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Lark Rise to Candleford Green and Shelswell Loop Series

We were going to leave our caching day out until Sunday this weekend so Isaac could come along as well, but looking at the weather forecast Saturday was looking good but Sunday a lot less so. I thus decided to go caching on Saturday on my own and maybe go out with Isaac on Sunday if it looked ok on Sunday morning.

As usual, we struggled to decide where to head for so decided to go a bit further than we normally do and head towards Bicester and the Lark Rise to Candleford Green and Shelswell Loop series. They had good logs and looked like a really nice walk.

I dropped Isaac off at school and headed for the motorways and the long drive to the caching area. I parked up by one of the Lark Rise caches called Round The Bend. This was roughly in the middle of the two series and meant I could do a figure of eight walk around both series.

It was very chilly so I added a warm fleece to my normal walking kit and set off on foot to do the Lark Rise series anti-clockwise.

The first stretch going over the fields to the hamlet of Juniper Hill (what a great name for a place!) was uneventful. Lots of easy finds with good co-ords and a really nice walk overall. I DNF'd one cache but was in good company with 3 other cacher's DNF'ing it in succession too. I suspect the cache has gone as it's not anywhere the hint says it should be in.

The next leg of the walk was my favourite of the day, going over the estate of Tusmore Park and in great countryside with a mixture of woodland and semi-open fields. Part way through it I was walking along in a world of my own, thoroughly enjoying myself when I heard a loud beep right behind me. I must have jumped at least a foot into the air, I was so startled! It was an estate worker in a 4x4 doing the rounds.

I had another DNF a bit later on by a lovely church. Again, several people had DNF'd it right before me and I suspect it's another one that has gone missing.

The next cache was about 100ft off the stated co-ords. I had heard that this series had some iffy co-ords, but this was the only one of the whole day I thought was out. After reading the previous logs, it was clear where to look and it was just a case of methodologically searching the various ivy bits (that means poking around the ivy with the end of my walking pole ;-)) until I heard a clunk of the cache box.

After that one, there was a massive stretch of walk with no caches on. I'm not quite sure why they had not put at least one or two caches on this part of the walk as there were tons of places you could hide a cache, but I'm sure there must be a reason.

I had another DNF on a nano I'm pretty sure is also missing, before arriving back near the Jeep. I was debating whether to carry on straight to the Shelswell Loop series or pop back to the Jeep for my sandwiches. In the end the walking won and off I went to start the next series.

By now I had about 2 hours (or slightly more) before it would be starting to go dark, so I got a wiggle on with my walking as all the torches were back in the Jeep. As I passed the pub by the first in the series, the landlady was outside talking to some smokers and shouted over to me "You look like you are on a mission". I was!

Next, I headed off down the PF's over the fields on the walk. I could hear the sound of shotguns in the distance and hoped they would not be near any of the caches. Unfortunately they were and I had to walk right past one of the caches as a guy with his shotgun cocked was stood right by GZ.

One more DNF followed a bit later on - a micro on the ground in a wooded area with dead leaves everywhere. Not my idea of fun, so I soon got bored and headed off to the next cache.

I nearly forgot about one cache and only spotted it on my GPSr at the last minute so had to do a 0.18 backtrack to get it - doh!

It was starting to go dark by now and I was only just over half way round the loop. Time to walk a little bit faster still. The rest of the series was easy enough with a few things to note:

• Another long gap between two caches. This time there was absolutely nowhere to put a cache in between (it was open fields with no hedges).
• Nearly tripping over the carcass of a dead sheep near a cache.
• Waiting for a tractor pulling a trailer full of country folk with their shotguns to go past.

I just about managed to get back to the Jeep as it became fully dark. The last few caches were in the darkness but it was just about light enough to see to find the caches.

Just two left to do for both series and they were a short drive down the lane. I parked up and set off over the fields with a torch and soon had both caches found.

That's 37 finds so far. I wonder if I can find 3 quick and easy caches on the way back to the M40 junction on the way home. A quick study of the OS map on my GPSr and I spotted just the three caches I needed.

The first one was a short way down a closed off road and a nice quick find. The second was a bit more interesting as I was walking down the PF in the dark and could see a torch coming the other way. It turned out to be a man and his two dogs. I thought nothing of it until I turned round and he'd stopped a bit further down the track and was looking at me. Oh no, it's not one of those nocturnal canine type places is it?

Thankfully it turned out to be the gamekeeper from the estate and he was wondering what the heck I was up to in the dark on my own in some woods. I explained about caching to him and he was fine with this. Apparently they have some trouble with drug dealers and poachers on the estate so he was just being careful. After he went on his way I soon found the cache.

Last cache of the day turned out to be one of the Alphanumeric Northants series caches, set at the very southern end of Northamptonshire. I collected the clue for the next cache and have filed it away for when we're next in the area and want to carry on that series.

With 40 finds in the bag and a very satisfying day's walking, I stuck a great podcast on the iPhone and headed off to the M40 and northbound to home.

Sezincote Stroll, Cachewalker Kids Trail and some Swells & Wells caches

We could not decide where to go caching this week (our usual conundrum) and the weather was not looking too great for Saturday either. It looked like it might be wetter the further north you went, so we opted to go south and a group of caches on what looked like a nice walk in the Cotswolds caught my eye.

We decided to head for Longborough (near Moreton in Marsh) and do the Sezincote Stroll series, followed by the Cachewalker Kids Trail. If we were left with any time, there were quite a few Swells and Wells series caches nearby and some quick ones in Evesham for the way home.

We drove down the M6, M5 and then the A-roads to Longborough and parked up in the centre of the lovely village for our figure of 8 walk around the caches. After getting kitted up with full waterproofs, off we set.

We decided to tackle the Sezincote Stroll in a clockwise direction to start off, as this was the longer of the two walks. A nice easy find at #3 started us off on the right track. A bit later on we passed the lovely Sezincote house and gardens - a wonderful yellow Cotswold stone building with a huge green onion dome on top of it!

Just as we were nearing the top of our walk, we spotted a group of about 30 walkers taking a rest by where we thought the next cache might be. As we got nearer it was clear they were stood right by GZ.

Nothing else for it but to strike up a conversation with them, mention geocaching and show them the cache. They looked a decent lot and not at all likely to endanger the cache. We did exactly this and quite a few of them were really interested in the idea of caching, with one lady even saying she'd look it up and take her grandchildren out caching :-).

The rest of the walk was uneventful, apart from passing quite a few pheasant beaters out checking the hedgerows. Luckily none of them were anywhere near any of the caches.

All too soon we were back near the Jeep and pondered stopping for our sandwiches or should we carry on for the next walk - the Cachewalker Kids Trail. We were enjoying our walk so much we decided to carry straight on to the next series.

The Cachewalker Kids Trail looks to have been set for an event and involves 6 easy puzzles, designed for children to solve, and then a bonus cache at the end. Nothing too taxing here with all the caches being really easy finds (some were out in the open for some reason - we hid them back where we thought they should go).

On the way round it started to rain properly and looked to be set in for the rest of the day. We were glad we had our waterproofs on and could just carry on caching as normal. We also picked up a couple of Swells and Wells series caches on the way round as we were walking past them anyway.

Once back at the Jeep, Isaac planned a few drive-by's and cache and dashes towards Stow in the Wold, before heading back towards Evesham on the way home.

The Stow caches were easy enough. We were puzzled at one as it was a Church Micro but we totally failed to spot a church anywhere near it. Either we're walking around with our eyes shut or the church must have been behind the buildings and out of sight. Either way, it was a bit odd.

On the way up to Evesham we passed a delta68 Earthcache at Fish Hill. We've not done an Earthcache for ages so stopped for a look. We started off in the old quarry for a photo, then up to a viewfinder on top of the hill to pick up some required details. Next, it was down to the car park information boards for the rest of the details. All good fun and it was interesting to read about the area on the noticeboards.

