Whitchurch Whereigo - should it stay or should it go?

We've had a Whereigo cache live for quite a while now. It's a nice walk around the North Shropshire town of Whitchurch and takes a light-hearted look at the town's historic clock-making industry (it's more interesting than it sounds - honest!).

We have a self-imposed rule of not hiding micros, so in the case of this cache, we had our work cut out for us as there are not a lot of places that are:

• Nice locations
• Close to the town center
• Able to take a small or better still, a regular size cache

In fact, we only found the one place that fits all the criteria and it's been getting some nice comments.

The original Regular sized cache was muggled after a few months so we replaced it by a Small sized cache in the same place, but pushed further in so it was less obvious to muggles. This has also been muggled recently, so it's obviously time to move the hide a bit.

Our dilemma now is if we do move it, we'll almost certainly have to make the cache a micro which we really do not want to do.

On the other hand, most if not all of the likely suspects have already done the cache so we're wondering if it's worth the effort to replace the cache. Maybe we should just archive it and chalk it up to experience?

Jeep Challenge cache muggled and a FTF

A local cacher contacted us late last week as they could not find our Jeep Challenge cache. After checking they had correctly solved the puzzle I gave some more hints about how to find the cache.

They went back and still could not find the cache. Hmmm ... it *should* be an easy find. I feared the worst and popped over yesterday afternoon to find the cache had indeed gone :-(. There was a brand new fence on both sides of the green lane the cache was hidden on and I suspect a farm worker has discovered the cache and taken it with them.

I have a few contacts in that area so will ask around and see if I can find out what happened to the cache but at this stage it does not look promising. In the meantime we've had to archive the cache as it's not an easy one to replace as we need 4 Jeep TB's, one of each of the colours to put in it.

Feeling thoroughly deflated, I returned home to see a brand new cache had just been published quite close to home. Tea was just about ready, so after eating I popped over to look for the new cache.

The cache was a nice quick find in the obvious place and I was FTF :-). It was by a new cache setter too - always good to see new people start to hide caches.

A Sunday morning stroll round Castle Pools

When we got back from a day caching around Manchester on Saturday evening, we spotted a new cache not too far from home which looked like a good one.

On Sunday morning, the children were settling down to watch a film, but it was a glorious day outside and they should not be indoors missing it. I know a nice easy way to sort that out - a quick trip out to find the new multi :-).

We parked up and set off for stage 1 along the side of one of the three big pools. A nice quick find by Isaac. Detailed noted, we set off for stage 2, which turned out to be sneakier than we were expecting but very good nonetheless.

The last stage was found by Isaac after eliminating other possibilities. It was then a short walk up a nearby hill to the final cache and another easy find.

A really well thought out and interesting multi in a great spot.

Alkington Nature Reserve and assorted South Manchester caches

We decided to try the Alkington Nature Reserve caches near Middleton and then move on down the M60 towards the Romiley and Poynton areas today. Lots of potential caches to hit and areas we'd been to before so no problems finding our way around.

We parked up in the road opposite the Nature Reserve and set off on our bikes. We'd checked with the cache owner during the week just in case bikes were not allowed in the reserve - they were :-).

There were something like 20 caches hidden in the reserve, on a (sort of) circular route. Most were micros but some were smalls. All were very easy finds with absolutely no problems at all. The hardest part of the series was finding our way round the caches using the many paths and tracks within the reserve.

After we'd finished, we did a quick and easy drive-by on the way into Middleton. Next was the St Leonards cache not far from the center of town. We drove up the very old (and very rickety - is that a word?) road to the top of the hill where the church was. The cache was a quick find, right in the middle of the graveyard.

Isaac was joking that the church could easily be part of a Greater Manchester Church Gems series (a play on the Shropshire Church Gems series) as it was a really beautiful building. The views from GZ were fab too and pretty much panoramic. The light today was really good and we could literally see for miles.

Next, we re-positioned down the M60 to Romiley to tackle the Romiley Stroll series. We always like coming back to this area as it's so close to Stockport but yet a total world apart. Great scenery and tons of history - that's apart from the fact that there is the River Goyt nearby so there is wild garlic around everywhere this time of year!

