More Marrowbone Caches

St Margaret's Church, Whitnash

WHITNASH


We picked a short, circular walk, not far from home, of about 8 miles to do this afternoon, starting from Whitnash, Leamington Spa in Warwickshire and going out to the village of Harbury then back again.

The ground was frozen and very slippery underfoot when we set off but as the sun was shining the snow soon started to melt and then the ground just became very wet.  In places the route was flooded but not impassable with good boots and gaiters.

Half of the route we have walked previously but since then Marrow Bone has put down a few more fill-in caches.  We didn't mind walking the route again as it's a nice walk and there are no cows to contend with.  When we reached half way we realised we were following cachers Ailec Noir, as we were quite late setting off we didn't expect to see them but we hoped we might.

Really enjoyed the walk which we completed in a little over 4 hours which included stopping for our lunch half way.

Whitnash to Harbury (and back)

Caching in Bishops Itchington, Warwickshire

Cars from the 60s Series

Caches - 16
Length of Walk - 4.6 miles

Can we stay here instead?

As the forecast was for a lovely sunny day we decided to make the most of it and do some more Marrow Bone caches.  We are always really pleased when we see some more of these great caches published as the area is only just over ½ hours drive from home so ideal for Sunday caching trips or days when we need to stay closer to home.  Our daughter completely surprised us this morning by asking if she could come along with us!!!!  She's in training for the Annual Explorer Scouts Dove Trek so is keen to get a few more walks in beforehand as she is determined their team will win this year.

Nope it's not down there ;)

The series is set around the theme of cars from the 60s era.  The walk starts in Bishops Itchington, a village 6½ miles South East of Leamington Spa.  The route takes you along footpaths, across fields and along quiet lanes to Knightcote then back again.  As we approached Austin A35 we could see caching friends Poshrule and Roger Rabbit, enjoyed a chat before going our separate ways as they were going the other way round and were almost at the end of their walk.  At the end of the walk we realised that we too perhaps should have gone anti-clockwise as the route wasn't particularly well marked through the farm at Humber Sceptre and we had to take a short detour across private land to rejoin a footpath but apart from this there was no problem with the route.

All the caches were well thought out with a nice variety of hides and sizes with good views on the way round.

We completed the walk in 2 hours 20 minutes.

Then it was on to the second series of the day.

Bird of Prey Series

St Michael's Church, Stockton

Caches - 17 + 1 Extra
Length of Walk - 4.2 Miles

A circular walk starting from Southam in Warwickshire, the route takes you out as far as the village of Stockton.  All caches are named after Birds of Prey

T shirt weather!

Took us a little while to find somewhere to leave the car, in the end we parked in St Wulstan Way then made the short walk to Hobby.  Before setting off we dug deep into the bottom of the caching bag and applied some sun cream, we could feel the backs of our necks burning after walking in the sun in the morning, it's amazing how intense the sun has been today.

All the caches were straightforward to find and the walk was very pleasant.  One thing we noticed was how quickly the nettles are starting to grow now the milder weather is here, lots of signs of spring with tadpoles, daffodils and lambs.

A cluster of mini-trigpoints

We completed the walk in 2 hours 10 mins then all too soon it was time to head home.  When we were heading home down the M40 I yelled out  'THERE'S POSHRULE AND ROGER RABBIT' and our daughter commented how crazy that would sound if there'd been any non-cachers in our car - they were at Norton Manx a cache we'd found a few weeks ago.

What a brilliant weekend of caching we've had

Ullenhall

Hobditch Hunt

Poppy and Whisper

Caches - 40
Walk Distance - 9.5 miles (We split the walk into 3 shorter walks)

Hobditch Hunt is a series of 40 caches set on the country lanes and footpaths around the village of Ullenhall in Warwickshire.