Just before we arrived in Evesham Isaac took us to a group of 6 easy looking caches around the village of Badsey. It was very dark by now but thankfully we were right and they were all indeed very easy finds.

Just time for a few more before we head home so we went for the three caches in the Evesham By Pass series. Not a very inspiring series name but the caches were ok and just what we needed at this stage - quick finds not far from where we'd parked (it was raining really hard by now and everywhere was very damp).

We thought that was it for the day and headed over to join the M5 just north of Worcester. On the way Isaac spotted two quick caches just off the main road in Pershore. How could we resist ;-).

Two more easy finds ensued - the last one was hidden as per the hint but had no covering on it and nothing nearby to hide it better with. We hope this one lasts as it's going to look even more exposed in the daylight.

We then headed home very satisfied with our day out caching. 37 finds for the day and some seriously nice walking. Just perfect and very close to our ideal day out caching.

Himbleton Hide and Finding Flyford Series + More...

On Saturday I'd planned to start off with the new Saza36 caches between Bromsgrove and Redditch before heading off to the Finding Flyford series and then I'd play it by ear depending on the time.

We were out on Friday night but when I got home I spotted a newly published series of 18 caches just by the Flyford ones so a hasty rearrangement of my plans was called for.

I dropped Isaac off at school and then headed off for the motorway and the journey to the new Himbleton series. As I came off the M5 just to the north of Worcester I bagged a quick and easy Motorway Mayhem cache as I was driving past it anyway.

I then parked up by the first cache just outside the village of Himbleton, got kitted up and off I set for a circular walk around the caches. There was another car at the parking spot so I assumed another cacher was already part way round the series (they were!).

It's been raining very heavily overnight and all the streams are full to overflowing around here, which is going to make the walk interesting to say the least.

The first cache by the parking spot was an easy find. I then did a couple more easy ones before meeting the first obstacle of the day: the lane was totally flooded on the way to the next cache. It looked to be about a foot deep but there was a hint of grass along one edge so I gingerly made my way along this, using my walking pole to stop myself falling into the water.

Lots more easy finds followed with the main comment to note being a detour off the walk to bag another cache in a nearby woods. This took an age to find as the cache co-ords were pants and about 70ft off. Eventually I spotted a second set of co-ords on the cache page and some pacing instructions (more like a letterbox than a normal cache). This did the trick and I soon had the cache in hand.

Later in the walk I ended up wading through a flooded stream and getting wet socks as there was no other way round it and I needed to be on the other side to do the rest of the caches. I spotted some other cachers in the distance but never got to talk to them - they were sketr1, the owner of the car I had parked next to. Later on in the walk I also passed The five Keepers and said hello.

All too soon I arrived back at the Jeep and set off to make a start on the Flyford series. I did the first couple of them as cache and dashes before parking up for the walk round most of the remaining caches.

The highlight of the walk was bumping into Butttercup and stormystorm, who were doing the series in the opposite direction to me. We had a lovely geo-chat, swapping tips about the parts of the walk we'd each done, before heading on to the next cache.

I was soon back at the Jeep again, but not before a very long cacheless (is that a word?) stretch down the road from the last cache. I'm not sure why there are not caches on this part of the walk too as it seems a bit odd. Never mind, as I was thoroughly enjoying myself anyway :-).

Time was getting on by now and I needed to be home early tonight as we're hosting a bonfire party at home and we've got a ton of people coming. I could just about fit in a few more caches though...

I bagged a quick drive-by which was hidden on an old tank outside an army surplus shop. I'd have loved to go inside for a nosey but time was too tight by now.

A short drive later and I was in Saza36-land and pulling up for the first cache. Just as I was parking a 4x4 that looked strangely familiar pulled off in front of me. I suspected it was the Stag Ramblers and sure enough, when I found the cache, they had also found it today.

Just 4 caches to go to our 8000th find now. I was planning to leave the 8000th for when Isaac is with me next week but on the way to the dual carriageway that leads to the M5 and home, I spotted 4 easy drive-by's that were just saying "find me". I could not resist.

Four nice easy finds followed, with our 8000th cache being a really easy drive-by micro hidden behind a road sign. An ok cache, but one of these days we'll plan things properly and do a really special cache for our milestone.

38 caches found for the day and I managed to get home for just after 5pm so plenty of time to get things sorted for the party later.

UK Mega Series 2 Ring and Chiltern Hundred Bonus Cache

I could not decide on where to go caching on Saturday. We loved the long walk round the Chiltern Hundred last weekend so thought something similar would be perfect as we could not see anywhere closer on the map jumping out saying "find me".

The UK Mega series was the obvious choice: we'd done the northern loop earlier in the year so had the choice of the southern loop or the new Mega Series 2 loop. We opted for the latter with the idea that we would pick off a few caches from the southern loop if we had time too.

I was also anxious to go and bag the Chiltern Hundred Bonus cache while I was down south. It's not exactly close to the UK Mega series, but it would be about as close as I'm planning to be for a while!

Isaac was doing things at school this weekend so it was just me on my own. I decided to stop overnight just outside Basingstoke on Friday night so I could get an early start on Saturday morning. This in turn would hopefully give me time to get up to Chesham for the Chiltern Hundred Bonus and then back home for a reasonable time on Saturday night.

The hotel was a bit of nightmare as the promised WiFi did not seem to be working and there was no 3G coverage so my 3G dongle refused to work. Luckily I was not there too long so just had to do without internet access for a while. I read a book instead!

Saturday morning dawned and it looked a promising day with clear skies and the sun shining. I drove to Bentworth to start the trail.

I'd read that the last cache of the series - #057 - was opposite a pub and a bit of a nightmare to look for later in the day when people were sat outside the pub. Luckily I found a handy parking spot right next to the cache so did that one first.

I then got my bike out of the Jeep and set off round the trail, doing them in the right order for a change. I was debating if the bike was a good idea but most of the series looked bikeable on Google Earth and another cacher who had done the series confirmed it should be ok.

As with the other Mega Series caches we've done, most of them were big containers with swaps and all were quick and easy finds. I won't go into detail on each cache as there were a lot of them, but will summarise a few highlights below:

• A few stiles to navigate at the start of the trail, but not a problem as it was easy to lift my bike over them.
• At around #012 I bumped into a guy from the local hunt, who was driving round the fields in his 4x4 checking for hazards in advance of the hunt on Sunday. I stopped chatting to him about the countryside and ancient Byway's for quite some time :-).
• I bumped into a group of middle aged bikers on a Byway around cache #20. They stopped for a chat and were telling me about part of the Byway being downgraded to a Restricted Byway by the council. I guess this was the part that a cacher fell foul of the law on when he got his vehicle stuck in mud there.
• Mud, mud and more glorious mud. I suspect it must have rained for the last week around here as the whole walk was seriously muddy. My feet were sliding all over the place but it all added to the fun.
• I did not even bother trying cache #051 as it was in some roots on the side of an old quarry and very dangerous to get to. If I'd had a rope and someone with me I'd have given it a go, but on my own I did not want to risk it.

All too soon I was back at the Jeep and had made good time. The whole series took just under 6 hours to complete. I decided to do a few quick ones from the southern loop that were near the village before heading off to Chesham and the Chiltern Hundred Bonus cache.

After I'd done the quick caches in the village, I headed off towards the M3. On the way I did a couple of quick caches that I spotted on TomTom as I drove past: one called Panda Stone and a quick Motorway Mayhem at J5 of the M3.

After a long trip up the M3, round the M25 (surprisingly quiet today which was good) and then through Chorleywood, I arrived in Chesham just as it had gone dark.

I'd plotted the Bonus cache on my GPSr and noted a few ways to get to it. My favoured route went through a farmyard so I ruled that out as it was dark and I did not want to get arrested loitering around a farm with a torch in the dark.

Plan B was called for and involved parking up on a quiet lane, away from houses and then walking over the fields past some caches we did last week to the bonus cache. Off I set, accompanied by the sounds of fireworks going off in the distance.