A nice walk round the caches and no trouble with the finds. We also did the Grandma's House cache that was nearby and was one we'd been meaning to find for ages.

After we got back to the Jeep, we had our soup and sandwiches before heading off to Poynton to tackle some of the newer caches there. On the way we stopped at Pete Numbers' Scotland or England? caches, which was an easy one.

Poynton caused us quite a bit of trouble as the caches were all set by new(ish) cachers and the placement of some of them was not great:

• One was a micro in an ivy covered post right by the roadside. To make matters worse, the traffic waiting for the traffic lights to change was sat night by GZ. Searching was near on impossible as we started to get some very funny looks.
• One was in an ivy covered tree at the fenceline behind what looked like some elderly people's bungalows. Our searching could so easily have been interpreted as snooping on the old people so we knocked it on the head and moved on.

We've logged DNF's on the suspect ones with a few well meant comments about them. The cache owners have thankfully taken this as it was intended and the first one has been moved to a more suitable area and the second one now has a *much* better hint. Result!

We then re-positioned again to Hale Barns to do a new set of caches that had come out in areas I used to play as a child and later, go listening to loud rock music with my mates. Lots of nostalgia on these ones - I was keeping Isaac entertained with running tales of my exploits at each location.

Just time now to nip into the centre of Altrincham and clear up a DNF on what should be a very easy find outside a pub I used to drink in as a (late-ish) teenager.

39 finds so far so to make it up to 40, we drove out to Dunham to do a quick Sparrow Boys cache. Usually their caches are anything but quick as they have the sneakiest and best-crafted caches of any hider we know.

The first one was a small so we were confident in an easy find and sure enough Isaac spotted it immediately. What a fabulous hide too - I can't say any more here as I'd spoil it, but if you are in the area, make sure you try it - it's well worth it.

There was another one 0.35 along the old railway line, so we could not resist. A short walk later and we were struggling to find this one (a sneaky nano). We eventually got it though and what a great hide again.

Now, we really must get going home as we're both getting hungry. 41 finds for the day and a very satisfying day out once again.

2 FTF's today!

Two new caches came out last night that were not too far from home.

This morning it was such a nice day I thought I'd pop out to go and look for them. We've all but given up chasing FTF's seriously but we thought we might be in with a chance.

On the way to the first one, I had a PAF call from a cacher stuck on the Charter's Moss cache on the Witton Weavers Way in Lancashire. I described where we'd found it and he still could not find it. I then realised I'd seen a co-ord change notification email for that cache this morning. I asked if they had mobile net access (they had not) so I offered to look it up and get back to them. This I did and they soon found it :-).

My good deed for the day done, I was just about arriving at the parking location for the first cache, at Cop Mere near Eccleshall. I had a lovely walk over the fields at the side of the mere to GZ and an easy find - FTF too. It was the first cache by this cacher and a nice one too!

A short drive southwards and I was parking up for the second cache. This cache is by a new cache setter who seems to always hide the caches on private land. This one was no exception and I had to sneak down a track I should not be on and into some woods I did not think I should be in, all in order to bag the cache. It was another FTF.

Just up the road was one final cache. We'd actually already found this one, but the cache owner thought it was missing and archived it. When they realised it was still there, they set it up as a new cache, so we had to go to the same place, find the same box to claim a new find.

Then, it was a short(ish) drive back home, via our Behind Enemy Lines - Hinstock cache, which had had a DNF on it. Sure enough, the cache was still in place and nicely hidden.

A quick lunchtime caching session

The weather was beautiful all morning so by lunchtime I could not resist popping out to bag a few new caches.

The first was in Coalbrookdale, near Ironbridge and by our friends The Pirates Of Shropshire.

The most obvious place to park was a Pay & Display and as time was short, I paid my 50p so I could go the short distance to the cache and not waste any more time finding somewhere to park that was free. Always a pleasure to do caches in this area by the River Severn as you are virtually guaranteed great scenery and at this time of year, the lovely aroma of wild garlic.

