The Other Stu's 40th Birthday Series

All Saints Church, Ridgmont

Headed down to Milton Keynes to do The Other Stu's Birthday Series today.  Parked up in the village of Ridgmont and off we went.  A sunny but chilly start to the walk but we soon warmed up as we got walking in the autumn sunshine.  The series is set on a 9.5 mile circular walk in the countryside around the small village of Ridgmont.  Just as we left the car Mark remembered he had a Geocoin in his pocket which wants to accompany cachers on a day of caching  We decided this would be a good a day as any so we photographed it at every cache. 

Along the route we passed some interesting/unusual sights including a company that exports London black cabs and a house that seemed to collect Austin Maestros in the garden and use them as garden sheds, not to mention the many disused agricultural trailers opposite the house.

Unusual garden storage

All the caches (apart from 1 DNF ) were easy to find and the terrain was very easy going.

All the cache listings include information from each year of The Other Stu's life which was very interesting and kept us amused on the walk.

Segenhoe Church

On the way round we spotted a multi-cache that we hadn't planned to do but decided to give it a go as it was in such an interesting location.  It was Faith No More which was set at the now disused church in Segenhoe.  It took quite some time to gather the clues together,and at one point we considered giving up but perseverance paid off and we had the final co-ordinates.


All in all a very enjoyable walk which we would highly recommend.

The Love Bench

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