DLR to Royal Albert.  Not bad for a man without a Prince Albert.

Stage 14 wasn't the best and I'm not sure about this final stage.  What will it hold?

All Coming to an end

First stage is easy enough walking, across the two Beckton Parks.  Park 1 has a football, Park 2 has rugby.  Then I cut inside the University of East London grounds and have a nice walk alongside Royal Albert Dock.

Royal Albert Dock - Airport Behind.

Plenty to look at.  Planes taking off from the opposite airport.  Rowers in the water.  Topless joggers.  Shame they were blokes.

At Gallions Reach, there is a cache that is a short distance off route.  I have plenty of time to kill before my cheap train back, so go for it.  An adventurous walk across waste ground, with signs of people living rough and then it works out that I am on the wrong level.  Cue a run across a dual carriageway, clamber up a bank and climb over a crash barrier.  Anything for a smiley.

Get back on my route proper, past a factory and hit the Thames, grabbing a cache under a bench.  The river will be my left hand friend all the way back to Woolwich.

Tower at the Thames

Tide is out.  This will be handy for later.

Two caches at the lock entrances to the Dock.  This is spooky walking.  Derelict, overgrown, signs of an industrial past and absolutely no people around.

The third cache along this stretch needs the Thames to be out, so that I can drop down to the foreshore.  Fortunately, I have timed it perfectly.

Down the ramp and back up the ladder

One more cache in Royal Victoria gardens and then I am at the end of my odyssey.  The only question to be answered is whether to take the foot tunnel or the free ferry.

It's just pulling in, so would be rude not to.

Would have missed the view of Canary Wharf

After no people all the way on this leg, I hit the main street of Woolwich on a Saturday afternoon.  Quite a contrast.

But I bet that Columbus, Cook and Polo did not have such a welcome at the end of their adventures.

So good, them named the dish twice

Adventure over.  Time to plan the next one.