Then it was off to a part of Telford we'd not been to before for the last two caches. One was a multi but the new cacher had given away too many details on the cache page, so we turned it into a quick drive-by Traditional.

Last of the quick trip out was a cache by the lovely (I'll leave you to decide if I'm being sarcastic here ;-)) Telford Shopping Centre. Another quick find.

Now to get back home and get some work done!

Our 6000th find: Jungle Book and Wallace & Gromit series

We'd done a few caches during the week with the aim of making our 6000th find achievable this weekend. Only 22 caches to find to get the milestone today, so we picked what looked like a nice area and a set of caches that were getting good logs.

We don't usually go this far up the M6 caching, but we made an exception for these. Isaac was navigating using Memory Map and took me a way I was not expecting to the cache parking area: approaching from the west rather that the east.

We got kitted up and set off on our walk, with the aim of doing the Jungle Book series first. After about 0.3 of the 0.4 walk to the first cache, I glanced at my GPSr to see the distance to go going up rather than down. Hmmmm...

I then took a look at Memory Map and realised our mistake. Not a problem though as we'll just do the Wallace & Gromit series now and do the Jungle Book ones after lunch.

The walk was absolutely fabulous as most of it was alongside the River Brock and there was wild garlic everywhere. None of the caches were too taxing, but they were all nicely hidden and with a good mix of containers and hides.

All too soon we were at the bonus cache on the Wallace & Gromit series, which we found after a short search. We picked some wild garlic to take home as Isaac wanted to use some in the Sunday dinner he was planning to cook Mrs Bolas Heathens tomorrow on Mothers Day.

After some soup and sandwiches at the picnic area by the car park, we set off to do the Jungle Book series. This was a similar format to the earlier series, but in the opposite direction along the River Brock.

Lots of nice hides and locations with easy finds were the order of the day. Part way round, we veered off to the other side of the river to pick up a very sneakily hidden Traditional cache that was not part of the Jungle Book series.

With all the details we needed gathered, we headed off to find the bonus cache. Without giving too much away, we'd actually almost walked past it doing the Wallace & Gromit series earlier so knew where we needed to be. It was a steep and slippery climb up to the cache but well worth it as it was a nice hide and more importantly, it was our 6000th find :-).

With both series complete, we had time to go and find some more local caches. Isaac suggested picking off as many drive-by's as we could in the time, which sounded like an excellent plan.

He navigated us down lanes I've never been down before and to places I'd never even heard of, but we managed to bag lots more caches. Highlights of these included:

• A visit to the remains of a Roman baths in the Roman town of Ribchester.
• Seeing the Lightening and Camberra gate guardians at BAE Salmesbury.
• Having to cross a very smelly field that had just had muck spread all over it.
• A nice hide in a well crafted log, with an end that moved to one side.

We'd planned the Preston Geo-Post Office cache as the last one of the day as it was right by the M6 and a handy way of getting to home quickly.

A fantastic day out in beautiful countryside. 35 finds for the day and our 6000th find completed too.

A quick cache at the NEC

We had some free tickets to the Homebuilding and Renovation Show at the NEC so stopped by for a quick cache on the way into the show.

Handily enough, the cache was literally half way on the walk from the car park to the show hall (I could not have planned it better myself!). The clue indicated it was a bench cache so we were hoping no-one was sat on it as it was a nice sunny day and it is a nice spot for a sit down.

Our luck was in and we managed to palm the cache in between passing muggles.

Newport By Numbers: Is it still there?

We had an email from a new cache finder who has 19 finds yesterday. They had done all the legwork on our Newport By Numbers cache but could not find the cache.

What they described sounded like the right area to be looking but we know the cache can be quite a tricky one to find. This is deliberate as we suspect quite a few dog-walkers go past GZ and we don't want the cache being found accidentally.

Anyway, the conundrum was do we go and check on the cache, given it was a relative newbie and they could easily have missed it or do we wait for another DNF before checking on it.

As luck would have it, I needed to go into town for some petrol so made a diversion on the way to check on the cache. Sure enough, it was tucked up all snug in it's hiding place and waiting for someone to come and find it.