Across the Track

24th February - As the series is fairly close to home we decided to split it into 3 walks.  The day they were published we'd just dropped our daughter off at a sleepover and had a free evening ahead so we decided to head out for a spot of night caching.  We parked in a small lay-by near to HH30 and followed the circuit around to HH40 then across the field to HH29 and back to the car, making a walk of 2½ miles.  We managed 9 FTFs before bumping into Big Batch who was doing the series in a different order, enjoyed a brief chat before going our separate ways.  Haven't done much night caching lately so it was really good fun.  Can't comment on the suitability for dogs on this circuit as we didn't have them with us but as far as we can remember there were no dog proof stiles.  All the caches were very nicely crafted and thought out, with a good variety of sizes from nano to Regular - our favourite being HH35 - Chicken Run.

Completed the second circuit on the afternoon of 2nd March.  Parked up on the verge and started at HH01 and followed the circuit around to HH13.  All the caches were straightforward with useful hints and good hides.  Our favourite of this circuit has to be HH05 as it's the first of this type we've found.  A short section of the walk involves a return trip along a private driveway, when we returned the owner of the property was sweeping the driveway and as we went to acknowledge him he turned away - the path has probably never had so many visitors   The walk was very enjoyable and once again nicely thought out caches but unfortunately this circuit wasn't at all dog friendly with many dog proof stiles to negotiate and we spent quite a bit of time finding gaps in fences etc for Poppy and Whisper to get through.  When we got to the dog-proof fence and stile on the way to #11 we decided to go our separate ways, Mark continued alone to #11 and I took the longer route down the lanes with the dogs as we knew there'd be more dog proof stiles on the way back.  

Please lift me over :-)

Fast-forward to Sunday 4th March and we had a couple of hours free in the afternoon and just time to complete the final circuit.

Whisper waiting for a bikkie :-)

We parked on the verge and walked down the lane to start at HH15.  This circuit was probably our favourite of the series, it was completely dog friendly - apart from just one dog-proof stile at HH17 but the dogs were able to get under the barbed wire fence further along so no problem really.

We set off fully goretexed but the rain stopped not long after we set off and we enjoyed a lovely walk in the afternoon sunshine but the wind was still bitterly cold reminding us that it's not spring yet.

Then that was the series complete, we've really enjoyed doing them and appreciate the time and effort that must've gone into setting them.

Classic Bikes

Classic Bikes 2 by Marrow Bone 

Kingston

Walk length - 6 miles
Caches - 20 + 1

This series is called Classic Bikes and all the caches are named after motorbikes of the 50s and 60s.  

The forecast had been for heavy rain this afternoon so we decided to stay fairly local to home and get a walk done in the morning.  This series looked perfect.  We parked up next to Chesterton Church and off we went.  Some of the fields were very muddy and sticky but nothing too serious and the listings mention it so we were expecting it

Hint was 'LOOK HARD'

The caches were a mix of hides and sizes, some of them well crafted and well hidden, all with hints so no problems finding them all. Just as we arrived at the last cache it started to rain and just as we got back to the car the heavens opened and down came the torrential rain.  We completed the walk in 2 hours and 40 mins.

We sat in the car eating our hot soup and rolls hoping the rain would subside so we could go on another shorter walk but it didn't so we decided to call it a day and head home.  We'll be back to find some more in the area very soon.

Animal Letterbox Series

ALS - Animal Letterbox Series 

The Animal Letterbox Series is a series of 14 Letterbox Hybrid Caches which are placed in two different locations.  The first half starts at  ALS 1 and the second half starts at ALS 8.  After finding all 14 caches and noting down all the necessary information you will be able to work out the final co-ordinates for the bonus.  The first half takes you on a 2½ mile walk, starting from the church at Bradley Green, a small village not far from Redditch and the second half is a short walk a little over 1½ miles around Haselor which is about 1 mile east of Alcester.

St John the Baptist Church - Bradley Green

Parked at the church and off we went.  We remember the location from a cache we did back in October 2007 called Bradley's cache which was archived some time ago.  

A lovely sunny afternoon for a walk.  On the three previous occasions we've walked through this field we've had to encounter cows and mud but no problems at all today as the ground was frozen solid and there were no cows to be seen anywhere.

