GC4M9QM

5/5 #100

Done it! At last! Though I couldn't have made more of a meal of this one.

I drove first to the pub in Radcot, but there were so many "PRIVATE" signs all over the place that I couldn't even bring myself to go in and ask sweetly if I could park. If only people were more forgiving about this sort of thing I'd have stopped in there afterwards for lunch, but as it was - no, I'll get a petrol station pasty!

In the end I parked at N 51 42.10 W 001 33.725, and dragged my kayak the half a kilometre over fields, in order to paddle it ten metres to the cache! Apart from the free parking, this strategy has little to recommend it!!!

The cache was easily found and securely connected to its moorings. The mark on the bridge supports where the flood water came up to is three feet above the cache! Thus, the log is quite wet. It's signable though, so I did, and allowed myself a little cheer for my century of adventure.

Thanks for the cache! I'm sure it's lovely from the pub....!

Flood markings three feet higher than cache...

GC4T7NM

5/5 #99 of my Thames four-cache sprint to 100 today.

From my hasty reading of previous logs and difficulty understanding the cache description, I was not confident that I'd find the cache today, or even if it was in place. Happily it turned out that all was as it should be, and was quite straightforward. I parked for free in the car park to the west of causeway (having gingerly discovered that car plus kayak is taller than the 6'6" maximum height for the car park over the road!) and dragged the boat over the grass to the river, along the river eastwards and under the bridge to put in at waypoint BI, then paddled past the pub, and under the bridge in order to circle round and sneak back under the farthest arch and seamlessly into the tunnel.

The boat very soon ran aground and needed dragging to the pipe to tie off, and then it was just a walk to the red brick archway, and signing the cache! Hooray! The only difficulty was walking. The ground consists of largeish, loose, pointy stones which were no fun with surf shoes. I recommend crocs.

Then back out, feeling great and off to look for my 100th 5/5.....

GC4M6TA

5/5 #98 as part of my Thames four-cache sprint to 100.

This was just tremendous! Easily the best inland kayak cache I've found. Why? Because it was bloody ridiculous, that's why! I approached from the westerly end, near the marina and immediately came across several trees fallen right across the width of the river. That was negotiated safely after a quick examination, and I rather expected - falsely, it transpired - that the rest of the way would be less troublesome.

WRONG!

There are trees down, and sundry other things, all the way along the river - and I was frankly shocked that I managed to navigate all the way to the cache without getting out. It is possible, but the challenge is significant and the extra fun to be had immeasurable! In a couple of places it was necessary to ski the kayak over submerged limbs and for that reason alone, as well as many submerged broken branches, I would not recommend this with an inflatable boat. Some passages were less than two feet wide.

The cache was easily found, and then I learned (opting to go back the way I came) that negotiating fallen trees in a downstream direction is much harder than upstream.....

Thanks for a tremendous cache. I can't recommend it highly enough. More people should come and have a go.

None shall pass!

GC4RHDK

5/5 #97 as part of my Thames four-cache sprint to 100.

I put in at Culham Lock and paddled east then round the island to GZ dodging the many and scary weirs along the way. In the end I disembarked at Sutton Pools and dragged the kayak overground to put in just 50m from the cache and popped across. An easy find once there, of course, and reassuringly still waters too, given the closeness of the weir. From there it was off upstream to find Swift Ditch Splash and Cache, past the safety fences for the next weir in the wrong direction!

Thanks for a cache in a lovely place. I'd wax on about the loveliness, but Swift Ditch knocked my socks off. On which more later...