A clear-out of the new caches around Wolverhampton
Isaac had his first Saturday at his new school today so as the weather was so nice I decided to pop out on my own and have a day out caching. Lots of new caches seem to have come out around Wolverhampton so it seemed like a logical place to aim for.
The first target for the day was a series of about 10 caches called Moseley Meander. On the way I picked up a quick drive-by by the M54 and then was soon in the Country Park car park getting ready for a nice walk around the Moseley caches. I recognised the area from a previous cache of snerdbe's which we did in the very early days of our caching.
The first cache was an easy find - I noted that the Soggy Campers had found it already today, so was wondering how far ahead of me as it was still quite early. I did not have to wait long as I spotted them as I walked up to the second cache. Great to meet you both.
They mentioned they could not find this one and returned to it with me to double check. Sure enough it's nowhere to be seen, so that's the first DNF of the day logged!
I walked on to the next cache with them, chatting away about caching as we went. Another easy find was had here before we both went on our respective ways. I then carried on along the loop of caches back to the car park with nothing much to report other than lots of very easy finds.
I then drove round to a closer place for the final two caches of the series and walked in for two more quick finds. Next, I had the new Essington Moat caches on the list and so off I set. I could not spot the first one at all despite a really good hunt round the area of GZ. That's another DNF to add to my logs!
Thankfully the next two caches were nice and easy with the final one being in some woods I'm sure we've been to for a snerdbe cache a long time ago. As I was walking back to the Jeep the familiar face of Andy from AndynElaine was coming down the field. Great to meet you again :-).
Next I had planned a few quick drive-by's before heading off into deepest Wolverhampton for more caches. One of these was at the end of a trail of 4 caches which seemed to not use any marked paths on my OS map. As I arrived I saw they were connected by a nice hard pack path and were along a lovely linear nature reserve. The sun had just come out and I could not resist a beautiful walk along the old canal to find them.
All nice quick finds. As I was walking back to the Jeep I could see a couple in some bushes by a cache I'd found earlier so crept up behind them and shouted "HAVE YOU FOUND IT YET?". After nearly jumping out of their skins (:-)) I was to meet Suebedz. Great to see you too! That's three caching teams bumped into today and it's not yet midday :-).
A quick and unremarkable Sidetracked cache followed before I headed off to Willenhall to try for a new series there. On the way I got a PAF call from some caching friends from Newcastle Under Lyme on a cache we did ages ago near Bolton. Thankfully I could remember where the cache was and had them with cache in hand in no time.
I struggled to find anywhere to park for the Willenhall caches and it was taking longer to park up than it was to find the cache. Double yellow lines, double red lines, one way systems, road works - they all conspired to make this a frustrating part of the day so I decided to knock it on the head after 3 finds and move on to somewhere quieter (and more rural).
On the way I could not resist a quick return to find the two DNF's we had a few months ago on snerdbe's canal series on the west side of Wolverhampton. Both were quick finds for me today and I managed to bag another cache at an old bridge on the way between the two.
I'd been looking forward to Scooby, Scrappy and MP's new cache series near Pattingham all day as they always have great hides and are always a good walk. I was not to be disappointed today either!
I started by parking up at the southern end of the caches and heading off up the Monarch's Way on a lovely circular walk round just over half of the series. Highlight of the walk was coming round the corner of some woods to be confronted with a lovely field of sunflowers, which looked absolutely fabulous. Lowlight of the walk was going base over bayonet in my enthusiasm to get closer to the sunflowers once I'd seen them. I'd glad no-one was around to see my attempt at unpowered flight ;-).
After I got back to the Jeep I drove round to the southern end of the top part of the series via a lane with a ford that was marked as "not suitable for cars". This is normally a good sign that the lane is *very* much suitable for 4x4's and indeed this one was. I loved driving along through the water in the ford, which extended down the road for quite some length.
After finding somewhere safe to park, I set off for the final 3 caches of the series, which were all easy finds. The last one was very close to somewhere we've been in the past for a Washers cache that is now archived (or at least I assume it is). Somewhere along the series I found the bonus cache, which was in a ready made spot for a cache.
I still had an hour or so spare so headed off to find the 4 remaining caches around Chillington and Brewood, near to the in-laws house. All nice quick finds, with the last one being my favourite as it was a nice long walk into the middle of nowhere in particular and was perfectly peaceful.
37 finds for the day and a lovely day out in some lovely countryside.
