Caching Trip NW Walsall

Willow Catkins

Sadies Walk Series and Cassie's Bell Series
27 Caches - 5 miles

The forecast was rain for today but as we'd already booked the day off work we decided to go caching anyway. We headed off just North West of Walsall to do a couple of series in Rough Wood Country Park a nature reserve situated between Willenhall and Walsall.  We set off in our waterproofs and soon forgot about the rain.  We decided to leave our dogs at home today, Poppy our black Labrador will be 12 this year and is finding she needs more rest after some of our longer walks so today it was just the two of us.

All the caches were fairly easy to find, just challenging enough to keep things interesting with variety of hides and sizes with decent hints, some were quite cryptic but not impossible.  The only downside was the amount of litter in the nature reserve, it was a real shame to see this and it's a pity something hasn't been done to clean it up, maybe a CITO event could be organised for the future 

An enjoyable walk despite the rain which we completed in 3½ hours.

Rough Wood Country Park

Coven Circular
9 caches plus a bonus - 1.85 miles

After lunch we just had time to drive to Coven Heath to do a short series before heading back down the M6 and home.

Still pouring with rain but undeterred we set off.  The walk started off on a bridleway and then the return leg of the walk was along the Staffs and Worcs Canal.  All the caches were very easy to find with spot on co-ordinates and good hints although we were completely eluded by #8, the co-ords took us to a hedge with lots of hiding places and prickly brambles, we seached high and low and the previous logs all stated it took a long time to find so we decided to give it 15 mins and then had to leave it.  I've noticed this morning that someone was able to find it today after a half hour search - think maybe either the diff rating needs increasing from 1½, not that this will make it easier to find or the clue improving.  Anyway, all in all it was a lovely little walk which we completed in 1 hour.

Then it was home for tea

Coven Circular Trail at EveryTrail

Wandering around Walmley

Plants Brook

Wylde Walmley Wander

10 in the series plus 3 extra
4.5 mile circular walk

Headed off this morning to do a new series near Sutton Coldfield around New Hall Valley Country Park
Parked up in the car park near #1 and set off, very busy in the park this morning with dog walking muggles galore, so lots of stealth required.  We found ourselves on the wrong side of Plants Brook and briefly considered splashing across it..... well the dogs didn't seem to mind.... decided to ask a couple of passing muggles if there was a bridge further up and luckily there was so we walked on and found a drier route.  We'd just started searching for A Stroll to Sutton when we saw what we thought were muggles standing on the path, luckily having dogs is great for cover so we just pretended we were searching for a lost ball in the bushes, then when they headed towards we realised they must be cachers, it was Dave77st and Le Barts, enjoyed a quick chat then went our separate ways as they were going off to do Rovers Demised that we'd done back in August 2007.


Between #2 & #3 we could see a large manor house through the trees, it was New Hall Manor which claims to be one of the oldest inhabited moated houses in Britain and is now a hotel and spa.  In 1993 Bon Jovi's video 'Sleep when I'm dead' was filmed there!

Arrived at #3 and started searching, taking it in turns to keep a look out, from quite a distance away we could see One Last Look coming towards us, just as they were about to join in the search I found it using the 'where would I hide it' approach :D.  Enjoyed a quick chat with BobnJill and off we went again in opposite directions.

On the way to #5 we bumped into The Grizzly Pair who were doing the series in reverse order.  Enjoyed a chat then we went on our way.

We recognised the location for #6 from when we were FTF on Initially Dimitri back in February 2008, we could see that new fencing had been installed and the path widened so we weren't at all surprised to see it had been archived.

Took a short detour to Plants Brook Walk and when we signed the log it had been visited a few minutes before by 'Four Rocks' we think we may have passed them on the path but couldn't see any sign of a GPSr, hopefully bump into them another day.

Part of the return walk involved crossing a very busy golf course (they really ought to try caching), it felt a bit perilous dodging the balls but we made it to the other side without incident.

Completed the rest of the series and even bumped into Le Barts and Dave77st again.  A really enjoyable walk around the park, completed  in 2 hours 38 minutes.  All fairly easy to find caches and a mix of hides and sizes, just what we enjoy.

Walmley

Yistrang & Urban Meets Rural Series

Yistrang
A series of 8 caches and a bonus on a 2.3 mile walk around Ilshaw Heath.

Parked up near the bakery in Ilshaw Heath and couldn't resist popping in for essential caching supplies before starting off on our walk.

Yum!

A pleasant walk along part of the Birmingham to Stratford-upon-Avon Canal and countryside around Illshaw Heath.

Frozen Canal

Completed the series in 1 hour 22 mins so decided to head off and do the Urban Meets Rural series in Birmingham.

Urban Meets Rural

A series of 20 caches on a 6.8 mile walk, set on the Northern Stratford Canal, taking in a walk along a Nature reserve and a section of the river Cole .

We set off at 13:37 thinking it was only a 5 mile walk and would finish easily before dark.

Brandwood Tunnel

A very enjoyable walk on a very cold day, the canals were all frozen over.

Ducks on Ice

Completed the walk in the dark, took us 3 hours 10 mins with only 1 DNF which we will return to find in the daylight next time we're in the area.

A Frozen Trittiford Mill Pool, Yardley Wood

Ducks and er..... bricks?

Time to go home