Himbleton Hide and Finding Flyford Series + More...

On Saturday I'd planned to start off with the new Saza36 caches between Bromsgrove and Redditch before heading off to the Finding Flyford series and then I'd play it by ear depending on the time.

We were out on Friday night but when I got home I spotted a newly published series of 18 caches just by the Flyford ones so a hasty rearrangement of my plans was called for.

I dropped Isaac off at school and then headed off for the motorway and the journey to the new Himbleton series. As I came off the M5 just to the north of Worcester I bagged a quick and easy Motorway Mayhem cache as I was driving past it anyway.

I then parked up by the first cache just outside the village of Himbleton, got kitted up and off I set for a circular walk around the caches. There was another car at the parking spot so I assumed another cacher was already part way round the series (they were!).

It's been raining very heavily overnight and all the streams are full to overflowing around here, which is going to make the walk interesting to say the least.

The first cache by the parking spot was an easy find. I then did a couple more easy ones before meeting the first obstacle of the day: the lane was totally flooded on the way to the next cache. It looked to be about a foot deep but there was a hint of grass along one edge so I gingerly made my way along this, using my walking pole to stop myself falling into the water.

Lots more easy finds followed with the main comment to note being a detour off the walk to bag another cache in a nearby woods. This took an age to find as the cache co-ords were pants and about 70ft off. Eventually I spotted a second set of co-ords on the cache page and some pacing instructions (more like a letterbox than a normal cache). This did the trick and I soon had the cache in hand.

Later in the walk I ended up wading through a flooded stream and getting wet socks as there was no other way round it and I needed to be on the other side to do the rest of the caches. I spotted some other cachers in the distance but never got to talk to them - they were sketr1, the owner of the car I had parked next to. Later on in the walk I also passed The five Keepers and said hello.

All too soon I arrived back at the Jeep and set off to make a start on the Flyford series. I did the first couple of them as cache and dashes before parking up for the walk round most of the remaining caches.

The highlight of the walk was bumping into Butttercup and stormystorm, who were doing the series in the opposite direction to me. We had a lovely geo-chat, swapping tips about the parts of the walk we'd each done, before heading on to the next cache.

I was soon back at the Jeep again, but not before a very long cacheless (is that a word?) stretch down the road from the last cache. I'm not sure why there are not caches on this part of the walk too as it seems a bit odd. Never mind, as I was thoroughly enjoying myself anyway :-).

Time was getting on by now and I needed to be home early tonight as we're hosting a bonfire party at home and we've got a ton of people coming. I could just about fit in a few more caches though...

I bagged a quick drive-by which was hidden on an old tank outside an army surplus shop. I'd have loved to go inside for a nosey but time was too tight by now.

A short drive later and I was in Saza36-land and pulling up for the first cache. Just as I was parking a 4x4 that looked strangely familiar pulled off in front of me. I suspected it was the Stag Ramblers and sure enough, when I found the cache, they had also found it today.

Just 4 caches to go to our 8000th find now. I was planning to leave the 8000th for when Isaac is with me next week but on the way to the dual carriageway that leads to the M5 and home, I spotted 4 easy drive-by's that were just saying "find me". I could not resist.

Four nice easy finds followed, with our 8000th cache being a really easy drive-by micro hidden behind a road sign. An ok cache, but one of these days we'll plan things properly and do a really special cache for our milestone.

38 caches found for the day and I managed to get home for just after 5pm so plenty of time to get things sorted for the party later.