A missed FTF opportunity

A new cache came out close to home last night but Mrs Bolas Heathens was out for the evening so there was no chance of me dashing out for a FTF as I was looking after the children and they had just gone to bed.

I resigned myself to going to find it in the morning and was settling down for the evening when up popped a friend of ours on Facebook Chat. They live in the nearby village and had also seen the cache come out and dashed out to try and get FTF, which they did. Well done Shropshire Seekers on your first FTF :-).

This morning, I popped out to get the cache. The cache page mentions how quiet the country lane is that the cache is on. I'd had a quick look for the cache, when a Manitou (sort of like a tractor, but not quite) came down from the direction of the farm and stopped on the lane 200ft or so from GZ. No chance of searching now as I would be in direct view of them.

Then, a herd of cows appeared on the lane, coming from the direction of the farm. The farming muggle in the Manitou herded them into the field by where he was parked, before standing around (for what seemed like ages, but probably wasn't more than a couple of minutes) to chat to his colleagues.

Eventually they all went on their ways and I was free to search for the cache again. It still took a few moments to spot though as it's hidden at the base of quite a dense hawthorn hedge which is prickly and there are nettles starting to grow under it. I've emailed the cache hider to suggest they might move the cache a little as there are also two birds nests in the hedge not far from the cache.

A fun little trip out and a nice spot for a cache.

A quick cache near the Wrekin

We had to drop the children off at Wrekin College in Wellington so Mrs Bolas Heathens and myself took the chance to carry on and go and do the new Telford Bookshelf cache near the Wrekin.

The cache is situated in an old quarry that we've been to before to find nivekpenrith's now archived Huntingdon, But Not In Cambridgeshire cache. This time we came from the opposite direction and parked at the bottom of the old quarry road to the north of GZ.

We enjoyed the walk up the track, through bluebell filled woods and then onwards along the floor of the old quarry to GZ. The cache must be very close to where the now archived cache was hidden as the whole area round GZ looked *very* familiar.

The cache was hidden under big boulders at the foot of the quarry wall and took a short while to find as there were quite a few places it could have been hidden.

A nice big ammo box in a great location with tons of interesting history.

Swadlincote and Burton On Trent

On Saturday we decided to return to the Burton area and pick up the new caches that have come out in the area since our last visit.

It's a bit of an odd area from our experience as caches seem to get published and then get archived en-masse and you are never quite sure which caches are still there and which ones are not. Thankfully, we only fell foul of this on two caches during the day, but more on that later.

On the plus side, those caches that are there are usually great fun and you find all manner of things used for cache containers - not many lock and lock containers round here. There is even a full-sized dummy from a clothes shop used for a cache container somewhere in the area!

We'd seen on Facebook that delta68 had also planned to do the Waterside Wander series just south of Swadlincote and sure enough, as we pulled into the car park, we spotted their car. At the first find, they had thought to put the time they found it on their log - we were only 10 minutes behind them!

We dashed off to try and catch them up, having a quick find at cache number 2, before catching them all up at cache number 3. Great to meet you all again - we set off to do the rest of the series together. The rest of the series was nice and easy with the only real problems at the last cache (#14) where we had to search a few minutes before spotting the hide. Delta68 headed off to do other caches and we said our farewell's.

The weather was still not great with light rain but the forecast said this would pass and things would clear up in the afternoon (it did!), so off we set to grab a few other local caches.

The next one was by a Church and we could not find it. I checked the live GC.com site using my iPhone and the cache had been archived. Hmmmm. The next cache was the same. We were a bit frustrated with this and decided to choose caches wisely for the rest of the day and only pick ones we knew had definitely had recent logs. This worked a treat and all other caches for the day were there and found.

Next stop was the Clueless Cache series, which is a set of 6 caches on a circular walk around a lovely lake on great paths. We really enjoyed these ones as we love the challenge of this kind of caching and the location was just fabulous. The only problem was with #6 and a quick PAF soon put us on the right track.

