25/8/12 - Capital Ring 10 and 11 - Two Stages in One Go

Distance - 11.4 Miles
Geocaches - 5 Found, 1 DNF
Start - South Kenton
End - Highgate

Capital Ring 10 and 11

Fear and panic, the like of which has not been seen since millenium bug debacle, has closed London for business during the Olympics.  This means that my opportunities of continuing this epic journey whilst staying down for business have been curtailed by an event that has had people cheering for sports they don't even know the rules to.  At least the ceremonies were good.  Apart from Muse.

So to meet my plans of completing 5 stages per BST year, I head down to London on a Saturday, making the most of my time there and completing two stages in one day.

Bargain tickets can be booked, provided you don't mind an early start and I am on the 7am from Birmingham International.  As soon as I leave the station, I am up at the shop for a wake me up cup of coffee.  The bloke behind is buying a can of Stella.  It truly is compulsory to drink on a train, regardless of the time.

And he is not the only one.  Two Polish fellas get on at Rugby and noisily get stuck into jumbo bottles of Heineken.  They then annoy the carriage by playing Belgian trance music dead loud and shouting at each other.  I am googling the Polish for "Excuse me gents, but could you keep it down" when the ticket inspector comes.

It would appear as they have only London Midland Tickets... invalid for a Virgin Train. 

There is probably a German word for the descent of silence that hits a carriage when its apparent that an almighty row is going to break out between angry commuters and an officious inspector.  Great entertainment and after they had paid their £47 each fines, they were less inclined to rock out to technotronic.

I arrive at Euston, having gone through South Kenton Station, needing to get a chug-a-long back up the line.

Saturday - Early - Consfused

This train is full of sweary northerners who are down for the Rugby between Leeds and Warrington.  Come back my jiggy poles, all is forgiven.

Arrive at 9am and have a walk through houses and Preston Park.  Stop to pick up a bacon sarnie at Preston Road tube station and eat it walking down the street, climbing the hill in the first bit of countryside at Barn Hill.

From certain angles, I am ace at hide and seek

 Get to the top and I am rewarded with an unexpected trig point and great views over the home of our profane egg chasers.

Take a small detour to get the first cache of the day and am rewarded with a TB.  Drop mine off in its place.  Then its out into Fryent Country Park.  For the first time on this extended walk, the green signs let me down and I take a circuitous route to the top of the hill.

A small amount of road walking and I am on the eastern shore of Brent Reservoir.  Nice walking and manage to get a micro cache inbetween the muggle dog walkers.

Waterside

Cross the M1 and I have some lengthy road walking in the Jewish part of London.  The Synagogue is marked on the map, and because it is Sabbath, everyone is on their way there.

Despite a decent enough stretch down by a stream and through the nice houses of Hampstead Garden Suburb, this is dull walking.  I've also been at it for three hours and the 2 litres of rubbery tasting water from the camelpak is not as good as a nice pint.

HGS is lovely, but seems to be a dry village.  I even have a look up the main streets, but can only find furniture shops.  Then, like a mirage, the White Lion appears around the corner from East Finchley Station.

Despite the shoulder tube, I am dryer than Ghandi's flip flop

Suitably refreshed, I am off again, getting two caches and hitting the superior walking of Highgate and Queens Woods.  Exceptional walking area and I am just getting  the final cache of the day when the forecasted storm starts off.  Oh well, the trees offer some cover and to be fair, it was meant to be like this all the way around.

Before the Rain

At 2pm, the walk is comes to an end at Highgate Tube station.  I am starving and decide to scale the heights to see if there is a pub close by.  Even better than that, there's one at the top and its got the football on.  The menu offers a chop.  Lord Lucan only ever ate chops and if its good enough for him, then its good enough for me.

So, after two years and assuming I don't get the sunlight to do another stage, I am 11/15 of the way through.  Back in 2013.