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.
