Hooked a duck

Julia of the Bedfords had a couple of hours spare and wanted to go and bag some more caches from the Sedgley Stroll series. So as I only needed a few more to complete the series it was an easy decision to make.....Let's go for it.

Sedgley Stroll by Dibboid and Mrs.Dibboid

http://coord.info/GC3B8W3

A big reason for the return was the intrigue around a cache named "Hook a duck". We really wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
We parked up on the estate close to the cache "Holly and the Ivy" and set off once again into the cold, there was still lots of ice and snow covering the ground so it was quite slippy too. We found first cache quickly and then carried on to Hook a duck! We took the over a fence through some brambles and branches approach and eventually got to GZ.....We spotted the cache straightaway, it was just a matter of retrieving it from 20-30ft up a tree. Without giving too much away, it was completed with some nearby specialist equipment.....A very fun cache.

We moved on now to the remaining caches of the series which were on public foothpaths at the side of fields. There were some more nice hides and a good walk to go along with it.

Thats it for me on this series but it was very enjoyable, I completed it in 3 attempts in the early morning, afternoon and in the dark by torchlight.
Thanks Kaye and Dave.

---

Julia and myself had arranged to do a nightcache tonight so after both going home for some tea and home duties, we met up again around 7pm-ish.


The First Hamster Night Cache!!! by SPIKE09-123

http://coord.info/GC36EVT

We set off from the meeting point in my car and headed off just past Bewdley to some woods near Button Oak. I had planned to do this nightcache in December but unfortunately I had to pull out at the last minute due to illness.
We parked up at the car park and as we donned extra layers Julia flashed her new torch and spotted first marker even before we were ready to set off.
It was very slippy in places due to it being very cold and ice and snow still laying on the ground.
The trail from the car and back to the car took us just short of 90 minutes, the markers were pretty good and evenly spaced out. The terrain wasn't too bad but there were a few slopes to get up in places.
As we approached GZ there were several markers next to each other and the find was easy...A nice sized Ammo can.

Found it!

Found it!

After a few photos we followed some yellow markers which took us on a more direct route back to the car. Overall it was a very enjoyable experience and great to add another to the list.

Well thats the end of the smilies for me today, however I did take Julia to do the Cash cache series by maxtrev.

Total caches for day  =  10

Down M5 in morning and Curry at night.

I had decided that today I wanted to have a go at part one of the new Animal Letterbox series, so I planned the morning caching around that area.
I started of doing a small loop of 5.

TEE OFF and others by Red Lionfish

http://coord.info/GC3494P

Well I arrived here at around 7am and parked just round the corner to attempt 5 caches, they are not actually a series but were all by the same C/O. Walk was 1.6 miles and took just under a hour. I did need a paf from Alan of the Vaughans for Tee Off but no problems with others.
Thanks Alan

The Workout

---

I carried on to do a few drive by's by the cacher Team Karma which I enjoyed before moving on to do the Animal Letterbox Series.

Animal Letterbox Series by HKMHill

http://coord.info/GC3B7X4

All caches are Letterbox Hybrids in which you will need to find animal type and value for the Bonus. In first cache there are some sheets to take round to fill in the bonus info.

There are two parts to this series, I am just doing part one today as part two is in a different area.
All caches are in or near large trees with the exception of 7 which is magnetic, all small boxes containing Log Book, Rubber Stamp and Laminated card with animal picture and value (on reverse) for bonus, if you wish to record the rubber stamp you will need to bring an ink pad. This part (one) of the series is just under 2.5 miles, The walk is mainly on grassland and some crop fields. Some of the stiles are wired so not very dog friendly.

I really enjoyed this walk and liked some of the hides, it is great to get some more Letterbox Hybrids in my stats gaining 7 in total :)

ALS Workout

---

I then moved on to do Gannow East and West, Young Growth and New Copse which I found no problem. I then did a few more of the 60 series as drive bys....numbers 9,8 and 7.

I then carried on to Bromsgrove to do a few caches with caching buddies Lucinda of The Turnbull Tribe and Julia of the Bedfords). I met them at Sanders Park and we did the 2 caches there.by darren 2000

http://coord.info/GC3504N

Julia getting stuck in!

Peekaboo hehe!

As you can see one of the caches was inside a fallen tree haha. We completed the caches and carried on to next port of call ..... Chez Roland by SOAPY Chickens  http://coord.info/GC3921Z

This was an interesting one haha but my trusted specialist equipment soon pointed out where it was, Julia went into retrieve as she had wellies on.

Next on the agenda was another SOAPY Chickens cache called Bromuda Triangle   http://coord.info/GC352P7
We had fun here and had an idea what to look for but couldn't find it, then as we chatted to a lady, I spotted something which ended up being the cache..... We did 3 more SOAPY Chickens caches before all returning home....at least for a couple of hours....

---

On the evening we were meeting up with lots of caching buddies for a curry at 7.30pm, so Julia being Julia, forced me to go out earlier and bag a few caches first.......so she picked me up at 5pm and we made our way to do some more of Sedgley Stroll.
We did one drive by on approach and then parked up to attack a few caches.

Sedgley Stroll by Dibboid & Mrs. Dibboid

http://coord.info/GC3B8TT

We did most of this section but unfortunately had to miss Hook a Duck and Holly and Ivy. We did all this by torchlight as it was dark well before we got there.
We struggled on a couple but got there in the end and found all the ones we attempted.
It was magical on the top of the hill as we could see for miles, there were lights everywhere....we could even make out the ones in Droitwich.

We desperately wanted to get to Hook a duck but couldn't work out how to get there as there were no tracks on Oregon maps and it was difficult with torch....we decided to loop round and also attempt Illumination in which I had worked out final coords for just a couple of days ago. The cache was nothing to shout about really but the puzzle part was fine.

We enjoyed the caches set by Dave and Kaye (Dibboid and Mrs.Dibboid) and will be back again soon to grab some more.
BUT now we are off for a curry.
We bagged 1 cache during curry as one of the attendees Paul (blokiebloke) had place one just over the road. So we had a mass exodus and a huge joint FTF by 20 odd people.
We also bagged one on the way home which was another set by Paul, it was quite nice to have the rest of Basketcase crew with me too haha......

So total for the day was 42 finds, a great day

The Curry Addicts!

Sedgley Stroll

Sedgley Stroll - A Good Stiff one ;)

http://coord.info/GC3BC6M

Caches are all placed next to public footpaths

I had arranged to meet up with caching buddies Shan (Griswalds 'n' dogs), Andy (Citrus-Lizard), Louise (thehorde), Helen (Queen of Tartz) and Allun (Shropshire Seekers) for a spot of caching. Fortunately before we got there we received notifications of this new series by Dave & Kaye (Dibboid & Mrs.Dibboid).

I only had so much time as I had an hospital appointment but I managed to get 6 Joint FTFs with the team and also picked up a Greyboots cache on route.

Sunrise in Sedgley by Louise Pearson

I will have to go back to do the rest of the series, which was thoroughly enjoyable.

Sedgley Stroll Workout