Northampton in the mud!

I spotted a new series get published in this area 2 weeks ago and so Jules and I decided that we should pop down to the area and do some caching.
So I was out of bed at 5.20am and picking Jules up enroute at 6.30am.
The Sat nav seemed to take us a silly way there but it got us there in just over a hour so alls well.
After a drive by on the way we parked up to do this new series and all other caches on the route.

Macmillan & Midshires Meander by T A G

http://coord.info/GC3H1TT

This is a series of 35 caches making a figure of eight walk of over 8 miles. Along the route there are 8 existing caches and 5 others available with slight diversions. There is some steepish terrain in places but will pose no problems for most cachers.
The first few caches  we had to cross a small ditch which under normal circumstances would be easy but with it raining and being very muddy it added to the fun.

One of the few pics took today!

As we walked on through fields which most had long grass in the progress was slow, there was mud everywhere. Please note that all of this is due to the substantial amount of rain we have had in the past week or so.

Dreary and wet but still fun!

A puzzle cache on route!

Around half way round we made a 1.5 mile diversion to another cache by T A G called  Only The Worthy, we had worked out the final coords to it in the week and after passing through lots more mud in cow trodden fields we were at GZ with one of... if not the best cache containers we had both ever found.
It took us a while to work out how to get logbook out but it was definately all worth it.

We then headed back towards rejoining the series and picked up a takeaway coffee and tea from a local tearoom.
Shortly after we bumped into T A G aka Colin who was out to check up on a couple of caches.... fortunately for us 2 were missing but replaced while we was with him...

After trudging through mud and getting rained on the whole time we managed to walk just under 10 miles in 6 hours.

I can highly recommend series but if you are going to do it soon make sure you wear waterproofs and walking boots/wellies. All of the caches were not hard to find with a couple taking a little longer than others.

---

We just had enough time to take in another local series before we called it a day but didn't do so well on that one as we dnf'ed 2 of the caches..... oh well can't win them all.

Total caches bagged today = 60

Symond Yat & Ross-on-Wye

So another Saturday comes along and today everywhere we were to visit was arranged by caching partner Jules.
She picked me up from home at around 6.40am and we set off with lots of extras today as the forecast wasn't too promising for the afternoon.
We headed south down the M5 and took the Gloucester exit on route to the parking for first caches of the day, a drive by next to a church and Waterfall Reachin by Geobuzzbee.

We had loads of fun at the waterfall even before we reached there as we tried to get to it directly via road but it was a tad dangerous haha. Once at GZ we had a pretty good look but we both had a feeling that it wasn't there even before we set off due to a few DNF's.....it turns out it was there all along but we didn't find it unfortunately,

Yep, it's behind there somewhere!

Looking away from waterfall!

Oh well nevermind the area was definately worth a visit and a return trip some other time.....We went back to the car to park up for another 2 caches:
Welshbury Iron Age Fort which we had to walk up a hill and through some lovely woods to get to, it really is lovely around here. We found the cache and then I led us the wrong way somehow haha .....it was mainly due to not looking at map on Oregon.

We were so glad we took the wrong path as some of the views were stunning, we figured it was a good place to have a 5 minute chill and take a few snaps.

Near to GZ.

Views we came across by accident!

We moved on in the correct direction this time and we soon arrived at what was to be our 2nd DNF of the day, but yet again a fantastic area.
ST Anthony Rocky River  We spent a while looking around here and have a feeling it may not be there any more but maybe we missed it somehow. We had great fun walking across a natural bridge and then lying on bank with arms stretching up into all the tree roots.
A lovely area.

It's supposed to be around here somewhere!

As we gave up it started to rain and then hail as we walked back to the car. We were now on our way to a small series nearby.

HW series by Geobuzzbee

http://coord.info/GC2R1Y5

A 2.5 mile walk taking in 7 caches over the Heywoods with 1 extra on way back to car. The terrain was pretty easy once at top of small hill, although number 7 would not be easy to get if you struggle to get around as it was down a bit of a bank.
All the caches were straightforward finds with 7 being my favourite and earning a fave point.

A bit of a scramble down to cache 7, but easy enough!

We bagged the extra cache on our way back to the car and had a quick cup of coffee before moving on to Symonds Yat.....

---

Symonds Yat Rock by SidAndBob

http://coord.info/GC1EGCZ

This is definately a fantastic earthcache as the views looking down on the River Wye are fantastic.