As I entered the woods, my torch started a lot of birds who were settling in the upper branches for the night and they all took flight. The co-ords were bang on thankfully and lead me to an obvious cachers trail, which then took me in for an easy find. Boy am I glad to get this one ticked off after the disaster at the end of last weekend's trip!

I then got settled into the Jeep for the long drive northbound to home. I ended up back home just after 8pm which was not bad at all. 64 finds for the day which is also not too shabby :-).

Chiltern Hundred Trip

We've been meaning to take the long trip down to Chesham to do the Chiltern Hundred series for ages now and as it was school holidays and we had a couple of days spare, we thought we'd finally get round to doing it.

The weather looked ok-ish on Saturday but not so good on Sunday so we decided to try and do as much of the series on Saturday as we could. Ideally we'd have liked to do the whole lot in one go but with the winter evenings we were not too keen on the possibility of walking through cattle fields in the dark.

We thus settled on a plan of driving down Friday night and then staying at the Premier Inn (Isaac liked the look of it from those Lenny Henry adverts on TV) at Hemel Hempstead West on Friday and Saturday nights.

The drive down was uneventful and we picked off a quick drive-by right outside the hotel, which was handy. On the way we went round this ridiculous roundabout in Hemel Hempstead that has smaller orbiting roundabouts around a main middle section. Very un-nerving if you are not expecting it as some traffic is effectively going the wrong way round the middle roundabout!

Saturday morning dawned to light rain so we had a hearty breakfast, put on our waterproofs and set off for Chesham town centre. The Chiltern Hundred is arranged in 3 separate loops - the Chesham, Chartridge and Asheridge rings. These all touch at various points so you can easily swap out to another ring as you see fit.

Our plan was to start on the Chesham ring doing them in sequence and then near the end, swap over to the Chartridge ring before returning to the Chesham ring going back to the start point. Then, if time and light were on our side, we'd drive to a handy spot by the Asheridge ring and do that as well.

After finding somewhere to park free for the day (not so easy in a town centre on a Saturday morning) we set off. The first cache (#049) was dead easy, but the next two were not...

Cache #001 had the GPSr's pointing to the back of some buildings in an area that was obviously private. We did not want to look there so had a scout around the rest of the car park in case the co-ords were dodgy but no cache was to be found anywhere. We decided to leave it and look again on the way back to the Jeep.

Cache #002 also had dodgy co-ords as they zero'd out at the back of some fences and we could not find it. In a last ditch attempt we spread the search out and had an easy find of the cache by a bridge. It was only then that we noticed the cache had the word 'bridge' in it's name - doh!

After that it was all plain sailing and we walked round the ring having really easy finds on just about every cache, with quite a few of them being on plain view as we walked up (I'm told by the cache owner that this is intentional as they rarely get noticed by muggles). A very different hiding style than we are used to, but fun nonetheless :-).

Part way round there was a cache by an ostrich farm which we really liked. We stood for a few moments watching the ostriches and chatting about what odd looking creatures they are.

A few caches later we did one with a really good hide. I won't say too much here as I don't want to spoil it for others but it's a very sneaky alternative to what is now quite a common hide. Really enjoyed finding that one.

We had a DNF on #033 - the clue said 'hexatrunk' and we much have searched every 6 trunked tree near to GZ (and there were quite a few!). Either the co-ords are even further off than we thought, we're rubbish cachers and missed something obvious or the cache is not there. We've got it on our watchlist to see which one is the correct answer (I suspect the middle one!).

Isaac managed to leave his walking pole at #040 but we did not realise until a few caches later and did not have time to go back for it. Luckily it was not an expensive one, so not a great problem. I've noted this in our log for the cache in case the next cacher to do that one finds it.

After #042 we spotted a quick way down onto the road, which meant we could swap over to the Chartridge loop and then pick up the Chesham ring later on.

The first half of the Chartridge loop took us along a quiet lane and none of the caches were any problem apart from the last one which was well and truly pushed into a hollow elderflower branch. Luckily there was a small hole the other end of the hollow bit so we used a thin stick to slide the cache out.

Then it was up onto the fields, round past the local school and back into some woods and another rural section. Nothing much to note here apart from just about every cache being up a tree. I wonder if the cache setter used to like climbing trees as a child ;-)?

All too soon we were re-joining the Chesham loop for the walk back into town and the Jeep. It was getting very dark by now and we were umm'ing and ahh'ing about doing the third loop in the dark. Two DNF's in quick succession (The first was almost certainly there but we spooked a lone female dog walker in the bushes so moved on. The second we think is missing as the hiding place was very public) sealed out fate and we decided to do the third ring in the morning and treat ourselves to a meal in a nice restaurant instead this evening.

The last couple of caches into town were easy enough. We looked for #001 on the way to the Jeep but drew a blank again.

Once back to the Jeep, Isaac took us back to the hotel to get washed and changed, via a couple of quick drive-by's. All very easy and no problem at all.

Sunday morning dawned as expected with really heavy rain, high winds and low clouds. We had no option but to don waterproofs and go out and get on with the caches as we had to be home early as Isaac needs to get ready for school tomorrow.

We started off back at Chesham Station and cache #001. I'd spoken to a previous finder overnight and knew the rough area the cache was in. As we walked up, it was literally sat there in plain view and not hidden at all. It definitely was not there yesterday so all we can assume is someone is interfering with the cache or perhaps it's slipped under the fence (which is right by it) and the house owner noticed it and pushed it back overnight. All very odd, but at least we found it!

Next we drove off to a handy place to park for the Asheridge loop, near to #062. We set of on foot anti-clockwise. Highlights and lowlights of this loop were:

• A DNF at #059. The hint said it was up another tree but we could not spot it, despite having a good look. In the end we stopped having fun as the rain was awful and moved on to the next cache.
• A tricky find at #050 right by the cache owner's house. I hope they were not watching us as it took us an age to find as the GPSr's were trying to tell us it was on the other side of the lane, where there was lots of ivy to search. In the end we had a re-think, checked a hiding place similar to one we did yesterday and there the cache was! A very nice hide.
• A few more caches that were made really tricky by all the leaf litter that is around this time of year.
• A DNF at #076. The weather was appalling at this one and the hint ambiguous. We had a brief look but gave up and headed for the relative shelter of the nearby woods and the next cache.
• The rain finally stopping around cache #075 with the sun even threatening to come out soon afterwards.

We were soon back at the Jeep and that's where the fun really started. We'd taken photos of all the numbers from the caches as you need 100 numbers to get the co-ords to the bonus cache. Some of the photos were blurred by rain on the lens of the camera and not readable. We were gutted to see we were short of the 100 required numbers. Aaaarrrrrgggggghhhhh!

We tried a PAF who very thankfully had the co-ords for the bonus cache (phew!) and off we set. We soon arrived at GZ and despite a good look around could not spot a hint item anywhere within 300ft of GZ. We did find a blue string hanging from a branch at the co-ords and realised we must have been given the co-ords of where the cache was, before it was moved on 4th May this year.

We tried two more PAF's and one was at work without access to their notes of the co-ords, the other was out caching and obviously without access to their computer. The last PAF did provide a rough description of the area the final cache was in and after looking at Memory Map, we suspected it was in a certain area of woodland we could see.

Time was running short now as we'd already wasted tons of time looking for the bonus and did not have the time for a brute search of the woodland, even though we were confident we'd find the cache if it was there.

Reluctantly we left for home and decided we'd have to grab the bonus cache the next time we are in the area. We've not idea when this might be as it's a long way from home and there are not enough other caches round here to bring us back anytime soon.

All in all a really excellent weekend of caching though which we both loved. We found 108 caches and DNF'd 6, which is not bad at all. According to the other logs, we'd walked around 24.5 miles in total. The walks were in some great rolling countryside and there was a decent variety of hides to keep the caching interest up.

Time for something very different: Caching in the Cotswolds

We could not decide on where to go caching on Saturday. The weather did not look too great all over the UK but seemed it might be better the further south you were.