We then headed off to the Washlands, which is a big parkland area along the banks of the River Trent, right in the middle of Burton On Trent. We knew where to park as we'd been for two previous caches in the same area. After parking up, we set off for a long circular walk around all the new caches, going down one side of the Trent on the way out and coming back the other side of the Trent.

Some fun hides and great cache containers on this section of the walk. We loved Burton Bridge with it's very impressive row of sandstone arches underneath. Near the end of the walk, we spotted an ice-cream shop so stopped for some very welcome refreshments.

Just time for a few more caches, so we set off towards the A38 and home, but instead of going onto the A38, we diverted to the Dunstall Circular series, just the other side of the main road.

This was another really nice walk around part of a very well kept estate. The last cache in particular was lovely with carpets of bluebells in the woods near the cache.

We were getting hungry by now so headed off down the A38 to the M6 Toll and northwards to home.

36 finds for the day.

2 FTF's today - one Earthcache and one Multi-Cache

I saw an Earthcache come out last night at Colemere, near Ellesmere up in Shropshire's lake country. Mrs Bolas Heathens was out so I could not dash out to find it there and then as I was looking after the children and it was getting late.

This morning, it was still unfound so off I set. It's always a really tricky area to get to as it's in the middle of nowhere and most roads from home that way are single track lanes. TomTom took me on an 'interesting' route via Whitchurch (I was expecting it to take me via Wem) but I got there eventually.

A nice walk down a deserted towpath and I was at GZ. The noticeboard was soon spotted and I took the necessary photo and gathered the details I needed to log the cache. I then took a few minutes to admire the great views over the mere, with nothing apart from birdsong for company. Fabulous!

Next, I'd seen a new cache at Trench Lock in Telford come out this morning and was not confident on a FTF as surely a local would have been by now. Not only that, it was right the other side of the country from where I was now. Nothing ventured, nothing gained though, so off I set.

Some time later I was parking up by the Blue Pig pub. A short walk down an old lane and I had a quick find of the first stage. I noted the details and put them into my GPSr. It showed about 0.2 miles away and in an area I was not sure how to get to.

I think I made it hard work to get to as I had to inch up the ledge round a high culvert before carrying on down some quite overgrown woodland tracks to GZ. The cache was a quick find and I was delighted to see a clean logbook :-).

On the way back I realised the culvert was not very deep so waded over in my waterproof walking boots. Much easier! As I was driving off, I spotted a really easy way over some fields to the final cache. If only I'd spotted that earlier, but then again, I would not have had as much fun getting there!

Now back home to get some work done!

A FTF, but not before I had to do quite a bit of searching...

This morning, I was in the office catching up with things from the weekend, when a new cache notification came up not too far from home. The sun is out and a FTF opportunity presents itself - hmmm, do I go out and find it or not? Tricky one - NOT!

I was soon at stage 1 and dismayed to see lots of trees that match the hint. The hint also implied the cache could be one of two possible sneaky hides. I think I'm going to have my work cut out for me here as I've no idea if this cache setters co-ords are generally good as this is their first hide.

I spent quite a while staring into and up the trees but could not spot it. Then a muggle with a dog came and sat on a bench overlooking GZ. No chance of further searching as he was watching me (and probably wondering what the heck I was up to by the trees) so I went off to scout the park for items matching the final cache hint. There was only one area but I could not find the cache there.

I then spotted the muggle had moved on so thought I'd go and expand my search for stage 1. I then found it after a further (quite long) search - it was 40ft off the stated co-ords. Once I'd got the very small piece of paper out of it, I saw the final co-ords were in a different GPS co-ord format than most caches so changed my GPSr settings so I could use them.

Off I went to the final cache, but the GPSr zero'd out 55ft from the nearest hint item (in an area I'd already searched earlier). Looks like the brute force approach of re-checking everywhere and trying to think of places I'd not looked is in order.

