Little Britain

This has been bookmarked for far too long and we finally came up with a date in February hoping that the weather would be kind to us.
So at 6am this morning Jules and Dave (BaggieDave) met at my house and we set off in the cachemobile of Jules and headed north up the M6.
We grabbed a McD's muffin and coffee at Congleton (or Congletoon in Jules case ) and then bagged a couple of drive by's on route to our destination for the day.

Little Britain by khoomfay

http://coord.info/GC31AMH

A series of 50 caches set over 12 miles of lovely hills. Terrain is obviously not easy going  and the route we took was almost 15 miles as we had to bag one or two extra.

At the parking coords we met up with caching buddies Lou (The Horde) & Shan and geopup Tia (Griswalds n dogs), we all got booted up and set off on our way.

Shan finds the first cache of the series....yay!

The start of the walk was ascending slowly for quite a distance and we could all feel the difference from walking mainly flat terrain lately. The views to be fair were absolutely stunning as we could see for miles and also the landmarks such as a lovely viaduct.

One of the best containers on the walk :)

Lovely scenery that I won't forget in a hurry.

The walk kept going up and up until around cache 9 and then path found its way to road where there was a lovely stream at the side of the road. We had already done a couple of caches on route at this time but we also made a diversion and view below is what we saw.

We may be strange hunting plastic, but look what we get to see!

We started to ascend again after around 3 miles and at getting on for around 7 miles in we reached a pub, where it wouldve been rude not to stop for a swift one...

Time for a swift one!

A lovely pic of Shan & Jules.

It was nice to stop at pub as we were almost half way round and almost at top of 2nd biggest hill of walk but we did start feeling a bit nippy so it was good to get back on with it.
We only had to climb a bit higher and then we had 2 miles of descent which pleased Lou especially as she hadn't had any sleep last night due to coming straight from work..

They are definately spoilt for views round here.

As we got lower it was pretty waterlogged in places and lots of mud but thats what adds to this walk, we were flying through the caches now and even managed to do a night cache that can be done in daylight by enabling the chirp to gain the coords.
There was also a nice pub down by the nightcache but we resisted on stopping again as the walk was just too good to stop again.

There were 2 more hills but not as relentless as first 2 but the 1 was pretty hard going and we stopped for a couple of minutes at top to get breath back.

The last couple of miles were actually flat much to the relief of the ladies and as we finished off walking around the edge of the reservoir we also took in the fantastically large bonus cache.

Jules about to sign the logbook for us all :)

Shan & Dave with the cache!

What a truly fantastic day we all had, it was certainly one of my favourite walks, definately recommended but do not take series lightly.

Total smilies in the bag today = 69

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.

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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!

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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....

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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......

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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

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.

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Total caches bagged today = 58

Fibbersley

Well seeing as the weather has been so fantastic lately myself and Mrs BCC thought it would be a nice idea to get out and meet up with some buddies for a spot of caching.

We met up with [monki], Citrus-Lizard & thehorde to do a series around Fibbersley Park.

Fibbersley by The GeoTracker

http://coord.info/GC3ETY1

A series of 9 caches that take you on a circular walk of approx 2 miles around Fibbersley Nature Reserve.

Fibbersley is one of Walsall's finest wetland sites. You'll find it in Willenhall, on the western edge of the borough, close to the boundary with Wolverhampton. Car parking is available off Noose Lane, next to Willenhall Memorial Park. You'll find a network of pools of various sizes, which are home to a variety of aquatic life, from insects like diving beetles and dragonflies, to amphibians.

Ben being a boy!

The hides were quite varied but nothing that we struggled to find, which of course is what we all like.

We were at this park a couple of weeks ago and as we liked it so much it made it an easy decision to return.

We had plenty of fun and happenings, firstly Ben fell out of a tree but thankfully he only recieved a few grazes. We all enjoyed going down a steepish dirt track and of course we loved the follow the needle through no matter what gets in our way.

All "the boys" together ;)

A fab day was had by all in this spectacular weather for march.

Fibbersley workout

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On the way home we bagged a few drive by's to make todays smiley count = 13.

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