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 :-).

A FTF near home at Colehurst Manor

Late on Monday afternoon, a new multi a few miles from home came out. I had things to do for the rest of the day so no chance of going out to find it.

The next morning was a different story and I had time to dash out as the cache still had not been logged by anyone.

I parked up in a very familiar spot by the farm and headed off down the track to stage 1. I say familiar as we used to have a cache down the same track, but it's been archived for ages now (it was run over by a tractor and we could not find a decent alternative hiding place for it at the time).

After a nice walk, I was at stage 1. I checked out all the usual places before I spotted something not quite right and quickly had the details in hand (or rather GPS) for the final cache. We always enjoy this kind of hide, although you don't see them too often. A great idea.

A short walk later and I was at GZ for the final cache. The co-ords were once again bang on so I had an easy find. Great to see another big ammo box - well stocked too. Some fab views over towards Hodnet on the last stage of the walk.

Now, back home to get some work done!

Caching in between Coventry and Birmingham

On Saturday we decided on a return visit to the area of countryside between Birmingham and Coventry. We've always enjoyed previous visits to the area so were looking forward to it.

The weather forecast was not too promising, with a band of rainy cloud coming over the UK from west to east. The nearest forecast to where we were headed was for Solihull, which showed early rain and then dry until about 4pm. This looked ok for us, so off we set.

Isaac guided us off the M42 and those ridiculous "active traffic management" gantries which keep slowing and then speeding the traffic up for no reason at all. We were soon parking up for the Webbie Wander series, which was a set of 12 caches on a circular walk in nice countryside.

We decided to do the series clockwise and were soon at the first cache, which was a nice quick find. The next cache was a dog tag, which is not exactly our favourite type of hide (why hide one of these in the countryside when a much bigger box will fit easily). Luckily we had an easy find as we picked the correct hint location to start with. Phew!

The rest of the series was easy enough, with the exception of a DNF at the Castle Hills cache. It turned out later that the cache was still there, but hidden very deep in long grass. Not to worry as we can go back and find it the next time we are in the area.

We soon arrived back at the Jeep and decided to head off for the Dexter series in countryside by Balsall Common. The first one here was the easiest find ever as the cache was sat on the verge at the side of the road - a muggle had obviously spotted it and assumed someone had lost it, so left it out so the owner could easily find it - doh!

The rest of the series was easy with one field early on in the walk looking strangely familiar. I'm sure we've done a cache here before, but it looks to be archived now as I cannot find it on GC.com.

We had a DNF about half way round the walk as we could not spot the cache in any of the obvious places, so gave up and moved on. The day after we visited, it was found out in the open a short distance from where it should be, so it looks like someone / something had found it and moved it a bit.

After we arrived back at the Jeep, we decided to pick off a few nearby drive-by and cache and dashes before heading off to a third series. Nothing much to report on these apart from:

• I managed to lose my really nice caching pen off my lanyard somewhere between the first two of these caches.
• We did a cache at the side of an old airfield, which is now a racetrack where you can spend the day zooming round in some seriously powerful cars. Isaac is really into cars and loved this one.

Next, it was on to the Max's Favourite Walk series, set around Packwood House, which is a beautiful National Trust property with a fabulous garden with a very nice Yew Garden.

On the first one, we'd just done the biz with the cache and were about to put it back when some walkers came past. We made our GPSr's obvious just in case they were cachers, but only spotted their Yellow eTrex as they were quite a way past us. They turned out to be cachers: maxskitz, fishdreams and mrgammonandmrspea.

We made quick work of the rest of the series and were soon heading back to where we parked by Packwood House.

Just time for a few quick caches before heading home, so we decided to head in the Solihull direction and see how many we could find. We had intended to park up and do the caches in Tudor Grange Park, but every road seemed to be a Red Route, so parking was impossible.

We headed off to do a couple of quick urban caches, which turned out to be easy, although we did have to re-visit the first one twice as there were some teenage muggles sat on a bench right by it the first time we stopped.

More quick finds followed and some nice planning by Isaac meant we ended up not too far from the M42 junction and the journey home.

38 finds for the day.

Granville Country Park series and a FTF

We were having a new boiler put in at home today, which involved a lot of banging in the old airing cupboard by my office, so I decided I would be much better out and about going for the 19 new caches in Granville Country Park instead (tough decision that one - not!).

