Didsbury, Gatley, Cheadle, Hazel Grove, Poynton and Holmes Chapel!
On Saturday we decided on a return to the SE Manchester area to try and clear up the many, many new caches in the area.
We parked up by the Old Cock pub in Didsbury - an old haunt of mine from when I used to live in Altrincham and fancied a change from the Alty pubs. Out came the bikes and off we set for the series of caches around Fletcher's Moss.
The first cache was an easy find, then disaster struck - we had our first DNF of the day. The cache was in heavy woodland and the co-ords seemed good when you looked at the hint. Despite spreading out our search quite a bit we could not find the cache. The last cacher had had a DNF too and there was a tent that someone looks to be living in nearby (nice!). I wonder if they have found the cache?
Anyway, we gave up and moved on. A few more easy finds with great co-ords, then another DNF. The cache was called "The Undergrowth" and they were not wrong. It was very overgrown, with nettles and prickly hawthorn all over the place. We had a quick look around, but were not having a good time so moved on.
The rest of the caches in the area were easy enough, with the last one, which was in some beautiful ornamental gardens, our favourite.
Next, we did a quick one in a Didsbury park before relocating to the Gatley / Wythenshawe border for the next few. On the way we picked up two very odd caches, both full of sewing needles, each wrapped in a protective home made tape and with the cache name written on the back. This has to win the prize as the most bizarre swap we've ever seen and not something I'd really think should be in a cache.
The Hollyhedge Park ones were easy enough, before we moved on to Scholes Park in Gatley iteself. All of these were easy enough, apart from two that we gave up on:
- A micro on one of those metal fences with vertical and horizontal bars everywhere. We hate this kind of hide with a passion as they are no fun and the cache could literally be anywhere. Despite the hint being reasonably specific, we could not spot it.
- A camo'd 35mm container in an area with TONS of ivy, placed (according to the cache description) 2ft from people's back gardens. Not our thing at all, so after a quick look, we walked away.
Next, it was off to Torkington Park in Hazel Grove, via a cache in Cheadle we'd DNF'd twice in the past (it was missing both times). This time it was a really easy find and it was very satisfying to clear up the DNF's.
For the Hazel Grove ones, we got the bikes out of the Jeep and set off. All nice easy finds apart from the last one that was called Bowling Green. The previous logs mentioned bad co-ords and lots of hassle finding it. As suspected, we struggled too and ended up using a PAF, who directed us to somewhere you could not even see the bowling green from. It was then an easy find. We left some big hints of the area to look in our log to help future finders.
Next, we headed down into Poynton to clear up some DNF's from last time we were here and also find some of the newer caches. We stopped to eat our sandwiches before getting started and then set off for quite a few easy finds with no problems at all. All were micro's apart from one (a theme that was throughout the day, apart from the end of the day in Holmes Chapel).
Time was pressing on so we decided to start heading home, but to stop in Holmes Chapel, just before we got on the M6 to find a few caches.
The first was a Sidetracked at the station and we'd seen people were having trouble finding it. The GPSr's pointed to a bushy area around a tree, so Isaac took one side and me the other. As soon as I put my head in to look, a yellow cache box lid was literally right in front of my eyes - result!
The rest of the ones in the area were easy enough, with the only one of note on the Dane Valley way as the co-ords were obviously clearly quite a way out. Thankfully a previous finder had posted their reading, so we used these for an easy find.
41 finds for the day and a fun day out, despite most of the caches being boring 35mm film pots.
