A series of 10 caches set on a 4 mile circular walk starting from the village of Rous Lench, a small village about 6 miles North of Evesham, Worcs.
This series has been set to compliment Sumadartson's original 'Break from the Norm' series, you can do both together to make a figure of eight walk of about 8 miles and 24 caches in total.
The walk takes you from the village of Rous Lench to Gooms Hill, around Slade Wood and down through the parkland of Rous Lench Court with its many mature specimen trees and back into Rous Lench again.
Mrs D standing by the tree
All the caches are unusual containers and hides. I haven't included the usual tracklog and photos as this could spoil the enjoyment for anyone that hasn't done the series yet but safe to say a lot of hard work and effort has gone into setting up this great series, we had so much fun this morning.
'Mistletoe' Tree
We didn't have our dogs with us today but the walk seemed fairly dog friendly with only 1 or 2 of the stiles that would possibly pose a problem for larger dogs and the only livestock we encountered were sheep.
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
Our second trip to Wiltshire this week, this time to do Stan's Sausage Series. A series of 35 caches set on a 7 mile figure of 8 walk.
On the trail
An enjoyable walk not far from the town of Melksham. All caches were fairly easy to find with a nice variety of sizes and all with good hints. Some of the walk will take you through cow fields, we didn't have any problem with them until we came to the last field, it was very narrow and there were no 'escape' routes and as we approached they got very frisky running around so we decided to walk in the adjacent ploughed field, tough going but better than risking it through the cows. All in all a very good walk. At the end of the walk we returned to the car to boil the kettle for a cuppa and we were soon joined by cachers Teds Team and 2Blues, it's always good to meet other cachers when out and about.
A thoroughly enjoyable series, great views of Malmesbury Abbey all the way round and all caches were easy to find with great hints. Malmesbury is a very pretty little Cotswold town and we took the opportunity to have a wander round and a closer look of the abbey before taking in the last few caches and heading back to the car.
We've had so much fun this week and have been so lucky with the weather, it's been dry and sunny. We've been out caching most days mainly on foot but also by bike, we've attended an event, visited Peterborough, Wiltshire and Telford and found 344 caches.... phew!
I haven't had time to add to the blog since April then I wasn't sure whether to continue with it but we've bumped into a few cachers recently that said how much they enjoy reading it so I decided to try and add to it when I can, so here it is:
We love caching in Wiltshire and have enjoyed many great walks in this area, today we decided to head down to an area south of Swindon, the Marlborough Downs. Many of the longer walks now we have to leave our dogs at home, it's a shame but they are getting on a bit now and find the longer walks just too much. So today it's just just me, Mark and our daughter 'Pegz' who was keen to come along with us as she's in training for the Tour de Trigs walk later in the year, which is a tough 30 mile (50 for over 18s) non-stop, cross country walking competition.
Marlborough Downs Trail
37 caches on an 8 mile walk with superb views over the Marlborough Downs.
The trail starts at Barbury Castle where there is a large car park and toilets. The trail then heads out on a well marked chalk path towards Ogbourne St Andrew, great views all along the path passing alongside Four Mile Clump. The footpath then passes through Ogbourne St George and up Smeathe's Ridge. Part of the route along Smeathe's Ridge takes you through a large field with cows in, we were a little wary to start with but we didn't have our dogs with us so we weren't too concerned, when we approached near to them they didn't take any notice of us at all so we continued past.
Cattle on Smeathe's Ridge
We were very lucky with the weather, it was very windy to start with but once we got going the sun came out and it was a lovely sunny day with a breeze to keep us cool.
We didn't have our dogs with us on this walk but we'd say it was completely dog friendly with no dog-proof stiles along the route.
We were soon back at the car park after walking for approx. 4 hours. All the caches were easy to find with good hints and a nice variety of sizes and containers.
The second walk of the day took us to East Kennet to do a short series on a 2½ mile walk. Starting at EK1: Silbury Glimpse, we had to collect bonus information from each cache which was based on Ley Line waypoints. Along the route we passed a field of wheat with a gathering of people with cameras, they seemed to be checking out the crop circles.
East Kennet
Another very enjoyable walk which took us 1 hour and 25 mins to complete.
We woke up to another beautiful sunny morning so really looking forward to a good walk . Our son Steve (aka drempels) had asked if he could come along with us today (anything to get out of revising ), I was really pleased as it's not often we all go out caching together these days.
Decided to start the day off with this new series in the small market town of Shifnal, which is situated about 3 miles East of Telford.
We parked at the co-op which has free parking all day and set off, starting at #6, then we were soon out into countryside. An enjoyable walk, all caches were fairly easy to find with good co-ords.