2 * FTF's, 1 * FTDNF and then 1 * FTF!

This morning, as I was settling down to the day's work I spotted three caches within 10 miles of home that had just come out. I could not resist.

10 minutes later and I was at GZ for the first one, by the Shropshire Union canal in a field. I scanned all around the abandoned hut at the side of the field but could not find the cache. I gave up and went on to the second cache, which was not far away.

For the second cache, it was a 0.35 walk over some very flat fields. I was soon at GZ and had a quick find of the nicely hidden cache. Just when you think you have seen all variations on a hide, a new one comes along!

I then returned to the Jeep and went back to check again on cache 1, but still could not find it.

A short drive later and I was nearing the third cache. It was in some lovely woodland that we had eyed for a cache hide ourselves ages ago but never got round to taking it further. Anyway, the woodland turned out to be just as lovely as I was expecting and I soon had the cache in hand.

When I got back home, I emailed the cache owner of the one I could not find for any further clues they may have. An hour or so later they replied to apologise that they had had problems with the cache and had only actually hidden it an hour or so *after* I had been to look for it - doh!

I dashed out again, confident I knew all the places to look for it now and sure enough, found the cache in double-quick time.

That's now 3 FTF's for the day - very satisfying :-).

An impromptu caching session around Stone

I was sat in the office working all day Monday, looking out of the window at the beautiful weather and wishing I was out walking instead.

It came to 4pm and with my Inbox zero'd, I could wait no longer. A nice set of 9 caches on a 5 mile round walk in the hills behind Stone came out a few days ago, which looked perfect!

I was soon at the first cache, which was a quick and easy drive-by. I then re-positioned for two more drive-by's and then set off on foot up the hill to the next cache. Another quick find after walking though a rather muddy farmyard.

I then back-tracked to the other side of the road and the next section of the trail. The first one here was in a beautiful little dingle, with the first signs of bluebells coming though all around. I have to say, dingle's at this time of year (or perhaps a few weeks later) are my absolute favourite location for a cache.

I then climbed up the path out of the dingle and up to the top of the hill half a mile away, where the next cache was. Another quick find with great views all around - Cannock Chase, The Wrekin, Welsh hills and most of North Shropshire and Cheshire were all in clear view. Fabulous!

After that, it was a quick find of the three final caches in the series: a micro, a nano and finally a small sized cache back up in the hills (but on the other side to where I was earlier).

It was not quite dark yet so I thought I'd pop the few miles up the road to try the new cache at Trentham Gardens and then reccie the 4/4.5 cache high above the Beech caves.

Trentham had shut for the day but I saw a group of joggers jump the gate and go off running so assumed access was ok on foot. I climbed up through the woods to the monument at the top of the hill, where the cache was. I found the cache after a short search and climbed back down to the Jeep.

A short drive later I was pulling up at Beech caves by the M6 in the dark. I did not think I'd be able to get the cache as you really need rope etc etc as the cache is at the top of a big cliff high above the caves. I set off with headtorch and a handheld portable lighthouse to check out what was required in anticipation of a return visit.

As I got to GZ the cache looked do-able from below so I climbed up to the top to see how it looked from up there. There appeared to be quite a few tree roots to use as handholds and a shelf by the cache, so I reckoned I could get it now.

Sure enough, with a bit of care, it was an easy grab. I took the cache back up to the top to do the business before returning it to it's hidey-hole.

A very satisfying few hours caching in some lovely countryside.

2 new local caches to find

It was the middle of Sunday afternoon and I still had not got rid of the caching bug for the week, so had to go out and find a couple more caches.

Luckily, there were two new ones not far from home - one on the Shropshire Union canal between Adderley and Market Drayton and one just north of Audlem in Cheshire.

Freya was at a loose end, so we put our bikes into the Jeep and headed off for the first cache. We parked to the north and set off for the 0.67 ride down the towpath to GZ. A really nice spot for a cache with nothing but tranquil fields to look at.