After quite a few scratches from hidden hawthorn I finally managed to spot the final cache and was pleased to say I was FTF. A really nice area for a cache and good fun to find, despite how it sounds above.

I've emailed the cache owner with my readings at both stages so they can hopefully update things and make it a bit clearer for future finders.

Whitchurch Whereigo - has it gone again?

We'd had a DNF on our Whitchurch Whereigo on Friday. I only replaced the cache last week (or was it the week before?) and it's new hidey-hole is not the sort of place muggles would look. Or is it?

On Sunday morning, we had an hour or so spare so headed off to Whitchurch to check it out. We took a replacement cache just in case - Isaac had done a great job on the camo too :-).

We took the Oregon and Colorado, both loaded up with the Whereigo cartridge and so Isaac had one and Freya the other, and we set off to do the cache as if it was not ours. We all had great fun wandering around the town from stage to stage and were soon at the final cache.

I checked where the cache should be and sure enough, it was not there. I thought I'd check below, just in case it had fallen out of it's hole and there it was - phew! We put the cache back where it should be and have hopefully wedged it in better.

Now to head back home and get yesterday's finds logged.

Big Kids Challenge and March Mayhem series

We were going to go to Bicester today as there is a ton of new caches there and we know it's a great area for caching from previous visits. It's right at the far end of the area we will travel to go caching in a day and to be honest, I did not fancy such a long drive.

While I was wondering where else to go caching, I was reminded of the Big Kids Challenge near Brownhills on Memory Map. We'd left doing these caches as they attract a heck of a lot of DNF's and we like to find caches, not DNF them. I put a quick question about them out on Facebook and had some very positive comments back so we thought we'd go for it.

We parked up near the first one in the series and set off for our circular walk. The series is a mixture of Traditional's, Multi's and one Puzzle cache. I'd done the legwork for the puzzle cache before we came - very interesting working out the answers to the area's history it was too - made us appreciate our walk all the more. The Multi's were all virtual stages but were liberally scattered along the walk, so I brought some notes on what to do where, just in case we missed something out in passing.

We really enjoyed the walk, with some easy finds, but mostly some quite challenging hides. Number 4 had been muggled, but the muggler's had left the magnet and attaching mechanism behind. Number 11 had also been muggled but it was obvious to a cacher where it should be.

On the way round we also stopped for two andyandelaine caches in some woods at the top of the walk. Both were fab and made us laugh. The first because of the very appropriate container (the area was criss-crossed with 4x4 tracks - I won't say what the container was but I bet you can guess!) and the second because I had to give Isaac a piggy-back to reach the cache, which was about 7-8ft up a slanting tree.

After that, we were going to do the other nearby series but the new March Mayhem caches were not too far away and they are really good fun - sneaky hides, no clues, no cache size mentioned etc etc and they really test your geo-skills. We opted to go and try the March Mayhem ones as we love that kind of caching.

On the way we stopped to find two urban caches in the middle of Brownhills. The first was by a HUGE statue of a miner on a roundabout (HUGE = 50ft or more in height and *very* impressive) and the second was an Off Yer Trolley just opposite a Tesco's. As Isaac was ferreting under a bridge for the second one, a familiar voice shouted over "Hello John and Isaac". It was Ron and Diane from The Washers. Great to meet you both again. We had a nice chat before they went off to their next cache and we headed off to the next series.

The March Mayhem caches lived up to our expectations and more - some really sneaky hides, including one we just don't know how the cache owner though of. I won't say more as I don't want to spoil the fun for anyone that has not done them, but rest assured, if you are in the Lichfield area, get over there and try them. You won't be disappointed!

Next, we headed up to Whittington to do the group of caches round the outskirts of the village. Lots of nice quick and easy finds with no problems at all for us. Nice to get a tour of the highlights of the village by a local cacher.