We'd seen a new series of 40 or so caches on a nice looking circular walk in the Cotswold's come out a week or two ago so this sounded like it might be for us today. It's quite a bit further than we usually go, but after checking the approximate walking time with someone who had already done the caches it looked like it was eminently possible.

We did not arrive at the starting point until 11am as it did indeed take quite a while to get there, not helped being stuck behind a really slow car towing a caravan for most of the journey from the motorway. The road was too windy to get past them safely so we were stuck.

We parked up by the bonus cache dummy co-ords in the middle of the village and got our waterproofs on as it was raining lightly. The series is split into two loops, one to each end of the village. We decided to tackle the northern loop in the morning as it looked slightly longer, return to the Jeep for our sandwiches and then do the southern loop later on. Each cache has a clue in which then gives you the co-ords for the bonus cache.

As we approached the first cache, we realised it was the one you were supposed to do after you had finished the series and on the walk back to the car. Doh - looks like we'll be doing the series backwards, which we often seem to do.

After this cache, there was something like a 0.7 mile gap until the next cache (which was the last cache in the main series). We were chatting on the way and suspected the bonus cache was somewhere along this stretch as we could see no other reason not to have at least one other cache here. As we walked along, we spotted a really nice spot for a cache and Isaac saw a likely looking cache tree. A quick pop round the back of the said tree and we could see some camo bag sticking out of a hole :-). Bingo - we'd found the bonus cache!

We then carried on round the rest of the caches in the loop as intended. It was still drizzling but we had out waterproofs on and were nice and snug. All the caches were incredibly easy finds. We found this when we did the UK Mega series and wondered if all caches down south are this easy or just the ones on the bigger circular walks. Either way, we appreciated it as the last thing you want is a long search while on a long walk.

All too soon we arrived back at the Jeep for dinner. The rain had just about stopped and there were small glimpses of blue sky. We had our sandwiches, stocked up with more drinks for the next part of the walk and off we set.

The final loop had slightly more terrain to it as the bottom end of the walk was by some lovely woodland overlooking the whole area. When I say slightly more terrain, it was only a gentle slope and nothing much. Several more easy finds later and we were back at the Jeep.

It was about 4pm now so we decided to start heading home as it would take a few hours to get back, but not before a quick Sidetracked cache not far from where we parked.

Isaac then guided us back to Stow in the Wold and the main road north to the M40 by Warwick. He took us via a couple of quick drive-by's in Stow and then another Sidetracked in Moreton in the Marsh. We loved the towns in the area with their gorgeous yellow tinted stone buildings. Moreton was especially nice.

Just before we got to the M40, Isaac took us round the airfield at Wellesbourne to a quick cache. I was telling how I'd landed at Wellesbourne a few times now and that they had an old Vulcan bomber on the airfield which I think people are trying to restore. The road by the side of the airfield gave us a great view of the Vulcan, which we both enjoyed :-).

One final cache just by the M40 junction saw the total for the day at 47 finds. We'd have loved to find another 3 to get a round 50 finds for the day but we were too hungry and just wanted to get home now.

A very different than normal day out in an area we've never cached in before. We'll have to come this way more often as there are tons of caches to find.

A FTF I was not expecting

I'll quote from our log on the cache, which says it all:

We'd just arrived at the Tibberton School Halloween Bingo and my iPhone pinged with a new cache notification. I could not believe it as it was only about a mile away. I left Mrs Bolas Heathens doing my bingo cards while I popped out to see if I could get FTF on the cache.

I only had my iPhone on me and getting a decent data signal was awful but eventually I managed to get the co-ords of the cache. The GPS on it was insisting I was in the middle of Warrington and would not budge so I was wondering how the heck I'd find the cache.

I pulled up around the area I thought the cache would be and had a rummage in the glove compartment. Luck was with me as our old 60CSx was at the bottom - the only problem was the rechargeable batteries in it were dead. I spotted some spare alkaline ones near to the GPS so soon had it up and running and getting a fix. I put the co-ords in and was delighted to find my guessing was right and I was 35ft from the cache :-).

At this point another car came down the lane and stopped short of me by about 100ft in the middle of the lane. They flashed their headlights in the way I've heard certain canine loving people do it ;-). Oh no, and there's me just wanting to find a tupperware box in peace. I've no idea what the signal for "go away" is so just turned off all my lights and hoped for the best. It must have worked as they moved on down the lane, but not before a very slow pass of the Jeep.

Once the coast was clear I jumped out, walked the short distance to GZ and had a very quick find of the nicely hidden cache.

Not long after I was back at the bingo in time for half time refreshments. No prizes were won, but I'd got a FTF on this cache so was happy enough. I decided the leave the other cache for the daytime as I was not exactly wearing boots fit for walking down a bridleway in the dark safely.

Caching A Plenty Around Redditch

On Saturday we fancied a return visit to the Redditch area just south of Birmingham as there seems to be an explosion of new caches around there at the moment. I thought I'd found a lot in the area last weekend but a quick check of Memory Map revealed a ton more to do.

Isaac has finished school for half term so was free on Saturday, the weather was looking perfect and there were tons of caches to find. Perfect!

We aimed to start off with the Hagley Loop series, a set of 9 new caches along with a stand alone cache along the way, forming a nice circular walk. We parked up by the first one and off we set. We kept bumping into dog walkers on every part of the walk so had to wait them out before diving in for each cache. Nothing too taxing here and we were soon back at the Jeep and ready so set off for the short drive to the next caches for the day.

We parked up by the lovely church in the village of Belbroughton for the Belbroughton Bimble series. This is another circular walk of 10 caches, with an extra stand alone cache on the way round. This turned into another excellent walk in great countryside with a nice variety of hides and cache sizes to keep things interesting.

The only matter of note was a slight mishap we had on #10 in the series. We could not decide which side of the hedge this one would be on so as usual, when faced with a choice of two things, we picked the wrong one - doh!

Isaac then crawled under the hedge to the other side for an easy find. He then had the brainwave of throwing the cache over the hedge to me on the other side. A nice idea but he threw too low and the cache popped into the top of the hedge. We peered into the hedge for ages, shaking it with my walking pole and could not spot the cache anywhere.

We logged a Needs Maintenance log on the iPhone immediately just in case any other cacher's were doing the series and have email you about the mishap. We're gutted about losing the cacge and can only offer our sincere apologies as the cache will almost certainly need replacing. The cache owner has been very nice about it and is hoping to go out and replace the cache in the next few days - phew!

After we got back to the Jeep, it was a short drive to the three new caches in Catshill near Bromsgrove. All nice easy ones and we were soon on the M42 heading east to the new Morton Meander series to the east of Redditch.

We parked up by #1 and ate our sandwiches before setting off for the circuit of the 16 caches in the series. Another fabby walk with lots to see and do on the way. Things of note were:

• a sneaky hide on #6 that thankfully we'd seen before otherwise we might have missed it.
• loads of friendly cows right by #11. They must have thought we were the farmer as they all trotted over as we approached the field they were in. Not a bother though and we soon had the cache found and were on our way.
• a cache hung on a fence that Isaac initially thought was a padlock for some reason (I'm not giving anything away by saying this). He mentioned it and I said "why would someone hang a padlock on a random fence". He then twigged and had the logbook in hand in seconds.

With this series finished, we were on 40 finds for the day and we still had a bit of time left. A quick look at the caches on Memory Map and we decided to head for Redditch itself and some urban caching to see how we go. This would also leave us with a quick exit to the M42 and northwards to home.

We grabbed a quick one by a bus-stop on the way into town and then another quick one not too far from the road in some woods. The third cache has the most bizarre swap we've ever seen in it: a cast of someone's teeth. Why the heck would anyone leave this as a swap as I can't imagine who would want to swap anything for it.

The rest of the caches were all near supermarkets and near railway stations and nothing much to report on. Just as it had gone dark we bagged out 50th find of the day, so decided to call it a day and head home for some tea.

