A stagger around the Cotswolds

At last there’s been some time to expand my caching experiences, and so I took myself off to the Cotswolds, an area I’ve always to discover, as there’s so many resonances with my home area of the Yorkshire Wolds, similar landscapes and feel to the air and so on. Basing myself in the town of Chipping Norton (www.chippingnorton.net) and meeting up with an old friend, Sarah (as walking buddy), we set off on Saturday morning, April 11th.

The first cache was just a half mile or so outside of town, and at the start I was somewhat uncertain as to exactly where it was. As usual the GPS got us close but then it was back to doing some Sherlock Holmes-type searching, tramping deep into the wood and going round in circles but eventually it turned up… Only as I was leaving the trees did I spot a clue. Thinking about it, it shouldn’t have a hard one, having found it, I signed the log book and moved on.

The next cache was a good couple of miles away, up past the Rollright stones, so off we went, stopping en route to admire the largely untouched church at Little Rollright. Many of the churches in Britain were altered in Victorian times, but this one escaped. Even now, I gather there is no electricty supply to the church, which is even more unusual.

As we got close to the second cache, the marked footpath, both on the map, and signposted on the ground, directed us downhill across a cultivated field with no indication of where the path actually was! We decided that if it was marked, we would walk that line. Halfway down the slope we came to the second cache, which had me baffled. I knew it was there, but could I as h*ll find it! The clue led me to look in some strange places, but once again, I was about to quit when I spotted an olive green bag wedged in the branches, and lo! there was the cache. Log book signed and off we went.

At Long Compton, we rested for lunch and then set off towards Whichford Wood, where there was a collection of 4 caches I wanted to try and collect. However, the slope up to the wood was too much for my buddy, so while she went back to the village I set off to get the nearest cache. Admittedly it was steep, but once on the top, the plateau was easy walking terrain, and I made good time.

The clue was a good one for this cache, and I immediately identified the site, but the bank up to the cache was a bit slippery and hard to climb. In spite of the weariness that was starting to creep up on me, I dug out the cache, signed the book and retraced my steps.

Back at Long Compton, I rested a short while, and then Sarah and I made our way home, back to Chipping Norton, a good 4-5 miles over the top and through Over Norton, arriving back at Chippy at about 5pm. It’ll be a while before I try and log caches on a walk of that length, about 13 1/2 miles.  ’Dash and cache’ has something to recommend it…

First cache

Friday 13th

I work in West London, in Ealing to be precise. So why not start looking for caches there in my lunch hour…? I mean, not far to travel, and it shouldn’t be too hard!

The first one I aimed at, was about 500m S of my office, in Walpole Park. Checked I got the co-ords right, so off I went. Through the gates, past the front of the building through the gates into the Rose garden. Hmm, now where is it? In the corner I thought. I wander over the corner and I look around, and can’t see it! Well I didn’t want to draw too much attention to myself yet, so after a couple of minutes scanning the garden, I decided to move on.

My next one was listed as being somewhere where close to Ealing Broadway. I knew ROUGHLY where this one was and so it was, a nano in a niche in an old tree trunk. Shame I forgot about having a pen to sign the log, so I took a picture, which I haven’t yet taken off the camera.

Sunday 15th

Seeing the weather was good, I decided to try some of the chaches close to me, along the Grand Union canal and into Northolt. The first one was at the bottom of the Grand Union towards Southall, but could I find it? Could I heck! Even with the clue I couldn’t find the nano that was hidden on or by the bridge, I gave up after skinning me elbow!

So I cut my losses and move back up the canal to one close by the marina. Getting to the marina, the GPS gave me a good clue but I think this one I got wrong. I was on the bridge over the entrance to the marina, but subsequently I think it was near water level than that. Hey-ho, not a successful morning!

My third and final cache of the day was up in Northolt, a good mile and a half away. Thankfully the canal path took me most of the way there. Into Belvue Park and up the hill, I’m sure there’s natural springs under this hillside, as it was soft and boggy for most of the way up the slope. Squelch, squelch, squelch! Didn’t seem to bother the horse that were being ridden down the slope.

The site of the manor is alongside and to the east of the pretty church, and the information board brought it to life. The clue was good, and there was the cache, hidden very well! Relief all round, as I was thinking that perhaps I was going to draw a blank. That would have been worrying for me. So I signed the log book, dated and timed the entry and that was that!

Geocaching – a whole new adventure.

Hello everyone.  My latest interest came about with me succumbing to temptation and buying a handheld GPS unit. Oh man!  A whole new realm of experiences opened up with a chance remark, made while I was watching my beloved Hull City play in London. My Garmin eTrex was spotted and the question was put to me “Was I into geocaching?”

Now I’d only vaguely heard of it, so after some research and general loafing around the net, I’ve begun to go searching for the caches.

Hopefully I can keep this blog relatively up to date…

PS The username I took for my account at geocaching.com I thought would serve for the blog as well!