Poppy making friends with the horses

We took Poppy and Whisper with us but we had to lift them over at least 2 stiles so wouldn't recommend so not particularly dog friendly.  The only animals we encountered were some very nosey sheep and three very inquisitive horses.  All the caches were easy to find apart from one which we resorted to phoning a friend to see if we were looking in the right place, they confirmed we were so we kept on searching and we eventually located it.  It was fun collecting up the necessary bonus information, we completed the walk in just under 2 hours.  All we need now is to find the rest of the caches in Haselor....... fast forward to Sunday

Snowy walk

Parked up next to the stocks in Haselor village for a late afternoon walk.  We've had quite a bit of snow over the weekend so it was a bit tricky finding one of the caches as the hiding place was buried under snow but the rest of the caches were all easily found with useful hints.  We didn't have Poppy and Whisper with us this time as we'd already taken them on a 5 mile walk from home to Oversley wood and back in the morning so they were a bit too tired for another walk.  From what I can remember I'd say it was fairly dog friendly with maybe only one dog-proof stile.  No cattle on route either but in the summer months there are usually cows in the fields near the church.

On our way round we realised we'd be walking past a cache that we'd been FTF on back in 2007 but we felt sure it had been archived, curious to see if it was still there we had a look for it and lo and behold there it was..  It had moved from when we'd originally found it but it was still in great condition and as it was pretty much geo-litter now we decided to remove it.  Reading the log book was interesting as it seems that a muggle found the cache and took it home to show her family and then some time later returned it, then it was archived but muggles have continued to find and sign the log book after it was archived.  Also we were surprised to see that there was a TB in the cache so we were very pleased to be able to liberate it.  Here are the muggle logs:

Enjoyed the walk very much, collected up the rest of the bonus info then just as the sun was setting we were back at the car.  We completed the walk in just under an hour.  

Alscot Amble

Snowdrops

ALSCOT AMBLE

A series of 11 caches on a 4 mile walk around the Alscot Estate, Preston-on-Stour, Warwickshire.

The Alscot Estate sits in 4000 acres of beautiful Warwickshire countryside, mainly within the parish of Preston on Stour, Stratford upon Avon.

We had to drop our son off at work in Stratford quite early this morning so decided to do this series afterwards.  It also looked like the ideal length of walk for our dogs so Poppy and Whisper came along too.  We parked up near the church in Preston-on-Stour and started at the multi.    A very foggy cold start to the walk but once we got going we soon warmed up.

Sheepdog on top of the hay bales!

We really enjoyed the walk, a nice variety of hides some were quite challenging and not all the caches had hints but we  found all of them without too much trouble.  There was even a trig point to bag on the way round which was very tricky to spot in the thick fog as it was painted white.   Apart from one dog-proof stile that we had to lift both dogs over the walk was dog friendly and well marked with some stiles and kissing gates.

Ash Hill

To round off the morning we went to find Brilliant Warwickshire.  We remembered the location from another JimJinks cache that we were first to find on called Small Change, didn't realise it had been archived so out of interest when we got home we looked it up and surprised to see that it was nearly 4 years ago that we found it !  How time flies when you're having fun

Alscote Amble

Kingsbury Water Park & Bodymoor Heath

Bodymoor Heath

Kingsbury Water Park and Bodymoor Heath Stroll

Decided to do a spot of mid-week caching and head over to Kingsbury Water Park with the bikes, we were hoping it would be a bit quieter than at weekends.  We parked up near the canal at Bodymoor Heath Stroll: No Fishing where we've parked a couple of times on previous caching trips to the area.  A bit of a chilly start on the bikes but we soon warmed up as we got going.  Decided to head south and do half of the canal caches before coming back up and detouring to Kingsbury Water Park.

We thoroughly enjoyed the ride around Kingsbury Water Park, all the caches were well hidden but all were easy to find with a variety of hides and sizes.  On our way round the park we bumped into cachers Dave77st, Donkey Derby and UKLifesaver, they were caching and Munzeeing, always great to bump into other cachers for a chat.

Swans on Swann Pool

There's so much to see and do in the park, it would be a perfect place for families to visit.  It has 15 lakes situated in 600 acres of country park and is renowned for its bird-life, we spotted lots of interesting birds, some we couldn't identify but we saw heron and swans.  Once you've found the caches there's a visitor centre, adventure playground, a children's farm, cafe, bike hire and even a miniature railway but you'd need to check the website for details as it only runs at certain times of the year.