To the right of viewing platform

and to the left!

We took a few moments to take it all in and read up on the information board before returning to car. We were going to do the series right by car park but feared we wouldn't have enough time to fit in the main attraction of the day, so we decided to move on and park car up on the other side of the river.

So we parked up and there were 4 caches we were after over here, we started of with King Arthur's Cave but we didn't go in the caves due to time and the fact that we will need to go into a cave to look for a cache shortly.

Next we bagged a cache overlooking the river again....yet another fantastic location. We never took in one more cache on the way to the main attraction....

Looking for Linda by SidAndBob

http://coord.info/GCYK2B

As we approached this we were a bit unsure where to go and soon realised that the coords we arrived at were above where we wanted to be so it was just a matter of finding the entrance.

Somewhere above the cache.

Where's the door gone?

After a few minutes of scrambling around we managed to spot the entrance , so we both donned our torches and prepared to go in and look for Linda

It was fun ducking down to get in the entrance and proceeding a short distance to the back of the cave. Amazingly we had only just got in there really when Jules spotted and retrieved the cache.
We took a couple of photos and had a good look round to take it all in, I rank this as one of my favourite caches.

Another fab cache found by team BCC Beds!

It was now time to get back to the car which wasn't to far away. It started hailing on the way but thankfully we reached the car before it turned really heavy...

We were full of smiles after such a great cache and decided that it would be nice to head back slowly but stop off in Ross-on-Wye.

---

We parked up near to a cricket pitch and skate park to do some caches spread out around the town. All of the caches were quick finds around this nice town, I also bagged some chips from Chippy on way round.

The lovely views from the Prospect

So another fine day as come to an end, with the weather being pretty kind to us.

---

Total smileys bagged today = 25

Broken in Peterborough day 2

So day 2 begins and we are all aching a fair bit but nowhere near as bad as we thought we might be after yesterdays mammoth day.
We bagged a cache outside Travelodge and then another by McDonalds before making our way to the first series of the day and to meet up with caching buddy Jules, who was down here for the day.

Apethorpe Agadoo by poshrule

http://coord.info/GC3FHE5

The Apethorpe Agadoo is a walk of just over 5 miles taking in 25 caches with 3 more on route, it will take you on footpaths and bridleways from just outside the village and back again.

So at 9am we met at parking coords and set off on the walk. The sun yet again was shining for us but there was also quite a breeze in exposed places.

A good start on the series!

The walk was easy going which is always a plus when your body is broken from the day before, I think the fact that Jules was here with a fresh, non-aching body was a plus for all of us.

Lou & Ash waiting whilst Nikki signs the log.

We took a slight diversion after #6 to pick up CC02-The Railway which took us a couple of mins to find but we got there. At around cache #8 we were really spoilt!!! Lou looked up and spotted a Red Kite, there was lots of showing of for us but nobody managed to get a really good picture but it certainly was one of the highlights of the walk....

It's there somewhere haha!

All the caches were proving to be quick finds and so was our next "extra" cache ..... Glenn Miller cache by thepanteras.

Glenn Miller Memorial at the former RAF Kingscliffe, site of his last hangar concert..

The cache was placed very close to a Glenn Miller memorial., which we all found rather interesting. The only thing that really put us off were signs all over the place telling us to keep off private land, it was hard to tell which was the real path......surely it wouldve been easier for them to mark the footpath better?

Ash on the old airfield!

The area round here was lovely apart from those damn signs. We carried on with the walk passing a couple of ladies on their fine horses and a while after we were passed by a jogger twice!!!! He must've been running around in circles haha.

I think this walk was a little bit more less flat in terrain than the others but it may have just felt like there were more slopes due to tiredness of the feet.

Clouding over, but still dry!

After a while we came to another cache kinda on the route: Sneaky - The Box II by mad.bird which was a good one for the D/T grid (4.5-1,5), the main difficulty being that it was an ammo box.... but not just anormal ammo box as it was much much smaller in size than the traditional ones. With 5 of us searching, Jules soon made the find in an interesting area too.

So it was just 4 more caches of the series and 1 other on route back to the car, we really enjoyed this nice walk and feel we have enough energy for another one before heading home.