Another fab day out with some great walks in lovely areas. Can't beat this kind of caching.

A quick trip into Stafford and a quick cache!

I had to pop into Stafford this afternoon to pay some cheques in at the bank and this cache was on the way into town - how handy.

I did the cheques first and then spotted the entrance to the church car park as I drove up the road on the way home. After parking up I crossed the road and walked up into the beautiful churchyard.

The co-ords were bang on and lead me straight to GZ for a very easy find. After I'd put the cache back, I had a mooch around the churchyard and took a few photos of the lovely church in the sun.

That's Stafford cleared of caches again, for now ;-).

Canal caching near home

Over the last few weeks (and days!) several new caches have come out along the Shropshire Union Canal not too far from home. First there was the Wheaton Aston Extension series and then the Canal Walk series near Goldstone came out on Friday night.

I had a few hours spare on Sunday afternoon so set off armed with my bike to try and find them all.

I parked up by the canal bridge near Little Soudley and off I set. I wish I'd picked a different day than a Sunday for these caches though as the local angling club were holding a competition and there were fishermen every 20ft or so along the towpath. Trying to ride along it was like doing the hurdles, with all their long fishing poles blocking the path.

I could not spot the first cache quickly so decided to move on and look for it on the way back. The next cache was a nigthtmare as it was a micro in a random hedge. To make matters worse there was lots of ivy involved and a fisherman about 10ft from GZ. I soon gave up and moved on, muttering to myself about the cache.

Thankfully the third one was a nice easy find in a location I'd scouted out for our Mission Improbable - Cache Chase cache ages ago.

I returned to where I'd parked and quickly found the cache there. I'd initially discarded it as it was in a black plastic bag and looked like rubbish. It was only when I poked it with a stick that I heard the tell-tale thud sound of tupperware!

The last cache on this section was on a section of towpath that was officially closed as the bank had partially collapsed. It looked safe enough to me and nobody was around this part of the canal so I nipped in for a quick find.

A longish drive down lots of narrow country lanes later and I was parking up at the northern end of the Wheaton Aston canal series. I had decided to tackle these 7 caches in one go from here, even though some were very spread out and I could have saved a lot of time moving the Jeep along every so often. I'm glad I did as it was a lovely afternoon and I really enjoyed the bike ride :-).

The first one was a tricky find but I got there in the end. The remaining 6 were all easy enough but were fun hides with some hanging in trees etc etc.

After I'd ridden back to the Jeep I decided to go and pick off a new multi in Priorslee on the outskirts of Telford. A nice quick find of the urban nano here with some very unusual cannonballs along the edge of the road (the cache was called Magic 8 Ball - I bet you can guess where the cache was hidden).

By this time, I was due to pick Freya up from her friends house but I could not resist going back to look for the hedge micro as I was hoping all the fishermen had packed up and gone home by now. They had and the cache was a really quick find. Just goes to show how hard muggles make a cache to find.

That's all the new caches close to home found now so I'm off home for a lovely roast dinner :-).

Two Great Circular Walks Near Redditch

Isaac was at school on Saturday so I decided to go out and do the kind of caching I really like - good walking in great countryside.

A series of puzzle caches near Redditch that form a circular walk, followed by another circular walk of traditional caches by the same cache owner looked perfect.

I headed down the M6 and M5 and was soon parking up by the first cache which was an easy drive-by. Next I moved the Jeep a bit further along the lane and set off on foot for the puzzle series.

I can't really say too much about these as I obviously don't want to give the cache locations away. Some of the more interesting parts of the walk were:

• A good variety of cache container sizes, with quite a few of them being bigger boxes.
• Varied terrain with only a few ploughed fields to cross.
• A cache with some absolutely fabulous views over towards the Malvern hills.
• A field of curious cows who thankfully kept their distance.
• Nice quick finds with great hints if you need them.
• Some lovely woodland on two of the caches.

All too soon I'd completed the series, so moved the Jeep round to the start of the next circular walk. This set were traditional caches, with three puzzle caches thrown in for good measure. One of the puzzles was easy, the other I needed Freya's help and the third is found by finding the first two puzzles.

I soon realised I was following graham1876 round the series but suspected he had done them a lot earlier in the day. I stopped for my sandwiches at a cache with another great view of the Malverns and then pressed on with the rest of the caches.

All of the series were nice and easy finds, lots of variety and beautiful countryside to walk through. This is exactly the kind of caching I enjoy.

After I'd finished the second series and found the three puzzle caches, I spotted a nearby drive-by Joy-Jar cache so off I went in the Jeep to find it. Another really quick find here.

Next, I aimed for a cache by a windmill we'd missed out ages ago when in the area doing Cakemaker's nearby canal series. Try as I might I could not spot the nano, even with the very precise hint. It's got to be missing. I logged a DNF on it and not long after the cache was archived as it's gone missing in the past too so time for it to be put to bed.

Time was getting on a bit by now but just enough time to go and find a group of 4 caches on the edge of Bromsgrove that we'd missed out on our last visit to the area. On the walk down to the first one, I passed what must be the biggest ariel I've ever seen. It was right by a small house and not official looking at all. I don't know what the person from the house needs such a huge ariel for (it was on top of a mobile crane!).

I managed to find 3 of the 4 caches in this group. I had to give up on the last one as two female dog walkers came over the nearby field towards where I was and spotted me. They stopped and started to look very uncomfortable at me loitering around. The last thing I want to do is scare dog-walkers so I moved on.

I really must be getting home now, but I could just squeeze in a couple more caches couldn't it? Of course it could! A quick one on a canal towpath was followed by another one on a towpath. Then I did a quick Sidetracked cache followed by the last cache of the day at the Services area on the M42.

41 finds for the day, some excellent walking and I've hardly seen a soul all day long. Great stuff :-).

Our Caching Stats As Of 9 October 2009

We have not run any caching stats for ages so thought it might be fun to see the current status. It's a bit rough and ready as the milestones need adjusting as it seems to take them in the order you log them so some are not correct.

I see it also says we're one of the top finders of our own caches. That's because we adopted all MarcB's caches a while ago and had previously found them. We obviously don't log finds on caches we have hidden ourselves as that would be pointless.

A quick trip to Birmingham

I had to pop to the Apple Store in the Bullring in Birmingham as one of our wireless routers in the house packed up suddenly last night. As I was driving down the M6 I was thinking there are no city centre caches left for us to do. I then realised that the Cole Challenge cache we could not find on Sunday was no more than 2 miles from the Bullring (or thereabouts) so took the 'scenic' route via the cache.

I parked up close to the cache and walked the 0.15 to GZ. I'd had a hint on the cache after our DNF so this narrowed down our search area. It still took an age to find the cache and when I finally did find it, I kicked myself as it was on the only tree in the whole wooded area we'd not already checked.

I was thinking I better get to the Apple Store and then back home as I'm supposed to be working today but could not resist bagging the other loose end from Sunday's caching - the Ward End Park Bonus cache.

A short drive later and I was parking up for the bonus cache. I did not have a GPSr with me but did have my iPhone. The only problem being I only have the co-ords for the bonus cache on a scrap of paper in my pocket and I don't know how you can input co-ords into the iPhone. I thus checked the approximate direction and distance of the cache off TomTom before I jumped out of the Jeep and set off for a quick bit of naked caching.

I need not have worried as it was a really easy find in the obvious place and I did not need the GPS at all.

Now, to try and work out how to get from here to the Bullring using minimal TomTom as it's more fun that way. I set off in what I imagined was the direction of the city centre and was not far wrong as I was soon parking up by the lovely Selfridges building and heading off on foot.

On a final note, I did not have a pen with me for either cache and as they did not have pens in themselves, I had to sign both logs with a smudge of mud and add photos of this to my logs to prove my find.

Cole Challenge Series, Ward End Park and Bescot

We'd switched our normal day out caching to Sunday and were looking forward to trying the Cole Challenge, a new set of 16 caches along the banks of the River Cole in E/NE Birmingham. They looked to have lots of sneaky hides and something a bit more of a challenge - just the kind of thing we enjoy.