The last cache of the day was just south of Lichfield at some locks that are being restored into a new park. A great spot with tons of history and some really interesting information boards.

35 finds for the day and another fabby day out. The weather was wall to wall sunshine all day too - it does not get much better than this :-).

A FTF that was 0.19 miles off the stated co-ords

We'd just had tea and I was checking emails again, when I spotted a new cache not too far from home.

I've had problems with bad co-ords on this cache hiders caches in the past (including two that were quickly archived by the Reviewer, but not before I wasted a whole morning trying to find one of them!) and so checked where the cache was on Google Maps. It showed the cache to be in the middle of a ploughed field and nowhere near a tree (the hint said base of tree). Hmmm....

Luckily the cache description had a few road names and said the cache was on one of them. A quick look at Streetmap gave me a short(ish) stretch of lane that the cache might be on and a double check on Google Maps showed 4 trees on that stretch of lane that might be hiding the cache.

Looks like it might be possible to find the cache after all so off I set before it started to get too dark. I was soon at what I thought would be GZ and my initial scan of the 4 trees came up with nothing. The cache hider usually hides well constructed, natural looking hides so I checked all hint items again and sure enough, soon had the nicely made cache in hand.

The co-ords were 0.19 miles off the stated one, so I've posted my reading at GZ on my log and emailed the cache owner to let them know they need to contact the Reviewer to ask for the cache co-ords to be changed (as they are more than 528ft from the original ones).

A clear-out of Mid Cheshire

The new caches in South and Mid Cheshire have been sat right at the top of our closest to home not found page for way too long now, so we decided today was the day to sort that out.

First off, we started with our caching friends, cannonedwards' new caches just to the west of Newcastle under Lyme. The first one was in some woods we've been to before for a now archived cache. A nice quick find.

Then it was a short drive to their other two new caches, which were in some woods we'd not been to, not far from the M6. The woods were alive with snowdrops, bluebells and wild garlic and looked stunning. I picked some wild garlic to use in cooking later in the day - can't wait!

The next cache was very eventful but for all the wrong reasons. It was called Soggy Bottom UK and that's exactly what I got - a soggy bottom, as I slipped when crossing a brook and ended up in the brook up to my waist. I had to do the rest of the caches stinking and damp. It was a nice cache, made all the more 'fun' by my own stupidity.

A short drive around Nantwich (followed by Cheshire's Finest for a short way - thank goodness for cruise control so I did not get stopped for going too fast!) brought me to the Shropshire Union Canal ('Shroppie') and the majority of the other caches for the day. These were all set by the narrowboaters.

Not a lot to say about them apart from some nice locations and great views, especially the ones in the Beeston Castle area. I did the first two by foot, but then got my bike out for the 4 caches near Beeston. The last one was especially nice as there was an unexpected waterfall right by GZ!

Just time for one more quick cache in Tarporley before heading home and getting on with the work I'm supposed to be doing today. A short walk up a lovely green lane and a really fun cache that has a little extra twist when you open it :-).

12 finds for the short trip out.

An Impromptu Afternoon's Caching

Yesterday, the family planned to go to the Transport Show at Weston Park with the children's Grandparents (who live close to it). It sounds a bit dull, but usually has loads of vintage cars on show and some very enthusiastic owners who will tell you all about them!

The number of exhibits was not great today - I suspect most would have been there over the weekend as the show runs for a few days over the Easter weekend. After a quick look round, I was given a pass to slope off and go to find some nearby caches.

I set off for The Washers new caches along the Shroppie by the M54 - a location we know well as we've been on at least two other caching sessions in the same area in the past.

As I got out of the Jeep, two people got out of the car in front of me - it was [monki] and his Mum, Wend. Great to meet you again - we had a nice chat about caching before they mentioned that our caching friends, cannonedwards from Newcastle under Lyme, had just set off on the same walk. I texted Mark and Annie to tell them I'd catch them up.