Catworth Cult TV circular by schnaws

http://coord.info/GC3EHKQ

A fun walk of just under 5 miles with 25 caches up for grabs. The route takes in the village of Catworth, across crop fields and bridleways and alongside farming land. Parking is available at the local pub, and next door there is a small village shop. Once out of Catworth however, there are no available amenities.

The series is based on popular TV programs of a generation ago, ie when I was growing up haha.
There were some nicely thought out caches on this series and we had a lot of fun remembering the programs.

Yay well done Nikki!

Most of the cache containers had pictures of the TV programs and some of them had little toys which played the theme tune, it was really a nice touch. Others were handcrafted
I think most of us who were here yesterday are really beginning to ache now and so it was quite inevitable that this would be last series of our stay here.

Team work as usual, what a team!

We were chuffed to have chosen this series to end our stay here. We loved all the Poshrule walks but it was nice to try someone elses.

Both Paul (poshrule) & Ian (schnaws) emailed us all afterwards and thanked us for doing their walks.
A big thanks to them and of course to all my caching buddies for making these 2 days so enjoyable.

---

Total smilies bagged today = 57

Broken in Peterborough day 1

I had booked a cheap Travelodge family room back in February for Alwalton, Peterborough and after a few weeks of sorting  out who was coming the challenge was set. What challenge???
Well originally I wanted to get to 100 caches in a day and I knew it would be possible as there are plenty of caches available within a 10 mile radius of Peterborough......but then Blue Nora, TheHorde, [Monki] & Unowho67 became involved in the plans and after a last minute change of plan, we decided that 150 was just about possible but obviously not easy...

The morning on Friday 13th April arrived and my darling wife kindly dropped me off at Ash [Monki]'s house at 6am. Lou of the Horde was already there so after having a chat with Wendy (Ash's lovely mom) we were on our way to the first series, picking Nikki (Blue Nora) up on route.

We arrived at parking coords for the first walk of approx 20 miles at around 7.20am and by 7.30am our other buddies Elaine & Simon (Unowho67).

So off we set on a foggy start to the day to take in the series Keyston Kache Kaper & Hargrove Hobble.

On our way to first cache of the day!

---

Keyston Kache Kaper by poshrule

http://coord.info/GC3B89X

The Keyston Kache Kaper is a walk of approximately 9 miles taking in  47 caches plus 2 extra on route and 2 more in the village. The walk is on bridleways and footpaths and a short section of road and the going is fairly easy.
There was cattle in field to cache #1 and when entering the field go to the left of the fence to get to the cache or you will have some climbing over to do, we didn't have to walk across any other cattle. Between caches 33 and 34 you go through some farm buildings and a field with two horse's, 28 is slightly off set from the rest due to landowner issues so you have to double back but not far at all....the walk is very easy going and all caches were easy.

Have we found it yet?

We combined the walk with Hargrave Hobble so in effect we started in Keyston and ended in Keyston....this was parked up by the only pub we came across.

Hargrave Hobble by poshrule

http://coord.info/GC3D1GV

The Hargrave Hobble is a walk of approximately 12 miles and taking in 55 caches along footpaths, byways, bridleways and country lanes. There are two Just Northamptonshire caches directly on the route, one very close by, two Church Micro's and also a RAF Chelverston cache on route.
Between caches 33 & 34 go round the field edge as the farmer is happy with that, between 41 & 43 the road is busy but has a wide grass verge, 51 to 52 has a big gap as you will walk through a massive field along the track, 53 to 55 again is on a busy road but again a wide verge.

Taking a breather!

The weather was kind to us as the forecast said we were in for a couple of heavy showers but thankfully they didn't materialise. We clocked in over 21 miles although for some reason my everytrail only shows 20 miles in around 10 hours....

---

We were all in need of some warm food to keep us going, so we  went into Thrapston and popped into a chippy, whilst sitting on a bench opposite it was decided on what series we were going to do next and also it was when our buddies Elaine & Simon decided to call an end to their day as their Travelodge was near to where we were and most of the drive by's needed later were by our Travelodge.

Winwick Wander by poshrule

http://coord.info/GC2WF2V

The Winwick Wander is a walk of just under 5 miles, where you can take in 23 cache's plus 1 other enroute.
We tried to get a bit of speed up on this one until it was dark so we could have as much light as possible. All the caches were easy to find but a little more difficult once it did turn dark.

Not broken yet!

