It was my caching partner Jules’ turn to drive today, so she picked me up at a little after 7am and off we headed for another packed caching day.
I’d been looking at trying to get a resuscitator cache for a while and had got my eye on Campaign for Real (Caches) which hadn’t been found since 6th February 2011. Having done a bit of work on the puzzle a while back , I needed to redo some of the research, but soon had a pretty good idea of the co-ords, although one part of the puzzle was a bit hard to get a definitive answer for.
As we were heading in the vague direction of this cache for our main series of the day, we made this our first stopping off point of the day and were soon parked up near the canal towpath and ready for the search to begin. At GZ, the co-ords seemed a bit out, but we made a pretty thorough search of the area without any success. Both Jules and I were a bit reluctant to give up, but with the main series still a good drive away, we eventually threw in the towel and shuffled off back in the direction of the car, casting backwards glances over our shoulders at where we though the prize might lie. Never ones to give up, and bearing in mind that the cache might not have been found for a reason (like it had gone), we kept a keen look out for any misplaced Tupperware that might happen to be in amongst all of the overgrowth along the towpath. We were a good 200 yards from GZ when Jules wandered over to the edge of a wall and peered over...only to spy a decidedly cache looking box in some brambles. Next to it was a pen and some odds and ends that could well be swops. It took about a nano-second for me to wade into the brambles to recover the container and the stuff around it. There was no doubt about it, this was the cache which had clearly been muggled and dumped. There was even a calling card from some cachers who had previously found the cache. I signed and left a new log book, tidied up all of the contents and replaced the cache roughly where we had found it, but in a bit more of a secure place. When we got home I contacted the cache owner and gave him the co-ords for the spot where the cache is now. Hopefully, this will find its way back to its correct hiding place very soon.
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| The cache! |
Feeling quite chuffed with ourselves
, we then got back in the car and headed up the M6 towards Stafford to do the main series for the day:
Mythplaced by Sharant
http://coord.info/GC3BHE6
This is a 13km (8 mile) loop, mostly in countryside, which can be walked in any order or direction. The series 'bonus' cache is actually a 6-stage multicache interspersed between the series caches, which you can collect on your way round or separately. Walking Notes are in the Series multicache GC3BHE6.
There are plenty of options for parking - look near to 'Dragon', 'Ghouls', 'Pegasus' or 'Grææ'.
We arrived at about 9.15am and parked up near the pub. A quick change of boots and we were off...although if the pub had been open and selling coffee and bacon sandwiches, that might have been our first stop of the day! Sadly it wasn’t, so it was on with the caching. I made a quick find of the first cache while Jules was trying to find her pen in the many sections of her rucksack and then we continued along the way. The first few caches took us down pavements and paths and then it was onto the canal for a lovely, quiet walk where there are not only the caches from this series, but a few extras along the way too. I found the first four or five caches and was wondering if Jules might still be asleep! She eventually woke up and found a couple of caches, including her 900th find. It was pretty quiet along the canal at this time of the morning, a few dog walkers and some crazy people doing a thing called jogging, but hey, it takes all sorts I guess lol.
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| Nice house! |
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| Jules hits 900! |
After the canal, the series heads off across some lovely countryside. We encountered a field full of cows, but they showed no interest in us, thank goodness. Back onto the roads for a short while and then back into the lovely countryside and some really interesting caches and cache sites. The weather was warming up so it was time to pack the coats away which is always a good feeling – spring is well and truly on its way!
We were doing well so far with collecting the stages of the multi which are fitted in nicely along the walk and having lots of geo-chat and laughs along the way. We went off route to pick up
Bluebells By The M6 which was in a lovely woodland alongside the M6. The bluebells were already starting to grow – this place will look stunning in a month or so’s time.
Another diversion, this time to
Brother's Hump a 4/4.5 cache. Ever prepared (not) we had no idea what this was all about, but first explored the caves at the bottom of the cliffs which used to be a WW2 munitions store, but looks like it has more recently seen more raves and partying. A strange place, Jules thought it was a bit creepy and we didn’t hang around for too long. So, back to the cache...Jules had a quick look at the cache pages and we suddenly realised that this wasn’t a bit of Tupperware in a hedge! We did a quick reccy – spotted the cache – oh heck! Went to a different level for a closer look. Hmmm...Jules got down on her bum and shuffled forwards and before too long had the cache. Not a place for celebratory dances, we signed the log, and carefully returned the cache to its hiding place. A good feeling to have bagged this one, but not one for the faint hearted and definitely not a place for geokids or geohounds.
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| Outside the caves! |
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| and inside! |
We also did the slightly easier Sister’s Hump, which was a bit of a challenge, but not as tricky as Brother’s Hump.
The PFs continued to take us through some lovely countryside and we stopped for a break in a lovely sunny spot that overlooked the M6 but was really pretty and quiet. Amazing how the noise of the motorway can be drowned out by the sound of the birds who were happily singing away. Somewhere along the way though I seemed to lose my caching mojo and didn’t find a cache for about 10 in a row! Just as well that Jules was on form by now else we could have ended the day with more DNFs than finds – imagine the shame!!
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| Lovely trees! |
After about 6 hours we finally bagged the final cache of the series, and were also happy to find the last stage of the multi after quite a hunt. We returned to get the car as the final cache for the multi was a bit of a drive away, but first stopped at the pub which was by now open and picked up a much needed takeaway coffee. A quick drive to the nearest parking for the cache and another nice walk. Finding the cache took longer than expected but after a while, cacher’s instinct kicked in and we ignored where the arrow was pointing and looked in the obvious place – only to find the cache. Why didn’t we look there 10 minutes ago – doh!
With the last cache of the day in the bag, there was nothing else to do than start planning our next adventure...bring it on!
Caches bagged doing Mythplaced & others on walk = 36
Total caches bagged today = 37
Many thanks for the blog written by Jules
