Chester has been
out on many cache hunts with us and has rather got to enjoy this
pastime, so much so that he now recognises our GPSr and gets
excited on seeing it. Recently he has been asking if we could
help him create some caches of his own, so of course we agreed
as he is not too good at this internet thingy (and if the truth
be known he is only really any good at three things, walkeeees,
spotting squirrels and burying bones, but don't tell him I told
you that). He said that he would like them to be located in some
of his favourite types of places that his doggie friends would
like and suggested that one in each of the Oxford City Parks
would be a good place. Foolishly we agreed to this before
checking out how many parks Oxford actually has, and to our
surprise their is eighteen of them. I hope you all enjoy this
series of eighteen caches, and do post some picies for Chester,
especially if you have one of his canine friends with
you.
Botley
Park
One of Oxford's older
parks, Botley was purchased by the City Council in 1922. In the
corner of the park is Tumbling Bay Bathing Place. Although it is
now closed for swimming the weirs have recently been refurbished by
The Environment Agency and the site is now managed for wildlife and
conservation.
The facilities include,
a football pitch, a synthetic cricket wicket, a netball court and
two tennis courts. There is also a large children's play area with
paddling pool. There is also a floodlit Streetsport site, that has
markings and equipment for roller hockey, basketball and
five-a-side football. The two bowls greens are rented by the West
Oxford Bowls Club.
Quite liked this park as
it has some trees and overgrown areas for wildlife which are great
for exploring and having a good sniff around. You could even take a
paddle in the river, but I shouldn't let your humans in especially
the small ones.
You might find parking a
problem around here so I would recommend using the Park and Ride
buses. If you are very lucky you might find some parking in one of
the side streets or you could park in the nearby Halfords store car
park.
Chester has hidden a
Bone'us cache full of special doggy treats for all those cacher's
who have managed to complete his COPQ series. To find this cache
you will need to collect the letters on the lids of all the COPQ
caches, and use them to work out the start location for
Chester's Bone'us. Be warned, you will have to go for Chester's
favourite type of walkieeees to complete it; a long one.