I parked up in the main car park and set off. The first cache was very close to the car park and was a really easy find as I could see a neat line of sticks at GZ as I walked up. I decided which one to go for next and off I set.

The paths seemed to go a different way than I was expecting so I ended up very close to another cache, so changed my planned route and went to that one instead. A quick find in a place I'd walked past ages ago when doing the older caches in the park.

On the way to the next cache, I had to hold on for a few moments as a lone female dog-walker was ahead and I did not want to spook her. After she'd gone on her way, I headed off and was soon at the next cache. Another quick find. Great to see all the caches in the series are nice big Regular sized boxes with decent swaps in.

The next few caches were all easy enough and nothing much to report on. The next cache had not yet been found - over the weekend lots of cachers had tried and failed, but there was a co-ords change of about 50ft last night, so I was hopeful of finding it. The new co-ords turned out to be bang on and I had an easy find. A nice bonus of being FTF too :-).

A few more caches and I was back at the Jeep. On the way, one of the caches took me to the top of an old slag head (the country park used to be a big mining area) with some great views over towards North Shropshire and Cheshire beyond.

I then moved the Jeep round to the next area of the park and dashed in from the road for a couple of quick cache and dashes. One was a nice BIG ammo box, which is always great to see.

Another move of the Jeep saw me at another area of the woods I'd been to before, and two more quick cache finds.

I then moved the Jeep around to the final location and set off into the woods on foot. I was a bit nervous about the first one as it's quite close to a primary school, but thankfully the woods were thick and I was able to look for the cache without attracting dodgy glances.

The next one was a quick find, then came the fun for the day. The last cache of the series was about 400ft from the bottom of the hill so off I set. As soon as I reached the bottom I realised the ground was VERY boggy. I ended up almost wading though the mud, sometimes knee deep, before getting to slightly dryer land the other side, near GZ. After that, the cache was an easy find.

A great series, with well placed caches and all a decent size. I've really enjoyed my walk around the area this morning. I checked the GPS and it was 3 hours and a minute from finding the first cache in the series, to finding the 19th one.

A few new caches near home

Just after we got home from caching on Saturday, I logged on to GC.com to see there was a ton of new caches near home just out: 19 around a country park, 2 at a local church and 2 more along the old Wellington to Market Drayton railway line.

I was all cached-out for the day so decided to make a start on them on Sunday. I thought I'd leave the country park ones for another day, so just set off to find the other 4 new caches.

I soon arrived at the first cache and parked up opposite the Dairy Crest Creamery in Crudgington, to try and work out where the PF to the cache started. Just as I was doing this, a familiar car pulled up alongside. It was Mark and Annie from cannonedwards. Great to meet you both again.

We all set off to try and find the start of the PF and failed (we'd not gone far enough along the road and as is usual around here, there were absolutely no finger posts to make life easier). We returned to the cars to think what Plan B might be when another car drew up. It was Greygeeza and Tike - nice to meet you both again.

Plan B turned out to be to wander further down the road, so off we all set. The security guy on the Creamery gates was giving us quizzical looks by this point as I bet he's never seen so many people here before!

We spotted a gate that lines up with the start of the PF on Memory Map, so off we set. As I expected, the field was totally cropped, with no sign of the PF that was supposed to go through the middle of it. We skirted the edge of the field and Mark and Annie had found the cache before the rest of us natterers (is that a word?) had caught up.

Once back at the cars, we said our goodbye's as we were all headed off to different caches. I drove down to Wellington, where the old railway line used to join the Wellington to Shrewsbury line. This section is now part of the Silkin Way and a nice walking path.

The cache was a quick find, after initially looking at the wrong ivy covered tree.

Next stop was Edgmond Church and the new Greygeeza and Tike caches. I walked into the churchyard and was just getting the details needed to calculate the final cache co-ords (it's a multi cache) when the church door opened and the vicar lead the congregation out to form a rin round the church, all holding hands. They then proceeded to sing some hymns. I've no idea why they would do this, but it was really nice to stand and watch for a few minutes (I had to avoid a few gazes as I suspected I might be invited to join in and there was caching to do!).

