We recognised the location as soon as we pulled into the parking spot from when we'd done Croome Cache back in June 2008.
Interestingly we remembered that the location was used for the filming of the TV seriesSurvivors and we recognised the house from the programme.
Thoroughly enjoyed our walk around Croome Park, the caches were quite spaced out which was perfect as this leaves you with plenty of opportunity to enjoy the surroundings between caches.
Then it was back to the car for lunch and off to The Old Folly and DON'T BE STUMPED, a very nice couple of caches in an interesting spot.
Pirton Castle, Croome Park
We were intrigued by the folly and wondered what it had looked like when it was first built, on our return home I looked it up and it seems that it was actually built as a ruin and looked just like this back in 1797. You can read about it here.
The weather was perfect for caching today, the car thermometer read 19°C! Must remember to put the sun-cream in the caching bag.
Then it was time to head home, picking a few drive-bys and shorter walks on the way.
Flotsam and Jetsam EXTREME.
4 miles walk/slide, 1 cache
Mark:
Back in January I found Sausages without any special equipment and it was the toughest one I'd done so far. TarmacJohn then challenged me to do Flotsam and Jetsam EXTREME. It had been on our 'to do' list since I first became aware of it a couple of years ago so I didn't need any persuasion really.
The cache can only be done at low tide and for safety it's best attempted at the low tides of the Spring or Autumn equinoxes to give maximum possible time to complete the walk.
The walk involves trudging a couple of miles in estuarine mud anything from four inches to knee deep. For some reason the rest of the family weren't too keen
So, today was the day and I picked up Omis49 and TarmacJohn en-route arriving at the parking co-ordinates at about 10:30 after doing a few drive-bys on the way
We were soon at the stage one with a number of other like-minded loonies and getting the ropes and hi-viz jackets out
Preparations
Before long were were all making our way through mud
It's muddy!
and after a couple of miles we'd arrived at the wreck
Wreck at Stage 5
Having calculated the co-ordinates for the final we were able to walk directly to the shore and soon had the cache in hand!
All in all a great cache and a must-do for anyone who likes a challenge and fancies doing something a bit different.
Our main reason for our visit to the Hereford area this afternoon was to do 28 Days Later. Mark had spotted this one whilst looking for caches for the D/T grid and were intrigued by the listing. An enjoyable cache, just the sort of thing we like, can't say much else about it really as the CO requests 'no spoilers'. Although here's a pic I took nearby .
We had an hour or so spare before we needed to head home so we went off to Aconbury Hill to do a short series of caches. The weather was perfect for caching today, glorious sunshine but not too hot. It turned out to be a very enjoyable walk we even bagged a trigpoint while we were there.
The Hunters Walks Series 3 is set in Nutnells and Randan Woods North West of Bromsgrove in Dodford.
We've been looking forward to doing this series as we've thoroughly enjoyed the other Hunters Walks caches so knew we weren't going to be disappointed.
A bit of a chilly start to the walk but before long the sun was shining and we had the warmest day of the year so far, there were lots of signs of spring.
Spring has sprung!
It's obvious that a lot of thought and work has gone into setting this series. All the caches were fairly easy to find with good hints although some of the paths were ill defined in places. There were no dog proof stiles along the way and no cows either, just a couple of horse fields but they were no problem at all. A couple of the caches were very well thought out, in particular our favourite of the series has to be Series 3 (Walk 4) The Fairy Door, an excellent hide that had us chuckling for quite some time.
A really enjoyable walk in the spring sunshine that we completed in 4 hours.
80 caches + 4 extra on a 21 mile circular bike ride
The Water to Follow series is a series of caches set along the Rivers and canals in West London
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We have been wanting to do this series since they were first published back in 2008. Steven and Beth were away with Explorer Scouts for the weekend so we took the opportunity to have a day cycling by ourselves in West London.
We'd contacted Rodz last November asking where would be the best place to leave the car but decided to wait until the longer days so we could complete the series in daylight.
Arrived at parking in Perivale Road (N51 31.930 W000 19.600) at about 09:30 and set off on our bikes. Mark had had a brief look at the route and decided we should go clockwise giving us a possible opt-out point about four miles from the end if we had run out of daylight.
To save time looking up hints etc we'd printed off and laminated a sheet with hints to all the WTF caches listed in the order in which we'd be doing them.
First cache WTF: Tube? That'll be Underground no problems here although my new handlebar mount for the Oregon meant it was tricky to see the screen in the bright sunlight! The next three caches were no problem but then had out first DNF at WTF: rodz last? go out on a high. It was obvious where the cache should have been but we certainly couldn't find it. Luckily the next two were quick finds and then we were off the roads and following the River Brent. Two more easy finds and then we reached WTF: Metal (jin). Mark was keen to find this one because the 5/3 D/T rating was one we needed for the D/T grid. Unfortunately, it's a 5* difficulty for a reason and, although we could see the cache easily enough, it is not easy to reach without being pre-prepared. Great idea for a cache though and we hope to return in the future with our specialist equipment.
We had to cross over the road as the path was flooded under the road. Just as we stopped the bikes we spotted a family of mice crossing the path, they were very sleepy and walking very slowly.