We set off and had intended to come off the M6 to the north of the caches near The Fort but as we drove along the M6 it was clear that the motorway exit we thought was here did not seem to exist. We ended up having to carry on to the M42 and then coming off by the NEC. Quite a bit of a detour but it was still early and the roads were quiet, so not a great problem.

We parked up not far from #4 in the series and got the bikes out of the Jeep. We had intended to do the series in sections, moving the Jeep round as we go and picking off caches near to where we park before moving on to the next section. As it turned out, it was easier to just do the whole series plus a few others in one go by bike.

The first cache was a quick find, although you'd struggle to get it if you were short. The next one we could not find so decided to have another look on the way back. We had just found the third cache when someone cycled up and said hello. It was Luke, who caches as m3vvb and whom I'd been chatting to on Facebook last night trying to work out the best way of tackling the series. We joined forces and did the rest of the caches with Luke, even though he'd already found some of them so just stood back to watch us search.

When we returned to the one we had just DNF'd, Isaac spotted it after a short search. A really nice hide which blends in perfectly. The rest of the series was uneventful apart from one DNF (at cache #8) and quite a few sneaky hides, which I won't go into detail about here as I don't want to spoil it for anyone who has not done the series.

At the end of the series, we did three other caches that were by the River and were on the way anyway. One, Bridge over the River Cole, we'd DNF'd the last time we were in the area (it had been muggled at the time I think) but was a quick find today.

We then made the long ride back to #8 for another look. After quite a long search (well, 10-15 minutes anyway) we still could not spot it. A micro in the woods with a hint that meant it could be anywhere is never going to be easy. It's a shame we could not get this one as it would have meant we'd finished the series, but never mind, that's life sometimes.

We said our goodbye's to Luke and headed off to the Jeep for our sandwiches. After this, we decided to go to the Ward End Park series - a set of 5 caches plus a bonus cache around a nice looking park not too far from the M6. We set off on our bikes and soon had all 5 caches bagged. We did a double take when we plotted the co-ords of the bonus cache as it was about a mile away and nowhere near the park. Hmmm, we're not going that way so that one will have to wait for a future visit.

We'd planned to finish the day with the new set of caches near Bescot - that's just by the RAC Building where the M6 and M5 meet, if you don't know the area. Isaac planned a route over to there, via a few quick and easy caches.

Two quick Sidetracked caches followed, then one called A Piece Of Cake, which was anything but the cache name and totally eluded us. We gave up after a short search as we did not like all the rubbish at GZ. We also had another DNF on a micro behind one of those horrible metal fences with bars everywhere. The cache could have been literally anywhere and as is usual with this kind of hide, we got bored and moved on. Not sure we'll be back to be honest as we don't like this kind of hide at all as it's not fun to look for.

Next on the list was one in the Grub Grab series. We'd seen this mentioned on one of the forums (or was it Facebook?) when the series came out and did not have high hopes for it but were pleasantly surprised. The cache was quite near a McDonalnds admittedly, but it was in a nice looking park just out of sight of McDonalnds and was a Regular sized box with some decent swaps in. Not bad at all for an urban cache and certainly much better than the usual nano you get in these situations.

We had yet another DNF at Sidetracked Tame Bridge - the cache was nowhere to be seen in the guard rail it was supposed to be in. It turns out someone must have muggled the cache and thrown it over a nearby fence as another cacher had spotted it there.

Finally it was time for the 4 caches along the wildlife area at the side of the Bescot railway depot. The first was a quick find, then we spotted a group of 20+lads racing motorbikes around the circular area where the remaining three caches were. There seemed to be quite a few bushes to hide the cache finding from them so we pressed on to see if it was possible to get the caches undetected. It was and all were nice quick finds.

Just time for a few more caches before we get back on the M6 northbound for home. A nano by a Kebab shop (why is there a cache here?), followed by another Grub Grab cache, this time outside a Pizza Hut. We then went off to find a quick drive-by near where one of the Walsall Cacher Meets had taken place.

We can squeeze one final cache in, just about, so headed off for an interesting one which was on top of what is probably the highest point in this part of Birmingham. The cache was clearly by the side of a church but all the church helpers were shutting up for the day and stood outside chatting before going some. Luckily there were some information boards nearby so we stopped to read these while we waited out the muggles. This made it worse as they then came over to tell us all about the history of the area and even popped into the church to get us some leaflets about it! All we wanted to do was find the cache, but we're glad they did stop to tell us about things as it was really interesting and really added to the cache and why we had been brought here.

38 finds for the day. We'd have loved to get 2 more to make it a round 40 but our Sunday Roast was going to be on the table by the time we got home and it was just too tempting.

Crewe and Nantwich Circular and a few other caches

On Saturday, Isaac was at school so we'd planned our main day out caching for Sunday instead. It looked like it was going to be a nice day on Saturday so I decided to head off and try and complete the Crewe and Nantwich Circular series as some of it was on our closest to home Not Found page.

I dropped Isaac off at school and headed off towards the first cache, which was the southernmost one in the series. I parked up at the end of a dead end road and walked down the track and over the fields to GZ. A quick scout around soon revealed the cache in a nice spot by a small stream.

Next I headed off to clear up a DNF from a few weeks ago. It was a micro in ivy in an area covered in ivy. Thankfully I'd had a small pointer from the cache owner so was able to narrow down my search to a smaller area and soon spotted the cache. How the heck I'd missed it last time I don't know, but I seem to be in good company with the DNF as several other high finders have failed on it too.

The next few caches were up the west side of Nantwich and were all nice and easy with some decent length walks to get to them. The last of these was down as a multi cache but had a logbook in each stage. I could not decide if it should really be two separate Traditional caches, but I guess it does not really matter.

Another previous DNF was next on the list and sure enough I soon had the cache in hand. I'd been looking on the other side of the bridge last time as that was where the GPSr was trying to take me. I then set off over the fields for the next cache in this circular walk but the farmer had recently trimmed the hedge and the cache was nowhere to be seen. The wind was whipping a gale over the flat, open fields and I was not enjoying myself so decided to leave the rest of this walk for a nicer day and move on to a new area.

I could not resist popping up to Shakerley Mere, just north of Holmes Chapel as we'd totally missed two new caches there the last time we were in the area. We'd literally driven right past the woods they are in on the way to other caches, blissfully un-aware that they were there. Two nice quick finds were had - what a lovely spot for a cache too. I had a lovely walk around the Mere in between the two caches.

More DNF clearup's followed with a trip into Holmes Chapel for one we did not have time for last time and then the final three Cheshire Railings caches that we'd not done last time - or rather we'd DNF'd the first two and totally missed going for the third.

By this time I'd done a grand circle round the Holmes Chapel area and was back in Sandbach. Lots of new caches in this area so what a bit of fortuitous planning, even if I do say so myself ;-).

A quick one on the Wheelock Rail Trail (an old railway line that is now a lovely cycleway) was followed by a DNF at Sandbach Station. The cache was in a laurel bush at the side of some playing fields in a park. As I arrived, the coast was clear so off I went to look through the bushes. As I was searching some young lads arrived to play football right by the laurel bush I was behind. Hmmmm - only a matter of time before I start getting strange looks as a lone male in some bushes appearing to be watching young lads. Time for a hasty exit methinks... (I'm pretty sure the cache was not there anyway).

I opted to get out of the urban areas now and head off for the nearby Missing Pieces series. Not much to report here apart from lots of easy finds, a quick rainshower and then a DNF at the last one. The hint said "leave no stone unturned" and I didn't leave any stones unturned. I also did not find the cache and can't think where it is, unless it's missing.

Time was getting on by now and I still had the 5 Crewe and Nantwich Circular caches down the east side of Crewe to do so off I headed.

The first was a lovely walk through a field of HUGE maize which was great fun. I nearly missed the cache as I was expecting it to be magnetic given where it was hidden, but it was just lying on the ground under the item at GZ.

