Big Cats Trail and Jeep Safari Series
We only got back from holiday on Thursday afternoon so were still jet-lagged and did not fancy the usual Saturday caching trip. Whilst we'd been away, quite a few new caches had come out near to home so we decided to have an easier day and try and clear up some of the newest caches.
The nearest group was two interlinked series by Big Farmer Giles (BFG) stretching from Stanton upon Hine Heath to Lee Brockhurst. Knowing BFG the hides were going to be creative and sneaky as experience has taught us to expect anything when doing a BFG cache. We were not disappointed!
We started the caches off with the nearest to home, which was an easy drive-by ammo box with the words "Homeward Bound" in the cache name. Trust us to do the last cache as the first one!
Next, we started off on a 4 stage multi, whilst also looking out for the first stage on a Puzzle cache and the first stage on another multi. Our heads were spinning with all this as we're not quite on UK time yet. Needless to say we totally missed the first stage of the Puzzle cache (we were not sure what we were looking for anyway) and failed to find the first stage of the second multi. We did find all 4 stages of the first multi and located the final ammo box with no problems.
Next, we carried on to two relatively easy traditionals before backtracking with a better of idea of what we should be looking for on the Puzzle cache. The puzzle actually ended up with 3 solutions, all along the same lane and as is typical with these things, it was the third and last location that yielded the first stage of the multi! We plotted the final box location and realised we'd only just parked right next to it - doh! A quick find then ensued :-).
We then re-located to the top end of the series and set off on foot again for some more traditionals along the Shropshire Way. Two quick finds were then had, although it took us ages to bushwhack in to the second cache as it's well of a PF and I think we came in from a direction it was not intended for us to use. Not to worry as we got there in the end.
Next, we started on another multi, which was along Papermill Bank - the only Byway Open To All Traffic that now exists in North Shropshire. The micro was in the last place we looked (it would be wouldn't it ;-)). The final cache was then an easy find and was fun to get as we had to scale the sides of the sandstone canyon that the Byway goes through.
We moved the Jeep back to the start of the Byway and set off along another PF to do a Traditional and a Multi. The first stage of the multi was right by where we'd parked and a quick find. We then had a quick find of the Traditional before heading off to stage 2 of the multi. I can't really say much about the rest of the multi here as it would give it away but take it from us, it's a belter of a cache and a must do if you are in the area. A very sneaky container, a twist on the hide, a great hidden gem of a location further on in the multi and yet another twist in the plot all make this a fabulous cache.
A few quick traditionals finished us off for the day as time was getting on and we were starting to flag. There are another 4 caches to do in the series but they will have to wait for another day.
13 finds in total, which is well below our normal find rate but we don't normally do multi's and quite a few of the 13 were very involved multi's. We've really enjoyed a complete change to our normal caching day.