Off I dashed and soon found them near the first cache in the series. We had a great walk around the caches, chatting and laughing all the way. On the way round, they also found two other caches that we'd already found.

I checked back in with Mrs Bolas Heathens, who said they had gone back to the Grandparents and were starting on some dinner and not to worry about being back to give them a lift home later. Fab - that means I can go on to find a few more caches as the sun is blazing in the sky and I'm thoroughly enjoying myself so far :-).

Next stop was the 4 new Washers caches in the woods at Rindleford, just outside Bridgnorth. We'd been here before to do a cache that is now archived and loved the location as it's Shropshire at it's best - a bit of terrain, a lovely flowing river and totally unspoilt countryside.

I set off on foot and soon found all 4 caches - the last was the trickiest as it was hidden behind a rock. I spotted the right rock almost immediately but ruled it out as it did not look like it moved. I eventually came back to it, pulled a little harder and there the cache was!

I was still good for time, so set off for the last 2 new Washers caches - Ridgeway Walk and it's bonus cache. Another area we have been to before and some fab views from the top of the ridge. I thoroughly enjoyed both of these caches and bagged a Multi while I was there as it was hidden half way between the two Washers caches.

Still a bit of time left, so I headed over to Acton Burnell and Condover, south of Shrewsbury to do the new caches there. Not much to report here apart from they were all nice easy finds, although a very odd hiding style: they were all big boxes hidden inside random parts of hedgerow. Still, they all earn a smiley each so no problems there :-).

20 finds for the afternoon and a thoroughly enjoyable time in beautiful weather.

Two new (quite) local caches

After we got back from our day out caching on Saturday, we'd spotted a new cache not for from home but had missed FTF as a cacher who was on his canal boat 0.5 miles from GZ got there first.

Overnight, another new cache had also been published near Woodseaves so I set off to find both this and the one that was published last night. The (mildly) annoying thing was we had been *really* close to both caches on our way home last night, but obviously not realised they were there.

Woodseaves was the first target and after parking up in the village, I headed off on foot down the PF, over a field and down to a bridge by the cache. The cache was a quick find as when there is a bridge is involved at GZ, the cache is inevitably hidden under it. The only tricky bit is working out which end of the bridge to look first (guess who always gets this wrong first time!).

Next, it was a cross-country route along some very narrow lanes to Goldstone and the second cache. I parked up by a bridge over the Shroppie and walked along the towpath past some fishing muggles to GZ.

The cache was very well hidden and I did not understand the hint, so it took me a few moments to spot it. My walking pole strikes again though as it's great at finding caches like this, without you having to root around by hand.

This was the first hide by a new local cacher and a really nice one too. As a child, we had many a happy holiday at the caravan site behind the Wharf Tavern, just to the north of the cache. It was our favourite place to go for a few days away and always a pleasure to come back to even now :-).

Linear and Circular Caching: Cannock, Stone and Swynnerton

On Saturday, we decided to try and clear up newer caches in Staffordshire.

Isaac had been on a sleep-over at his Grandparents in Blymhill so it made sense to pick him up there and then start the day's caching on the 6 caches that make up the Hatherton Canal series, near J12 of the M6.

We parked up by the bridge near #1 and set off on our bikes. There were two very dodgy looking guys in combats nearby who were telling us about a sighting of a deer in the nearby field. They looked like they were out hunting rather than admiring the deer so we do hope the deer are still around to tell the tale.

The canal series was nice and straightforward with some fun hides and nice scenery. The canal is disused and has been kept in a great condition, meaning there is tons of wildlife making it their home now. We did manage to pick up two punctures on the way back to the Jeep though. What is it with canals and newly cut hawthorn hedges :-(.

Next, it was onto the M6 for the journey northwards just past Stafford and then cross-country to the Sandon Saunter series. This is a circular walk of 9 caches around the area at the back of the lovely Sandon Estate (home of two caches we adopted off MarcB - 'The Urn' and 'Revelations').