We met cachers Spekey and Anniepeg on our way round and bumped into them a couple of times after that too, towards the end of the walk we bumped into BrilloBrigade, it's always great to meet new people out caching.
Towards the end of the walk it got a little confusing, some of the routes weren't obvious on the map and we probably ended up walking further than we needed to but we got there in the end and after 3 hours we were back at the car for our lunch.
Then it was off to Telford. A few weeks back a new series had come up - Goosey's Trail and Wild Goosey series, we had read mixed reports on whether the series was bikeable so thought we'd go and reccy the area for suitability ready for our return another day. We plotted a short circular walk of 2 miles and found 10 caches. We have to say that the park is very pleasant to walk in and is very popular with dog walkers and families and looks great for cycling. A lot of the caches were very well hidden and took quite some searching and were hidden well off the main paths, we can appreciate that a lot of thought and expense has gone into setting this series all with great containers. Part of the walk takes you very close to Wonderland a theme park aimed at young children, you can see dinosaurs and gnomes sitting in the trees as you walk by. We completed this part in about 2 hours then everyone was getting hungry so we headed off to McDs for a well earnt cachers tea.
On our way home we stopped off at Bunkers Hill Wood near Stourbridge to do the Arboreal Adventures caches, our son wasn't able to join us on our last visit so was really keen for a spot of tree climbing to round off the day. All the Arboreal Adventures caches we'd done previously had been archived and republished so we decided this time, for the ones that required climbing or anything else extreme, Steve could find and retrieve the caches.
Eeek a bull!
A thoroughly enjoyable walk around Bunkers Hill Wood until the sun went down then it was home. A great way to finish off a fantastic family day out.
We were really keen to do this series as we love the Cotswolds and have enjoyed many walks here over the years.We parked near the church in Church Westcote to start this walk.
Church Westcote is a pretty little village near Stow on the Wold. The walk starts at the church and then into beautiful countryside, downhill with great views, through lovely woodland, along good footpaths, eventually the walk brings you to the village of Icomb then back up towards Church Westcote which incidentally is home to Kate Winslett and movie director husband Sam Mendes, they live in the Manor house in the village and the walk takes you very near to their house.
Most of the hides are easy to find but some were quite tricky. A lot of thought has gone into this series and our favourite hide of the series was Hillside Plantation, a very clever hide that I found by pure determination, very good and not one we've ever come across before, no spoilers here of course but if you do it we're sure you'll agree it's a good one.
The only cows we saw on the walk were in the last field, luckily they weren't a problem for us, they were down the far end and were lying down and seemed to hot and sleepy to move (thank goodness )
All too soon the walk was over and we were back at the car, a thoroughly enjoyable walk in beautiful weather which we completed in 3 hours.
The children have gone back to school today after the Easter break, a real shame as it's our daughter's 15th birthday today and she'd have loved a nice walk ...... she never misses a chance to tell people how we made her walk 12 miles on her 12th birthday , if she'd been off school then we'd have arranged a nice little 15 mile walk....... Anyway just the two of us today to do this fairly close to home walk in an area we know very well but we've only walked on some of these paths before.
We parked on the verge next to Wychbold Wander - The Finishing Post and had intended on doing the series in reverse order but our searching was interrupted by some guys from the Wildlife Trust informing us that we needed a permit to walk in the nature reserve, it was difficult to explain that we weren't actually going for a walk in the reserve but just mooching around for tupperware so we decided to cross the road and continue on to Wychbold Wander - Start, nice easy find to start us off and then we were on our way.
We really enjoyed our walk which we completed in 3 hours, this included stopping for a picnic at the railway bridge and taking a wrong turning at Wychbold Wander - Bridge 41, not sure what happened but we weren't paying attention and didn't read the instructions properly once we were on the right road it was obvious where to go.
Then it was off to Droitwich to do a couple of caches, one of them was Droitwich - St Peter we pulled into the car park and were immediately blocked in, the small car park was complete grid lock, we've never seen anything like it, the car park is right next to a primary school but not actually owned by the school. Realising we were going to be stuck for a while we left the car and headed off to the cache. On our return to the car park we spoke to a dog walker, she was furious as there was no way out of the car park for her, she said she'd already been stuck for over 20 mins, luckily our car was closer to the exit so we didn't have to wait too long but it should be a warning to anyone attempting this one around school times.
Gateway
On our way home we stopped off at Gateway Park a lovely little spot by the recently restored Droitwich canal. then it was off home after a fab day out in beautiful sunshine.
), I was really pleased as it's not often we all go out caching together these days.
