A day out in Cheshire

The plan for today was to head up North to the Wirral and do a couple of Wherigos.  The weather forecast for that area was sun all day so we decided to also make a start on the Bike and Hike Series and do as many as we could before heading off to do the Wherigos.

Bike and Hike Series

What an absolutely fantastic bike ride!  We cycled 23 miles on brilliant cycle paths, saw lots of interesting birds and enjoyed the hot sunshine all day whilst back home in Warwickshire it was cloudy and raining.

Heron

We parked up near the Porsche garage not far from Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet Village, got our bikes out of the car and off we went.  All started well enough, we cycled 500ft stopped, got off our bikes, searched, found the cache, hopped back on our bikes, cycled another 500ft and did the same thing again but as time went on the area got busier and each time we stopped we were having to wait for muggle dog walkers, joggers, cyclists to pass.... so it was taking longer and longer.... then there were the high number of 'throwdowns' sometimes it seemed we were finding the original and sometimes a 'throwdown' that had been left by previous cachers, sorry I know everyone plays by their own rules but I'm going to say it, there has to be a line drawn somewhere and that is basically cheating to boost your numbers ........ Anyway, after about 10 miles we decided to call it a day as we realised we were running out of time and wouldn't have time to do the Wherigos, so we decided to just cycle the remaining 12 miles to the end without stopping for caches, which felt strangely liberating as the bike ride was fantastic.  We may return in the future to complete the series..... or we may not

Onto the wherigos......

Port Sunlight WheriGnOme

Port Sunlight is a model village that was built by Lever Brothers to accommodate workers of its soap factory.  The name is derived from Lever Brothers' most popular brand of cleaning agent, 'Sunlight'.  In 2001 there was a population of 1450.  The village has over 900 listed buildings.

The wherigo was excellent and has to go to the top of my favourites list.  It took us to all the places of interest in the village.  It was such a peaceful and relaxing place to be with people enjoying the sunshine, bowling on the village bowling green and children playing in The Dell, which is a landscaped hollow which has been formed from a former tidal inlet.

The place was a little surreal, as soon as we left and drove out of the village you are immediately back in amongst the 21st Century hustle and bustle of the surrounding area.

A brilliant wherigo and I was so thrilled to find that I am now a member of the Wirral Gnome Society.

Wherirow

I was so excited when Mark told me that a new boat wherigo had been published and couldn't wait for the weekend to come so we could come and find it.

The weather was just perfect for a late afternoon paddle on the River Mersey.

The wherigo took you on a voyage along the river and you had to steer to different zones and then there was a timed stage which we had to paddle quite quickly to get there in time.  Eventually we found ourselves at the final location where that cache was found easily.  Then we could enjoy a more leisurely paddle back down river.

All in all brilliant fun and would highly recommend both of the wherigos if you like that type of thing.