I then walked down the PF on the other side of the road from this cache and onward to the Little End and Big End caches. I think the cache owner had intended Little End to be the last one in the series but then decided to put out a bigger cache for the final cache. You have to find Little End to get the co-ords for Big End, which is then a short walk away. Highlight of the walk was catching a glimpse of the lovely Haslingden Hall - a fantastic timber framed building.

Just two more for the series now. The first was a longer walk along the edge of a railway line, first through woodland and then on a boardwalk over some lovely wetlands. The cache was a nano (not sure why it's not a much bigger container in such a rural location, but hey, it's a smiley).

The final cache of the day was a DNF from last time as the cache was missing (or was it - read on!). The hint mentioned a Beech tree so I'd swatted up on my leaves so I knew which trees to look at in the woods. Little did I know virtually every tree there was a beech - doh! A systematic search around GZ soon paid dividends though and I had the cache in hand. The odd thing was I think it must have been the original cache as the logbook was signed by all sorts of people. The cache owner had checked the old cache was missing and placed a temporary micro for now in it's place. The cache I found was a small and not a micro so I suspect there is now two caches in the woods.

That's the Crewe and Nantwich Circular series finished now and it's just about teatime so I'll head off home to get set up for the day out with Isaac tomorrow.

24 finds in total and some great walking.

Canal caching on the Warwickshire border

Isaac had a day off Saturday school this weekend so we both were looking forward to a great day out caching together. The weather was looking good due to the high pressure system that is sat over the UK at the moment so we settled on a set of caches along the Oxford Canal right by the border of Warwickshire with Northampton.

We soon arrived at the first cache in the hamlet of Marston Doles. As we drove up, we spotted some handy parking right by the canal bridge - perfect! We got our bikes out of the Jeep and off we set.

The first cache was a nice easy one to get us started. There was only one place it could be and indeed that's where it was. We then headed off along the canal towpath picking up caches as we went. All nice easy finds and all nice sized boxes, just the way we like them.

We'd planned the first part of the day to be a circular bike ride, coming off the canal near Priors Hardwick and then up to the village and back to where we started via footpaths across the fields. We were not sure if we'd manage to get the bikes down the paths on the return leg but we need not have worried as most of it was hard pack tracks, with only a few fields to walk the bikes through along the way.

Once back at the Jeep, we got back on the towpath for the 4 caches to the north of where we'd parked. The first one was muggle central when we arrived so we decided to save it for the return leg. The other three were nice easy finds - the only thing of note was a collapsed towpath at one point, making the path only about 1ft wide. On the return leg, the first cache was deserted so we had a nice quick find.

Next, we drove round to the village of Priors Hardwick to grab a quick cache by the beautiful village church.

A short drive down the road and we were at our first of the Alphanumeric Northants series. This seems to be a mirror of Messe's excellent Alpha Quest in Oxfordshire, which we'd enjoyed finishing absolutely ages ago. We're trying very hard not to get drawn into this series as well as Messe's one had us doing stupid things like driving from Shropshire to Cambridge to Winchester to Oxford, all in a day and all just to pick up two essential TB's we needed for the series.

After a short drive down to the next canal stage at the start of the Spice series, we stopped to have our sandwiches. Suitably fortified we set off on our bikes along the towpath for more caches. Nothing much to report along here apart from a very thorny path with hawthorn bits and pieces all over the place. It was only a matter of time before we got a puncture and indeed just before the last cache of this stretch Isaac got a front tyre puncture.

We stopped to mend it and noticed his back tyre had gone too. Some time later I had them both fixed and off we set, a bit more carefefully this time. Not careful enough though as he had yet another puncture within a few minutes :-(. We walked the bikes up to the bridleway over the fields (which was the quickest route back to the Jeep) and stopped to fix the puncture. I then spotted that I'd got a front tyre one myself - hmmmm!

With about an hour wasted on punctures in total we were very glad to be off this section of towpath and were soon back at the Jeep.

Just time for a few more caches before heading home so we drove round to the next section of canal caches, hoping the towpath would be better here (it was!).

As we pulled up, the area looked familiar as we were sure we'd been here to do other caches absolutely ages ago. We walked down the path to the canal and sure enough, we'd been here to do a set of Oxford Canal caches by a cacher called theblack. We had five caches along this part of the canal to do and apart from the first one, all were nice and easy as I think whoever had set them had re-used some of theblack's locations. Everything was *very* familiar to us both.

Time was getting on by now so we headed back for the Jeep for the drive home. Isaac was navigating and took us via a final two caches along yet another canal towpath. This time we walked them as we could not be bothered getting the bikes out one more time and fancied stretching our legs before the drive home anyway.

The first was a quick find, the second took a bit longer but was a belter of a hide and easily the best hide of the day.

40 finds for the day, which is very satisfying. We've both had a cracking day out (despite the punctures).

A Sunday afternoon dog walk around Haughmond Hill, plus a new cache...

We were child free this afternoon so we set off to visit the local dog's home to see about a new dog. Unfortunately they had nothing to suit so we'll have to try again another time.

As we had both the dogs with us in the car and the closest unfound to home was at Haughmond Hill, which is a perfect dog-walking area, we decided to kill two birds with one stone.

We parked up in the main car park and set off along the paths through the woods to the cache. It took me quite a while to grab the cache as the nearby path was busy with Sunday afternoon walkers and I kept having to stop searching while they went past. Pesky muggles!

I eventually found the cache in the really obvious place that I'd looked at first, but obviously not hard enough.

We then carried on our walk to make it circular. The dogs absolutely loved the walk in a place they have not been to many times.

After dropping the dogs off at home and having a cuppa, we set off for another walk near home to explore an area where they have just put in a new pedestrian bridge over the River Meese. We took a cache along just in case there was anywhere suitable for it.

We've wanted to put a cache out here ever since our other Meesechievous caches were set so we're glad the area has finally been smartened up and the cache is now in place.

I've submitted the cache this morning so let's see how long it takes to get published.

A clear-out of the new caches around Wolverhampton

Isaac had his first Saturday at his new school today so as the weather was so nice I decided to pop out on my own and have a day out caching. Lots of new caches seem to have come out around Wolverhampton so it seemed like a logical place to aim for.

The first target for the day was a series of about 10 caches called Moseley Meander. On the way I picked up a quick drive-by by the M54 and then was soon in the Country Park car park getting ready for a nice walk around the Moseley caches. I recognised the area from a previous cache of snerdbe's which we did in the very early days of our caching.

The first cache was an easy find - I noted that the Soggy Campers had found it already today, so was wondering how far ahead of me as it was still quite early. I did not have to wait long as I spotted them as I walked up to the second cache. Great to meet you both.

They mentioned they could not find this one and returned to it with me to double check. Sure enough it's nowhere to be seen, so that's the first DNF of the day logged!

I walked on to the next cache with them, chatting away about caching as we went. Another easy find was had here before we both went on our respective ways. I then carried on along the loop of caches back to the car park with nothing much to report other than lots of very easy finds.

I then drove round to a closer place for the final two caches of the series and walked in for two more quick finds. Next, I had the new Essington Moat caches on the list and so off I set. I could not spot the first one at all despite a really good hunt round the area of GZ. That's another DNF to add to my logs!

Thankfully the next two caches were nice and easy with the final one being in some woods I'm sure we've been to for a snerdbe cache a long time ago. As I was walking back to the Jeep the familiar face of Andy from AndynElaine was coming down the field. Great to meet you again :-).

Next I had planned a few quick drive-by's before heading off into deepest Wolverhampton for more caches. One of these was at the end of a trail of 4 caches which seemed to not use any marked paths on my OS map. As I arrived I saw they were connected by a nice hard pack path and were along a lovely linear nature reserve. The sun had just come out and I could not resist a beautiful walk along the old canal to find them.