We soon had the series up once it had gone dark and were back at the car but beginning to ache a little.... We now stood at 134 for the day......

---

We now headed back towards our Travelodge and took in as many poshrule drive by's as possible, afterall the man is a legend around these parts. We decided to get 151 just incase we messed up somewhere but we hadn't....by 11pm we reached the Travelodge 151 smilies better off....

What an epic day, total smilies bagged = 151

A trip to Melton Mowbray

Easter Sunday and out for the day with my caching pal Jules of the bedfords. We were heading up to Leicestershire – in particular, the Melton Mowbray area to pick up some caches and some pork pie! On the way, we stopped off to pick up a quick drive by and then LQ: Leicestershire - RATAE CORIELTAVORVM  which was a small cache on a path. Not as special as some of the LQs I’ve done, but another one ticked off the list.

Then..a bit of a surprise for Jules.... a 5/5 in the shape of Cold War Cache

Cold War Cache by Jacaru

http://coord.info/GC32REK

We’d both done a similar cache near Swindon but thought this one was more atmospheric – the bunker is in quite an overgrown area and it’s really dark in there...A great caching highpoint for both of us!

In the bunker!

Jules on way out

Then another treat:

Schrödinger’s Ghostly wormhole paradox by Pinfold

http://coord.info/GC2HJYV

It took us a while to locate the right portal, but that was all part of the experience. Then it was on with the torches and in we went! An amazing place, we were both really chuffed with this one.

Cache in the bag!

The portal

After these special caches, we grabbed another drive by and then headed off to do some numbers in the form of two series

The Somerby Circuit by The Bonhams

A series consisting of 24 caches over 3.5 miles.
A nice variety of caches and hides in lovely countryside, well marked paths and only a few cows! We really enjoyed this series and found all the caches so we were very pleased.

We parked up by here to do both series

We then went on to Pickwell Series, not even needing to move the car as the both series pretty much share the same start point.

Pickwell Series by the The Bonhams

A series which consists of 26 caches over 4.8 miles. Once again, lovely views, interesting hides and a really good walk. Very enjoyable and a few fave points awarded for some of the caches Thanks to The Bonhams for placing these caches.

It took us an age to find the cache here.

The weather was kind to us today – just as well really as I’d left my coat at home – doh! One small shower but otherwise, a pretty nice day. In addition to the caches on the series, both loops allowed us to pick up a couple of extra caches en-route. We ended the day with a final drive by as we headed home, bring the tally for the day to 63.

A really great day with only one disappointment...realising that all the shops were shut and not being able to buy a proper Melton Mowbray pork pie. Oh well, we’ll just have to go back another day!

Thanks to Jules for writing this blog!

Rodington Ramble

This series was published last week while I was away down Hastings with Kate & Ben, so as soon as I was back home and with proper internet connection I put a post on Facebook West Mids Geocaching group to see who fancied  this ramble.
Not surprising but thankfully it drummed up a bit of interest, so today I met up with the 2 Daves (BaggieDave & The Strangler), Bob (B.B.B. formerly G6LPB) & Lou (TheHorde) and at 7.45am the ramble commenced.

Rodington Ramble by nozi parkerz

http://coord.info/GC384CP

This is a trail of 58 caches, around Rodington and Isombridge The route is about a 10/11 mile walk but can be done in sections with some walking and some drive bys, there is a number of suitable parking areas. The terrain is mainly flat walking along country roads and public footpaths. There is a variety of cache sizes and hides some easy and  some not so easy.

We chose to park on a car park by cache number 19 and then do the whole lot as a walk. It started of with a bit of drizzle and then shortly after the rain got a bit heavier forcing us all to put our coats on.

An old boot!

The walk started off nicely and we came across many neatly crafted caches, there as obviously been a great deal of time and effort gone into making them.

A pic of the stream by Lou!

Today was a good day for geochat and of course the banter. We all at different stages went a while without finding one but then made up for it at another point.
During most of the walk we hardly went past any houses and it was very quiet and peaceful. The footpaths were mostly marked ok with a few stiles here and there.

The Pied Piper of Rodington.

After a while we were able to take coats off as it had stopped raining and even the sun made an appearance at one point. We did go through a pretty noisy area too but that was where there were lots of hounds as well as kennels and a travellers farm....but the quietness soon returned just as we bumped into other cachers who were out on the trail today.