As we set off, a farmer with a flock of sheep and newly born lambs was coming up the lane. We stopped for a chat and when he realised we were going where he wanted the sheep to go, he asked if we could herd them up into the field. The gate was shut behind us so the sheep could only go up the green lane and into the field. Isaac really loved this and took great pride in his herding :-).

The series was nice and easy with quite a bit of terrain, which made for some excellent views over the area. On the way round we bumped into the Hide and Streets, some cachers from the Fenton area of Stoke-on-Trent. We stopped for a nice chat before going on our way as they were doing the series in the opposite direction to us. We bumped into them again later on in the walk and were able to help them with a cache they could not find, further round the loop.

Next, it was a short drive up to Swynnerton, not far from J15 M6 and the ring of 12 caches there. We parked up to the south and set off to do them clockwise. The sun was shining and it was an absolute pleasure to be out walking in such lovely countryside. The series was soon completed with plenty of straightforward hides and one stinker of a hide with co-ords that were slightly off.

Our only small grumble of the series is there were way too many micros in locations that could easily support *much* larger caches and there were some huge gaps between caches (half a mile on quite a few of them). Still, it's a lovely walk and we didn't mind too much.

After that, we were getting hungry so headed off home, via the Co-Op in Eccleshall for a top up on drinks as we were looking forward to something ice-cold.

A nice day out with lots of lovely walking and 30 finds in total.

Whitchurch Cache Maintenance: Whereigo and Behind Enemy Lines - Tilstock

We've been meaning to get over to Whitchurch for a few weeks now so we can check on our two caches there. Today I had a free hour or two so off I set.

First on the list was our Behind Enemy Lines - Tilstock cache. The last finder had reported that the cache was ok but there were 3 muggle logs in since the last finder. Sure enough, I found various muggle logs, including a really racist joke :-(.

I removed the offending pages from the logbook and as the hide had been compromised, moved the cache to a new hiding place that teenage muggles will hopefully not spot. The hint on the cache page has been altered and all is good to go.

The only downside was that the muggles seem to have made off with the lovely geocoin which was in the cache. It's always a shame when this happens - we've emailed the coin owner to let them know :-(.

Next on the list was our Whitchurch Whereigo cache. I strongly suspect the cache is being cleared up with leaf litter by council workers so have changed the hide slightly so it won't happen again.

It's now a new preform cache (so we could get away with not having to hide a micro) and hidden in a slightly different place. I had to re-learn the Whereigo Cartridge authoring system so I could update the hint and upload a new version of the Cartridge to the Whereigo site.

Two caches, all sat ready and waiting for their next finders :-).

A quick FTF and some family history

When I checked my emails this morning, I spotted a new cache had come out less than 10 miles from home. It was by a church that Mrs Bolas Heathens thinks some of her ancestors may be buried at, so we thought we'd combine a caching trip with a good look around the churchyard.

We soon arrived at the church but for some reason my Oregon said we were in a field when we were clearly stood in a lane. I think it's still trying to catch up after the shock of being darn sarf last weekend ;-).

It soon settled down and realised the error of it's ways. Isaac spotted a possible place for the cache, between two houses at what looked like some disused steps up to the churchyard. A quick furtle around revealed the cache - we were FTF!

After we'd put the cache back, we went off to find Mrs Bolas Heathens and Freya. They had been exploring the graveyard but had not found any names on the graves that they were looking for. There are a heck of a lot of people with the surname James buried here though!

She's going to do some more research on it and perhaps come back another time for a look as it's possible her relatives may be in another nearby graveyard.

Two *Almost* FTF's

Last night we were relaxing at home when two new caches came out not too far from home, but far enough to have to think about dashing out for a FTF. We opted for the easy route and leave them for another time.

Today, the children were due round at their Grandparents and with a slight diversion on the way, we could take in the two new caches. Both were still up for FTF as no logs had come in on them overnight.