We then drove over to the next one and walked down the PF. This cache is a bit naughty as you have to walk quite a way off the PF and then jump a barbed wire fence into an obviously private woods to get to the cache. Luckily it was a quick find and we were out of the area we should not be in very quickly.

Now, back home in time for tea.

Lichfield Area: Fradley Junction, March Mayhem and Bodymoor Heath series

After being in Lancashire doing the Witton Weavers Way caches for the last few weekends, we fancied a total change of scenery this weekend. The area around Lichfield caught my eye as quite a few new caches had come out there recently.

Our first target was the two short series along the canals near Fradley Junction: the first set along the Trent & Mersey canal and the second along the Coventry canal.

We parked to the north of the caches and set off on our bikes down the towpath. Lovely countryside round here and a beautiful day weather-wise too - perfect.

All the caches were easy finds as there are not that many places to hide caches along busy canals. The highlight of the ride for me was seeing the old hangars at the old Lichfield WW2 disused airfield on the other side of the Coventry canal. I've often used these as a visual waypoint when flying to the SE from Barton or Liverpool, so it was great to see them close-up.

Next, we popped over to find a puzzle cache, Film Preview. The hiding place was obvious but no cache was anywhere to be found. We even used a PAF, who confirmed the obvious place for the cache, but it looks like it might have been so obvious, it has been muggled.

Next, it was three quick caches near a business park, before setting off on the March Mayhem series. These are some more challenging caches that have sneaky hides and no hints on the cache page.

It started off well with an easy find of a regular sized cache box. The next one was going to be tricky as it was hidden in a holly bush and looked to be a hanging nano. Hmmm ... not our favourite type, but what the heck, it's a smiley. We eventually found the top part of a nano attached to a branch, but the bottom was nowhere to be seen. It's only when we got home that we saw others had had the same problem and that the cache was temp'd.

The rest of the series was uneventful apart from some very sneaky hides and both Isaac and myself picking up puncture on our bikes. In hindsight, we should have left them in the Jeep and gone to find the caches on foot.

After we'd completed the series, we fancied some shamelessly easy drive-by's so set off to do the nearby M42 caches. These are all small sized and hidden in the guard rail near the motorway. Caching does not get any easier than this: I did not even have to get out of the Jeep for some of them as Isaac was out and finding them immediately.

Just time for the Bodymoor Heath (what a great name for a place!) canal series before we head off home, so off we set. A beautiful section of canal that was quite busy with muggles as it was tea-time and everyone seemed to want a walk here.

Some more sneaky hides along here made this set good fun. Isaac then directed us onto the M6 Toll for the journey home. As we passed Brownhills, I remembered we had one M6 Toll cache left to find (it had been muggled last time I looked for it) so we exited the motorway and went off for another very easy find.

41 finds for the day.

Finishing the Witton Weavers Way Series: the Turton Section

We only had the Turton Section (minus 1 cache we had already found on the section) to go to complete the Witton Weavers Way series of Letterboxes, so the choice of where to go caching this weekend was obvious.

We parked up not far from the flagship cache and got the bikes out for the northward section of the trail along the old tramline. The first cache of the day was a Dragon Quest one, which was on the way to the flagship cache. A nice easy one to get us started.

The flagship cache was another easy find, with some great views over the area, as befits a flagship cache. We then carried on along the trail, with a series of straightforward finds.

About half way along, we'd just started to look for another Dragon Quest cache when we spotted a lone figure coming down the hill towards us. It was Bob Adams, a cacher from Leeds. Great to meet you Bob!

After we'd found the cache, we carried on in opposite directions, but would meet up with Bob later on. The rest of the caches down to Old Man's Hill were easy enough and all had great views, which was a bonus. We particularly liked the aerial views of Belmont Reservoir and it's islands.

We then back-tracked to where we'd parked the Jeep, bumping into Bob again at the cache just before the Jeep. The next three caches were rumoured to be the trickiest of the Turton Section, so we went mob-handed with Bob to find them.

Charter's Moss was a very tricky find - it was in a really mossy, rooty area and unfortunately previous finders had made a right mess of the area, ripping up moss and throwing it all over the place. It's a real shame to see cachers do such damage to a lovely area.