Part of the team with The West Viewers & lostnwet

We had a chat with lostnwet & The West Viewers and both moved on briefly before bumping into them both again with c/o nozi parkerz, Wild Goosey & BFG.
A great part of geocaching is definately bumping into friends and meeting new ones, we all chatted for a good 10 minutes before moving on.

A brief chat with c/o....pic courtesy of The Strangler

A shot by cache #1....pic courtesy of The Strangler

That was it for bumping into anyone else today but there were plenty more great caches left to do, one of them involved us losing the path and crossing a brook with mud and shallow water to get over, it was a little tricky so as I was over safely first I offered to grab Lou as it was a bit slippy....Unfortunately I slipped and Lou's feet went straight in for a dip oops hehe.

Well I think that is pretty much it for this great series today!
We found all the caches and can highly recommend this to everyone who enjoys a longish walk.

---

Total caches bagged today = 58

Scooby Doo.....where are you?

To start the day off I had just enough time for a drive by Studio 16 - Aural Sculpture (by The Strangler) which I had DNF'ed before, today I found it straight away..... and then to get dropped off at one point, walk a mile and be picked up at another.

I managed to get:

• Weatheroak Wander: Gate
• The Lazy Cacher's Guide to Northfield Street Names
• B.M.Ex

All 3 caches were enjoyable but found quickly, the Lazy Cacher's guide being a mystery cache I had solved ages ago....Nice to have them all in the bag.

---

Whilst attending the Brummie Meet last week these few caches had been published and there had been lots of talk about them since. The talk was very positive although Geohatter (the reviewer) did disable them at one point due to a complaint from a cacher that the caches didn't have log books in. The truth is that they did but they weren't inside each individual cache.
The cacher who complained to the reviewer was probably chasing the FTFs and realised that they had to find them all first, I won't say anymore as I don't want to spoil the theme of it as I enjoy everything Brett the c/o does.

The Scooby Doo Mysteries by mwahppets

http://coord.info/GC3FCYV

This is a set of 5 mystery, premium only caches, they are great family fun or done in a group like we did. You can walk 4 of them in under 2 miles and then reposition car for the last one.

All of BCC was out today to cache with other caching teams. We parked in the middle of Dickens Heath on a carpark behind Main Street (Approx coords N52 23.147 W1 50.175 from Memory Map) to meet up with The Strangler, Fantastic Finders!, matlou98, Family B, Dibboid & Mrs Dibboid.

As talking about these will definately spoil future fun I have decided to just add a few pics of the fun we had.

The caches:

• Scooby Doo                            http://coord.info/GC3FCYV
• Shaggy                                    http://coord.info/GC3FCZD
• Mummys the word                  http://coord.info/GC3FD23
• Soggy Bog Scooby                  http://coord.info/GC3FD2Z
• The Phantom Racer                 http://coord.info/GC3FD3Z 

The Mystery team on their way....pic by The Strangler

Playtime with Scooby

It was sooo scary!.....pic by The Strangler

Where's mummy?.....there they are!!

I didn't wobble much!

Yikes! What was that noise?

An absolutely fantastic time was had by all....and not just the kids..... and 1 other cache was bagged on route. Max's Spooky Pipes (nee Stye) by The Cuthies & Max

---

Early evening a few caches were published not to far away so I thought as I hadn't had a drink I may as well pop out and take a look at them. I had a bit of a disaster downloading GPX file to Oregon as my pc crashed delaying me by around 10 mins......amazingly I still managed 1 FTF up against team maxtrev and AdamandBeckyChater.
There were 5 released and they were all drive by's... Pedmore Cache and Dash by Caspian317
All the caches were relatively easy but some thought went into 2 of them and they were slightly harder to find due to busy road.
I bumped into Clan Bryant at one of the caches and then saw them again at 2 others, it was fantastic to meet you both

I also ended the day making a bit of a muppet of myself.....Clan Bryant had just found a cache we were looking for and I said that I was just going to say hi to Mrs. maxtrev who was sat in the layby in her car.....well! I knocked on window and she pulled window down, it then took me a full 5 seconds to realise that this was NOT Mrs. maxtrev or even a cacher DOH!!!   I was so embarrassed, all she had done was pull in to make a phone call.....

A funny end to a fab day all round....

---

Total smilies bagged today = 15