Set out early for a long day’s caching up in Eccleshall, where we hoped to do a couple of series. Caching buddy Julia of the the Bedfords picked me up at 7am (she’s a lightweight and doesn’t believe in leaving home before 6.30am on a Saturday!). We were meant to meet some other caching pals at the parking co-ords, but they had decided to go off on a FTF mission and so would hopefully meet us a bit later on.
Eccleshall Ring by Sharant
Got to Eccleshall without any problems and decided to park up outside the school. No need for torches this morning as it was now light and off we went. This loop consists of 13 caches, named after the dwarves that accompanied The Hobbit, plus some bonus caches which can be done en route or picked up separately. Don’t forget to collect the info for the bonus as you find the caches!
The terrain was pretty good all of the way round – a bit muddy in places but not bad for January. No major hills and some great views.
We had a really great time doing this loop and although the cache page suggests that this is a 2-3 hour walk, we did the 13 traditional caches in about an hour – and that was with a bit of searching for a few caches in places and a fair bit of gaffing around in others, including the now infamous Giggler Tree, where Julia got her revenge and was not very helpful when I was trying to get the cache back into it’s hiding place...
A good variety of caches, all shapes and sizes. We found them all (except for the puzzle caches to it) and as we walked down the lane, back to the car, who was lurking at the end of the lane, but my other caching buddies Andy and Shan, who had done their FTF hunt and were ready to join us for our second (much longer) loop of the day.
EeeByEck by Ticklebrick
We felt like we went round in circles to start with as we weren’t really clear about where we were meant to start and after a bit of milling about and heading up a few dead ends, we eventually hit on a clear GPSr reading and could find a path that took us in the direction we needed to go in. We ended up in the village centre quite quickly – a nice little place with a good selection of small shops, a pub or two, some toilets and the usual local character who decided to stop and chat just as we were attempting to replace a magnetic nano on a bench...
The route out of town took us along a fairly fast, busy road, which caused no problems for four sensible adults like us lol, but you would need to keep an eye on geokids along this short stretch of road. Once off the road, the route took us through lovely countryside, using well marked public footpaths, tracks and quiet lanes. The terrain was pretty easy going, a couple of hills but nothing too daunting, although in one place, with the wind blowing hard in our faces and the underfoot conditions decidedly claggy, it did feel a bit like hard work.
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| Andy scheming! haha |
The weather was pretty kind to us, quite chilly but with some bright sunshine, and although we did have a bit of rain at one stage, this only lasted 5 minutes, so nothing to complain about.
Lots of laughs and messing about – pretty much the norm for us really – fake caches and sneaky finds, meant that the miles and the caches were whizzing by. Only one DNF along the route and it seems clear that the cache has actually gone awol, judging by the number of earlier DNFS logged and those logged since. However, even the disappointment of the DNF was totally cancelled out when I placed a fake cache near GZ, which Shan discovered shouting at the top of her voice “I am such a genius!!!!” while the rest of us stood by sniggering. She has forgiven me...I think!
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| "Twins and twats" a name Shan gave us all for playing her up! |
Shan also celebrated a brilliant milestone of 2000 caches found – well done Shan and geo-dog Tia, what an ace achievement!
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| Congrats to caching partner Shan & Tia....woop woop!! |
All in all, this was a really enjoyable series, a good variety of caches, some easy, some a bit more challenging. Andy and Shan had to cut the last bit short, so Julia and I carried on to bag a few puzzle caches along the way and then picked up the final bonus cache at the end. We ended up back in the village centre where we popped into a local cafe and bought ourselves a hot drink – total bliss at the end of a brilliant day’s caching.
Total caches bagged = 47 with just the 1 DNF.
A big thanks to Julia for this write up x
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