Mouse
As we approached I is for Inclined we spotted some people with Oregons and they introduced themselves as cachers Heffelump007 and Joss, we enjoyed a brief geo-chat before going our separate ways, we continued South onto the canal and down as far as WTF: Big Piles? Oooer, misses! before turning round and heading back northwards
We spent ages looking for WTF: rodz ? well not ere before giving up and moving onto the next one. Only then did we realise that we, had read the wrong clue and whizzed back for an easy find!
No problems with the next few caches until we got to WTF: TA. No luck here! A jogger stopped and asked if we were OK, we said we were fine and so we carried on searching, the area smelt pretty unpleasant and after a couple of rats ran past we decided to leave this one.
After this point we had nearly as many DNFs as finds - at some of the locations it was not possible to search due to the high number of muggles so not true DNFs.
WTF: Magnets? You'll find doors and kitchens is the closest point to the car (about half a mile) but about four miles from the end of the circuit, so when we got there we decided wether to opt out or continue. After a moment's deliberation we decided to continue but restrict search time to a minute at the most.
Away from the canal now and along the busy road and to a muggle rich area, arrived at WTF: Tell Tale and searched for a minute or two in what looked like the obvious place, we were getting tired and light was fading, just about to DNF it when Mark had a brainwave and spotted the extremely clever hide, this was our favourite of the series until we arrived at WTF: Mines a Footlong, we spent quite some time walking up and down by the subway, tried the 'where would we hide it?' method and still nothing, then Mark had a brainwave (yep two in one day) and spotted it, very clever indeed and our new favourite of the series. Really like this type of hide, very sneaky indeed and the many passing vehicles probably didn't even give us a second thought. What a pity we can't give anything away but if you do it then I think you'll agree it's a good one.
After 9 hours we were back at the car, what a brilliant series and great fun by bike, we were really lucky with the weather too, the sun shone all day! We had a record number of DNFs (16) but this was partly down to not being able to search due to muggles or time constraints so we were limiting our searching time, towards the end we were only having a look for a minute or two. Some of the hides were extremely tricky but once found very rewarding. Then it was off to the drive-thru McDonalds just off Hanger Lane for a well earnt tea!
We would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys caching by bike.
Check out our Everytrail to see the route and photos that we took along the way.
Stopped off to do a couple of caches in Bolas Heath on the way. We parked on the verge to do The Bolas Heathens have been Frogged and then walked up to What the Heck. We were hoping to have a chat with The Bolas Heathens and made sure we made plenty of noise but there was no sign of them being at home and think that as it was Saturday John and Isaac had probably gone out caching, oh well we're sure it won't be long before we're bumping into them again.
We had been wanting to do this cache ever since it was published, we had planned a trip to the area today and decided to join our caching friend G6LPB to do this one today.
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The cache is located at RAF Tilstock 3 miles south of Whitchurch, Shropshire, amongst the derelict buildings of a disused army base which have had various uses throughout the 20th Century. You can read more here.
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Interestingly one of the nissen huts contains the remains of vintage car which on research when we got home appears to have been a Sunbeam Talbot 90.
Possibly an old Sunbeam Talbot 90
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We love doing caches at places of historical interest and thoroughly enjoyed exploring around the old army base and going in and out the old buildings, great fun and highly recommended!
Next we headed off to do the Meretown Meander. We'd planned it as an afternoon walk as we thought it was only 6km as stated in the cache listing but once we arrived at the parking and had a closer look at the map we realised it was more like 6-7 miles!
We set off in the drizzle and soon came to heavy marshland, managed to find our way around it without getting our feet too wet.
Marshland
Then it was into cow territory, also part of the route seemed to differ from the footpaths shown on our OS mapping and was taking us across game keeper stiles and onto private land. When we arrived at #6 we could see very boisterous cows racing around in the field so as we have two Labradors we decided to go our separate ways, Mark continued the walk alone and I took a safer route back to the car with Pegz and the dogs. Just as we got to the church we spotted a couple of familiar faces, it was the Stag Ramblers, they'd just completed the walk and confirmed it had been just under 7 miles . We enjoyed a nice chat then went our separate ways.
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We had planned to do more caching in the area but cut the day short as the rain had well and truly set in. When we arrived back home it looked like there hadn't been any rain at all!
A day off work today so decided to do the new Ascent to Clent series that was published recently just South of Halesowen. A bit of a chilly, dull start to the day but the forecast was for sunshine later and we weren't disappointed, the sun was shining by lunchtime. First off we picked up Think of a Number which we'd solved last night as it was nearby.
An enjoyable walk around the edge of Walton Hill and Uffmoor Wood, very muddy in places as is to be expected this time of year but it wasn't a problem and it all adds to the fun and luckily our dogs love it The cache listing stated that some of the stiles weren't dog friendly but we didn't find any of them to be a problem and our dogs really don't do stiles, luckily they were able to get under them or around them easily. All of the caches were well hidden but most of them easy to find.
We completed the walk in 4 hours then headed home taking in a few drive-bys along the way including Frankley My Dear which wins the award for most bizarre location, if you've done it you'll know what we mean but we're not giving anything away here.
The cache listing stated that some of the stiles weren't dog friendly but we didn't find any of them to be a problem and our dogs really don't do stiles, luckily they were able to get under them or around them easily. All of the caches were well hidden but most of them easy to find.