We parked up by the side of the main road for the first one and myself, Isaac and Freya set off for the short walk over the fields to the ex-railway line the caches are now on (it's part of a walking path called the Way For The Millennium now).

Freya spotted the hide right away and dashed over to check the logbook. Drat - we'd missed FTF by 15 minutes. Not a problem though as we had fun finding the cache and the location is nice.

The second one was do-able as a drive-by and as time was short we opted for doing it that way. A short drive round and Freya again found the cache. Another one we'd just missed FTF on.

Anyway, we enjoyed both of the caches and it's especially heartening to see they are both by new hiders and they are both well thought out and not micros. We look forward to trying to find more hides by these people.

UK Mega Series - Northern Ring

Isaac has been asking about making a start on this epic series for a while now, so with the clocks going forward the other week and longer caching days, we thought it was about time to start.

We'd seen from other logs that people were taking between 9 and 12 hours (or more) on the northern leg, so set ourselves a target of 9 hours for the ring. As there was around 72 caches, this meant we had a handy yardstick of 2 caches every 15 minutes or 8 an hour to measure our progress by.

With such a long trail, we realised we needed an early start and as it's a 3.5 hour drive from home, we booked into a hotel on the other side of Basingstoke, not too far from the caches on Friday night.

We set off after tea on Friday night and had intended to grab a couple of caches on the way, but ended up going straight to the hotel.

The next morning, suitably fortified by breakfast, we headed off to the start point of the walk: the layby in between caches 005 and 006. We parked up and got kitted up for the walk.

There are too many caches to go into detail here, but some of the highlights of the walk were:

• Getting very close to the approach lights at RAF Odiham (really close in fact, as one of the caches was hidden right next to them).
• Seeing some deer in the distance across the field from one cache.
• Odiham Castle and it's beautiful setting.
• A swan on it's nest by the old Basingstoke canal.
• Watching motorised gliders swoop and swirl overhead during most parts of the walk.
• Seeing an unexpected thatched pagoda near to one of the caches.
• The walking and scenery in general. The terrain is very easy and the cache finds in general were too - we've never seen so many really obvious tell tale piles of sticks! Is this common in the south? We don't know as this is the first time we've cached down here but it doesn't half make for easy caching (which is a good thing in our books as caching is more about the walk and the locations to us).
• Stopping for lunch not far from Byway and siting in the lovely sun relaxing, before tackling the next section of the walk.
• Not really a highlight, but worthy of note: Totally missing the PF sign about half way round the trail and doing a reasonable diversion the other side of a river through a Nature Reserve to get back on track. It cost us 2 caches in time (15 minutes) but was worth it as we got to see the Nature Reserve.
• Another not really a highlight, but worthy of note: Running out of drinking water about 2/3 of the way round. It was really dull and dreary when we set off so only took one large bottle of water with us. The sun soon came out and remained so all day so we ended up drinking more water than we expected. Boy were we glad to get back to the Jeep for more cool water at the end of the walk.

All too soon the village we'd parked in was in sight and we were back at the Jeep. Just time for a couple more caches on the way home.

Isaac had a few in mind and directed me to one on the road from Basingstoke to Newbury. A nice quick find. We then continued on the main road and diverted off to another one by a lovely stream in a village. A very nicely engineered, unexpected hide was soon in hand - a great bonus at the end of the day.

Last cache was to be in a park in Newbury, just before we got on a fast road northbound. We were thwarted though as the cache was missing. Luckily Isaac had spotted there was a Sidetracked cache just round the corner so we went and found that instead (not before going to the totally wrong side of the station and seeing the GPSr's pointing over the other side of the tracks - doh!).

Many thanks to Lord Cacher (we think we know who you are ;-)) for all the time, trouble and money you have put into setting up the series. We hope to be back for the southern loop very soon.

72 finds for the day. Very satisfying!