All nice quick finds. As I was walking back to the Jeep I could see a couple in some bushes by a cache I'd found earlier so crept up behind them and shouted "HAVE YOU FOUND IT YET?". After nearly jumping out of their skins (:-)) I was to meet Suebedz. Great to see you too! That's three caching teams bumped into today and it's not yet midday :-).

A quick and unremarkable Sidetracked cache followed before I headed off to Willenhall to try for a new series there. On the way I got a PAF call from some caching friends from Newcastle Under Lyme on a cache we did ages ago near Bolton. Thankfully I could remember where the cache was and had them with cache in hand in no time.

I struggled to find anywhere to park for the Willenhall caches and it was taking longer to park up than it was to find the cache. Double yellow lines, double red lines, one way systems, road works - they all conspired to make this a frustrating part of the day so I decided to knock it on the head after 3 finds and move on to somewhere quieter (and more rural).

On the way I could not resist a quick return to find the two DNF's we had a few months ago on snerdbe's canal series on the west side of Wolverhampton. Both were quick finds for me today and I managed to bag another cache at an old bridge on the way between the two.

I'd been looking forward to Scooby, Scrappy and MP's new cache series near Pattingham all day as they always have great hides and are always a good walk. I was not to be disappointed today either!

I started by parking up at the southern end of the caches and heading off up the Monarch's Way on a lovely circular walk round just over half of the series. Highlight of the walk was coming round the corner of some woods to be confronted with a lovely field of sunflowers, which looked absolutely fabulous. Lowlight of the walk was going base over bayonet in my enthusiasm to get closer to the sunflowers once I'd seen them. I'd glad no-one was around to see my attempt at unpowered flight ;-).

After I got back to the Jeep I drove round to the southern end of the top part of the series via a lane with a ford that was marked as "not suitable for cars". This is normally a good sign that the lane is *very* much suitable for 4x4's and indeed this one was. I loved driving along through the water in the ford, which extended down the road for quite some length.

After finding somewhere safe to park, I set off for the final 3 caches of the series, which were all easy finds. The last one was very close to somewhere we've been in the past for a Washers cache that is now archived (or at least I assume it is). Somewhere along the series I found the bonus cache, which was in a ready made spot for a cache.

I still had an hour or so spare so headed off to find the 4 remaining caches around Chillington and Brewood, near to the in-laws house. All nice quick finds, with the last one being my favourite as it was a nice long walk into the middle of nowhere in particular and was perfectly peaceful.

37 finds for the day and a lovely day out in some lovely countryside.

An impromptu trip to Stafford

I had to pay some cheques in at the bank and the nearest branch is in Stafford, so I decided to find a few caches on the way home to make the trip a bit more interesting.

After I'd finished at the bank I headed off for the first two caches which were by the River Sow, near the town centre. I parked up at Morrisons and walked along the river to bag the two easy caches.

Next, I moved the Jeep round to park close to a canal in the suburbs and had a short walk to another cache. From there I went off to find another canal cache. There was no obvious place to park for this one as it was set by a narrowboater so I ended up at the end of a dead end lane and walking through a farmyard (which I later realised was not a Public Footpath!) to the canal. Thankfully the cache was a quick find and I was back at the Jeep really quickly.

A short drive up the M6 to the north side of Stafford saw me looking for a quick cache by a memorial to an American WW2 fighter pilot who crashed his plane here whilst attempting to avoid hitting the houses in the town.

It was now time to start heading home so off I set, but not before grabbing another 3 quick caches. All easy finds and a lovely longer walk for the last cache to a great little hidden location I'd not have known about otherwise.

Last Cache Finally Found on The Wrekin

Every time we go up The Wrekin you can almost guarantee that a few days later, a new cache will be published up there. It's happened a few times in the past now, which is really uncanny and almost if someone is watching over us (which of course they are not).

Anyway, the last time this happened we decided to leave the cache as we knew as part of the first week at Isaac's new school the whole school goes on a walk up The Wrekin. Families are encouraged to come along too so I knew it would be a great time to bag the last cache we have to do up there.

We had a lovely walk up the hill, chatting away to lots of new parents. As we got to the summit, you could see the whole school gathered round the new Year 7 pupils cheering them and getting their photos taken. They then all set off down the hill to the waiting coaches and back to school, so myself and Mrs Bolas Heathens headed off the short distance to the cache.

I'd seen it was an unusual container and that the cache was set for someone's 30th birthday, so was expecting a fake cake or something like that. I thus nearly passed the cache over as it was in fact something very different. I won't say any more here as I don't want to spoil it for future finders.

We then headed off down the hill, chatting away to more parents and drove round to the school for refreshments. As we arrived, we realised we had forgotten there was a charity event on and quite a few celebrities were taking part. Off we went to see who we could spot, which should be interesting as I never usually take any notice as to who is who on TV.

We managed to spot Chris Tarrant, Nick Hancock and Robert Powell from Casualty. There were a few other faces that looked familiar but I've no idea who they were.

Cheshire Railings / Crewe & Nantwich Circular Walk

Isaac has started secondary school this week and so we decided to go for an easier day out caching this weekend. Starting next week, he'll be doing Saturday activities at school so won't be able to come caching as often as we'd like. Hopefully this is not the end of an era and he'll still have enough energy (and time!) left to come out caching on Sunday's, even if it's every couple of weeks.

We've been watching all the new caches build up in the Sandbach, Congleton and Holmes Chapel areas for the last few months, so decided today was the day to go and find them as they often appear on our closest to home not found front page.

We were not sure what to expect as a series based on metal railings does not sound that inspiring. Needless to say our fears were right and they were all in very generic locations by road junctions. The downside was quite a few of them seemed to be in very thorny areas too - lots of hawthorn bushes and other prickly things near railings to scratch your hands and arms with.

Having said that, I know the cache owners have taken time and money to put these caches out so we don't want to sound unduly negative as we do appreciate the smileys.

There was not really much to report other than what I've said above. In between the railing caches, we did some Post Haste ones, which were even easier as they are all hide a key's on the back of red post boxes. Caching really does not get much easier as they were all instant finds :-).

On the way, we did do a really nice cache on the South Cheshire Way part way up the north side of Mow Cop and in a really nice spot with views over the whole of Cheshire. Easily the best cache of the morning.

By lunchtime we were getting a bit bored so stopped off for lunch and an ice cream at Brereton Country Park near Holmes Chapel. Suitably fortified, we headed off towards Sandbach to try some different caches (via one or two remaining railing caches - well, we can't just drive past them if we know they are there can we?).

We were soon starting on the Crewe & Nantwich (C&N) circular walk caches, which were much more our thing. Some decent walks, nice locations and generally caching as it should be. Our only grumble would be there are too many micros in places that could hold a larger cache, but that's not a great problem.

In between the C&N caches, we stopped to do a cache at a great location where the farmer builds a sculpture out of bales of straw every year. In the past they have done a rocket, Jodrell Bank and a windmill. This year it's a HUGE Big Ben, complete with working clocks. Very impressive indeed!

I'll shut up now as I'm beginning to sound like a right moaner and that's not my intention at all. Not the best day out caching we've had, but definitely not the worst either. At least most of the caches were really easy and thus quick finds.

On the upside, we did get 40 finds for the day and did clear quite a few caches off the closest to home not found list.

A walk around Buntingsdale Hall

I was up early this morning and as it was such a glorious day I thought I'd go out and get our closest not found to home - BEE about Buntingsdale Hall, which is just by Market Drayton and set round a lovely old country house.

We'd actually scouted the location out for a possible hide ourselves ages ago but never quite got round to taking it further so it's great to see a cache here now. The cache was a multi, with a sneaky first stage leading to a nice big ammo box.

I parked the Jeep in the same place I'd used for the nearby Drayton Daytona cache and set off on foot. I was soon at stage 1 and had a very quick find of the sneaky nano as the co-ords were bang on.

A short walk later and I was at GZ for the final cache for an easy find. Loved the woods by the final cache and the interesting old buildings strewn round the fields - obviously part of the old Tern Hill WW2 airfield.