We then went back to the Jeep for some soup and sandwiches, before setting off on the next section of the walk: up the hill to where the Trig cache was. The first cache on the hill, Snake's Nest, had had lots of DNF's but was a really easy find for us as Bob had already found it and kindly left his calling card to indicate where it was hidden. Nice one Bob :-).

As we climbed the hill, the views began to unfold, resulting in full 360 degree views from by the trigpoint at the top. We could see the whole of Manchester mapped out before our eyes and sat for a while pointing our interesting things on the horizon to each other.

We carried on down the other side of the hill, finding more caches as we went. After a good while, we arrived back at the Jeep. We'd chosen a circular route round the hill, taking in all the new caches and a couple of existing caches as well. The take-away menus as the themed Lizzardman Curry cache made our mouths water and made us look forward to the curry that was awaiting us at home even more.

A short drive up the A666 and we were at the start of the walk for the final 4 caches of the series. Up the hill we went and soon had all 4 bagged, along with yet another Dragon Quest cache.

Wow - that's the Witton Weavers Way series complete - 157 caches and something like 48+ miles of first class walking. Caching does not get any better than this. We've thoroughly enjoyed the series and would class it as some of the very best caching we've done.

On the way back down to Bolton and onwards to home, we stopped for 3 quick drive-by's as they were right on the route we were taking.

An excellent day out on a very tricky and challenging section of the Witton Weavers Way.

Reelers Trail and Roddlesworth Sections

On Saturday we returned to the Witton Weavers Way to try two more parts of the walk. After wimping out on the Reelers Trail last weekend, we just *had* to do it this weekend!

We parked up opposite the pub in Abney Village. I was actually going to park by the pub but thank goodness I did not as I'd not read the note about them clamping people.

After kitting up, we set off to do the Reelers Trail in a clockwise direction. A nice easy walk down to the stream at 'Torrent' with a couple of easy finds to get us started on the trail. The Torrent cache was a lot harder as the GPSr's had us some way from the bridge and after searching all around, we could not find the cache. A quick look at the previous logs and we spotted something that took us to by the bridge and an easy find.

After walking up the steps, it was quite muddy making our way northwards on the trail, but not too bad - especially if we kept on the main track and did not off-road.

Several more quick finds had us going through the farmyard. There was some sheep with newly born lambs in the barn by the path. As we approached, we could see the farmer and his wife in there, tending to their animals. The farmer shouted over "do you want to come and look at the lambs, young lady" to Isaac. LOL - his longer hair has it's disadvantages at times ;-).

We carried on, past the flagship cache and up towards the canal section. Lots more quick finds on a really great walk. We've come to expect this from L E G E N D.

We were getting hungry by now, so stopped to sit on a wall just south of the M65 and ate our soup and sandwiches. Suitably fortified, we set off to finish the series.

The bit around Tockholes was a bit of a dog's dinner as the trail veered off the Witton Weavers Way, along some poorly signposted Public Footpaths. I'm guessing this had to be like this because of the existing Tockholes Treat series of caches though, so no problem.

Our favourite part of the walk was the Roddlesworth Woods part as it's such a nice place. More easy and quick finds followed, before we arrived back at the Jeep.

We then drove round to pick up the straggler caches on the trail: one on the other side of the canal towpath at the top end of the route, followed by another easy one along a track near Cherry Tree.

That's the Reelers Trail completed now - just time to go and finish off the Roddlesworth Section. We parked by the end of the rough road that headed to the caches and set off on foot for a quick clockwise walk around the 4 caches here.

Nothing much to report here, apart from more nice caches, great views and good walking. The flagship cache here was our favourite cache of the day.

As we set off homewards, Isaac spotted two quick drive-by's nearby so we just *had* to go and find them. The first was tricky as the co-ords were way out. After using someone else's co-ords, we found the cache some 90ft off the co-ords. The last cache of the day was a nice easy one, with some great views over the moors.

Another really nice day out doing caches in a great area for walking. We'll be sad when we eventually finish this series of caches.

33 finds today.