Then it was back to the canal to complete the rest of the Bodymoor Heath Stroll (more of a roll than a stroll on our bikes ) .

Bodymoor Heath

 
All together we clocked up 10 miles on our bikes, a very enjoyable bike ride and we'd highly recommend it.

Bodymoor Heath & Kingsbury Water Park

House of Tudor

We rounded off the day with a walk around the lake at Middleton Hall.  Starting at House of Tudor - Henry VII.  There were signs saying that the grounds were closed so we decided to do the series in reverse and we were able to find our way around the lake and back through the grounds without any trouble at all.

Middleton Hall - House of Tudor

We thoroughly enjoyed our walk here and glad we found time to fit it in before heading home.  The walk through the woodland area was very picturesque with lots of interesting trees, fungi and wildlife.

Shaggy Ink Cap

The Jam Trail

Thistle

The Jam Trail is a series of 10 caches plus a bonus on a 3.7 mile circular walk set in the countryside near Combrook, a small village a few miles South East of Stratford-upon-Avon.

We hadn't planned to go caching today but then this new series popped up last night and as we had to take our son to work for 7am in Stratford we decided as it was so close we'd have an early morning caching trip.

Parked up near the church in Combrook and set off on the walk.  A thoroughly enjoyable walk, all caches were fairly easy to find, the walk was along very well marked paths and we completed the walk in a little over 2 hours.  We had collected up all the bonus info on the way round so it was just a case of doing the sums and going off for the final.  The walk to the bonus involved walking up a public footpath which went along a private driveway which some people might not like but it wasn't a problem and the final cache was found in a very peaceful location which we were very surprised to be first on as we knew that Big Batch had been out last night and done the rest of the caches.  We were very lucky with the weather too, sunshine all the way round and the rain held off until we got home.

Great use for an old tyre

More often than not now we leave our dogs at home as it's getting too difficult to lift them over dog proof stiles and we worry about coming across fields of cattle especially in the summer months so unless the cache page specifically mentions that it's dog friendly we don't risk it.  As it happens this series would've been ideal for them, there were no dog-proof stiles as far as we can remember and the only livestock we came across were sheep and it's a pity there weren't any attributes on the page.....but we didn't let on to them when we got back that we'd been out caching without them

A Stroll Around Barford

We had to go to Stratford this afternoon and as we needed to fill in the 'days found' grid for today the nearest unfound caches were in Barford, a pretty little village not far from Warwick.

We last visited Barford to do the now archived Llamas Lair (GCVRF8) cache back in 2007 before the bypass had opened.  For many years the A429 through Barford carried heavy traffic over the Grade II listed bridge which was constructed in the 1700s.  The bypass was welcomed by the villagers to ease traffic congestion and also to protect the bridge from damage.

A Bridge Too Bar(ford)

Barford Bridge

Whisper having a great time

Enjoyed this cache, Poppy and Whisper enjoyed a splash around in the water while we found the well hidden cache.  We were just saying to each other that it was nice to be able to search out of view of the nearby houses when we heard movement behind us and a workman appeared at the gate, luckily as we had our dogs with us he probably just thought we'd taken them down there for a dip in the river .

From the Church to the Wasp

St Peters Church, Barford

A pleasant walk through Barford to this one, there were lots of children and dog walkers around as it was end of school time, luckily we blended in fairly well as we were also walking our dogs.  Then back to the car and home for tea.

A couple of caches in Shottery

Poets Path

We'd just finished our evening meal and were about to take Poppy and Whisper for their walk when the 'cache alarm' went off alerting us to a new cache in Shottery so as we were still needing a FTF for February we decided to dash out in the hope of being first.  On the way I'd read that it was 'A somewhat unusual cache', it was listed as size 'other' and that the co-ords might not be accurate due to tree cover... hmm ok we'll give it a go.  .Arrived at the parking and headed down the path in the dark.  Looked in all the obvious places then resorted to a systematic search, we looked for a good 5 mins then, I had to nip back to the car, when I got back I met Mark and JimJinks coming back up the path, just after JimJinks had arrived Mark had spotted the well hidden cache.  Then we headed off for a longer dog walk down to Where there's a Will There's a Hathaway which was a fairly easy find in the dark, having dogs with you is great cover when doing a spot of night caching.