Next, it was a nice walk down a bridleway to GZ and an easy find. In the distance I spotted someone else walking away, that looked suspiciously like Allun from the Shropshire Seekers (it turned out it was him).

A short walk later and I was at the bonus cache, which was another easy find. Now, just a short walk over the fields to the Jeep and onwards to home.

Didsbury, Gatley, Cheadle, Hazel Grove, Poynton and Holmes Chapel!

On Saturday we decided on a return to the SE Manchester area to try and clear up the many, many new caches in the area.

We parked up by the Old Cock pub in Didsbury - an old haunt of mine from when I used to live in Altrincham and fancied a change from the Alty pubs. Out came the bikes and off we set for the series of caches around Fletcher's Moss.

The first cache was an easy find, then disaster struck - we had our first DNF of the day. The cache was in heavy woodland and the co-ords seemed good when you looked at the hint. Despite spreading out our search quite a bit we could not find the cache. The last cacher had had a DNF too and there was a tent that someone looks to be living in nearby (nice!). I wonder if they have found the cache?

Anyway, we gave up and moved on. A few more easy finds with great co-ords, then another DNF. The cache was called "The Undergrowth" and they were not wrong. It was very overgrown, with nettles and prickly hawthorn all over the place. We had a quick look around, but were not having a good time so moved on.

The rest of the caches in the area were easy enough, with the last one, which was in some beautiful ornamental gardens, our favourite.

Next, we did a quick one in a Didsbury park before relocating to the Gatley / Wythenshawe border for the next few. On the way we picked up two very odd caches, both full of sewing needles, each wrapped in a protective home made tape and with the cache name written on the back. This has to win the prize as the most bizarre swap we've ever seen and not something I'd really think should be in a cache.

The Hollyhedge Park ones were easy enough, before we moved on to Scholes Park in Gatley iteself. All of these were easy enough, apart from two that we gave up on:

1. A micro on one of those metal fences with vertical and horizontal bars everywhere. We hate this kind of hide with a passion as they are no fun and the cache could literally be anywhere. Despite the hint being reasonably specific, we could not spot it.
2. A camo'd 35mm container in an area with TONS of ivy, placed (according to the cache description) 2ft from people's back gardens. Not our thing at all, so after a quick look, we walked away.

Next, it was off to Torkington Park in Hazel Grove, via a cache in Cheadle we'd DNF'd twice in the past (it was missing both times). This time it was a really easy find and it was very satisfying to clear up the DNF's.

For the Hazel Grove ones, we got the bikes out of the Jeep and set off. All nice easy finds apart from the last one that was called Bowling Green. The previous logs mentioned bad co-ords and lots of hassle finding it. As suspected, we struggled too and ended up using a PAF, who directed us to somewhere you could not even see the bowling green from. It was then an easy find. We left some big hints of the area to look in our log to help future finders.

Next, we headed down into Poynton to clear up some DNF's from last time we were here and also find some of the newer caches. We stopped to eat our sandwiches before getting started and then set off for quite a few easy finds with no problems at all. All were micro's apart from one (a theme that was throughout the day, apart from the end of the day in Holmes Chapel).

Time was pressing on so we decided to start heading home, but to stop in Holmes Chapel, just before we got on the M6 to find a few caches.

The first was a Sidetracked at the station and we'd seen people were having trouble finding it. The GPSr's pointed to a bushy area around a tree, so Isaac took one side and me the other. As soon as I put my head in to look, a yellow cache box lid was literally right in front of my eyes - result!

The rest of the ones in the area were easy enough, with the only one of note on the Dane Valley way as the co-ords were obviously clearly quite a way out. Thankfully a previous finder had posted their reading, so we used these for an easy find.

41 finds for the day and a fun day out, despite most of the caches being boring 35mm film pots.

Another FTF near home

I'd heard on Facebook that Wrekin Ranger had set a cache near the huge pile of horseshoes at Peplow, not too far from home. She'd given enough hints to give the location away but I waited until the cache was published before going to find it, as it's only fair.

I'd just returned home from a trip out when I spotted the publication email in my Inbox. Straight out of the door I went and arrived at GZ a few minutes later. As I pulled up I spotted the familiar face of Mark from cannonedwards. Great to meet you again - we'll have to stop meeting like this!

The cache was then an easy find as there was only one place it could be from the hint.