An impromptu day's caching around Stone and Stoke On Trent
Issac was due to be away at scout camp this weekend, so it was just me caching on my own. I'd been watching the weather all week with the original intention of going caching around the Chorley area.
By Friday afternoon, the weather looked dismal and as I'm just about fed up of caching in the rain every week, I decided to not go caching on Saturday and instead, hope for good weather early in the week to go then instead.
Anyway, Saturday morning came and the weather at home looked ok - not fabulous, just ok. I decided to go off and try the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs series between Stone and Stafford as it's been sat on our nearest to home not founds for way too long now.
Off I set and soon parked up, before setting off on the walk. These caches are all nice big boxes, but the catch is there is a bigger distance between each one than you usually find - 0.6 miles would be typical of this. Not a problem though as it looked like a great walk (it was!).
Not a great deal to report with the caches: all were as advertised and all were easy enough to find. On the way I saw tons of wildlife, including two HUGE pigs in a field I had to cross and lots of inquisitive cows.
I arrived back at the Jeep shortly before dinnertime and decided as the weather was still holding, I'd head off to Stoke and see if I could do a bit of a clear-up there. The first one was by Stoke Rugby Club's ground and was a disaster as I could not find it. I'm pretty sure it's missing as the hint was very specific and the cache was not there.
Next, it was three easy micros in Longton Park, followed by another DNF. This time the cache was in an area of nettles that went above my head height and despite quite a bit of bush-whacking, I could not spot the stump the cache was supposed to be in. One for the winter methinks.
I then did a quick cache outside the Gladstone Pottery Museum (not a micro either, which was a shock, given the relatively exposed location), before setting off on foot for Mawgan's series of 6 caches along a greenway (cycleway) - I wish I'd brought my bike now.
More disasters here as I could not find the first two caches. The third was sopping and the fourth had fallen out of the tree it was in and was lying nearby. I decided to cut my losses and move on without doing the remaining two caches as micros in a place much bigger caches could easily be hidden is not really my idea of fun I'm afraid.
Things improved totally from here on in and I did not have any more DNF's :-).
The next cache was by the Fenton TV transmitter on top of a small hill overlooking the area. Next, it was an Earthcache in a park not too far from the road.
I then headed off into downtown Stoke to see if I could find the new cache set by the Stoke Museums people. It looked like the cache was actually in the museum and all the parking was pay and display, so I moved on elsewhere instead. We'll have to return to the museum some other time as it looks really interesting.
I then headed off to the NE reaches of the city for some more easy finds, including clearing up a DNF I'd had ages ago, on the way to Biddulph.
Next, I worked my way over to Apedale Country Park on the west side of Stoke, taking in a few easy caches on the way. Some quick caching round the park saw several more easy finds.
Not many caches to find in the area left now, so off I went to one right by the M6 in Bateswood Nature Reserve. TomTom beeps at us with this cache every time we go past on the Motorway so it will be good to find this one. The co-ords were bang on and the hide was the best of the day by far. I won't give anything away here, but it's a different variation on a pretty rare type of hide and very satisfying to find.
A couple more caches to finish off the day now. The next one was the best location of the day - a real hidden gem right in the middle of Keele University grounds. This is what caching is all about!
31 finds for the day and I was back home nice and early. Can't beat that as I'd only gone out to find the 8 Snow White caches :-).