Great to get our caching fix part way through the week, can't wait for the lighter evenings!

Anne Hathaway's Cottage

An Afternoon in Allesley

Thomas the Tank Engine Series

12 caches plus 2 additional caches
Circular walk of 5.3 miles

On the way to Skarloey

Taxi duties to see to first this morning so a bit of a late start for us.  Set off at 11:30, starting at Thomas the Tank Engine 8 - Gordon.  All the caches were easy to find and spaced far enough apart so you can get a good stride up between them, just the thing for working off the Christmas excesses!

Thomas ;)

 
On our return to the car I checked my emails and noticed a new cache had been published a short walk from where we'd parked, it was Thomas the Tank Engine 9 - Edward a replacement cache for the one that had gone missing.  We weren't expecting to be first as the cache had been published a couple of hours before.  Mark went off by himself for this one as Poppy and Whisper were worn out so I stayed behind at the car.  On arrival at GZ Mark met Fanboy17 who had just that second replaced the cache!

We'd remembered to pick up the bonus details so once we'd worked out where it was off we went.  It was a short drive away to a rather busy location, so we had to wait for our moment to retrieve the cache.  An enjoyable series that reminded me of when our son very young and was mad about anything to do with Thomas the Tank Engine. We completed the walk in 3 hours and 10 mins.

An Afternoon Around Allesley at EveryTrail

Allesley Park

An hour to spare before having to resume our taxi duties so we headed off to Allesley Park to find Rupert and Friends.  An enjoyable walk around the park, it was very busy with dog walkers and families out for late afternoon stroll despite the freezing cold weather.  I think we looked a little out of place with walking gear, muddy boots and gaiters in an uban park, oh well.  Time to head off now and back home for a well earned Sausage Hotpot ....Yum!

Multi Trunked Tree

Weston Under Wetherley

We popped out to Weston Under Wetherley today, a village just outside Leamington Spa. Parked up opposite the church and headed off to Giants Grave #1

A circular walk of just under 5 miles (including a couple of there and back detours) with 13 caches. An enjoyable walk in the autumn sunshine, only 1 stile which was dog proof but luckily we found an alternative route through a gate.

Three of the fields had cows and calves in and one of the fields had horses in in but they weren't any trouble at all, they must be used to walkers and dogs.

10 Years!

Mark:
About 30 seconds after reading about the unique icon that was on offer for special 1st of May events, we decided that we would hold one.

We initially planned to hold a pub event and arranged a venue but the following day decided to make it an open air affair in Stratford-upon-Avon.

I'd had an idea for a name for a Wherigo in Stratford for quite some time and decided to try and develop it in time for the event. Donna was less than impressed after a test run and advised on re-writing it. That done, it was tested and tweaked and then submitted for publication. We knew the final location was less than the mandatory minimum distance from one of our multis but we hoped it would be allowed as it is not possible to go in a straight line from one to the other. The reviewer rejected it so we appealed - after all, moving the final location would have meant yet more re-writing and testing. Luckily Miss Jenn approved it, Yay!

The 10 Years event itself was a great success!
The rain held off and an estimated 160 people attended including a trio from Slovenia who were in Stratford for the day, they'd bumped into Fun Loving Geocacher and he'd told them all about the event, how cool was that!

Nikiya and Nina and Beno from Slovenia

To encourage maximum 'mingling' we handed out bingo cards where the cachers had to track down other attendees who had accomplished one of the items mentioned.
Eg. Placed a cache in a foreign country, been caching for over five years, found a Locationless cache.

The questions carefully chosen with the names of those who had logged 'Will Attend' in mind so we knew all the squares would be able to be crossed off!
Three or four cachers had found a Locationless and one of them joked that he felt like a celebrity!

Group Photo

Our daughter Beth worked really hard making special geo-cakes and a special thanks to 104DaySummerVacation and Cakemaker for unexpectedly providing additional cakes - they were fabulous!

A truly enjoyable day that we’re sure we will remember for a long, long time