Cotswold Weekend

The weather forecast was good for the bank holiday weekend and we were a little undecided where to head to as we knew it was likely to be busy everywhere so we decided to head down to the Cotswolds, stopping off halfway to visit family that we hadn't seen since before the pandemic.

We arrived in Snowshill quite late ready to start our walk first thing in the morning.

Saturday

We set off on a walk from Snowshill taking in the SN series by HKMHill which was set just after we moved away from the area.  On the route we walked past The Alternative Snowshill Collection cache , this was our 148th find back in July 2007.

First time caching without coats this year!

A really enjoyable dog-friendly walk in pleasant countryside with no cattle.

Once we were back in Snowshill we did the multis and the walked to the finals before heading back to the van for elevenses.

Who doesn't love Wisteria

We've enjoyed many visits to Snowshill over the years that we lived in the area and on an annual basis we would visit to see the beautiful lavender fields.  Unfortunately we are a little bit early this year, so we'll have to try and return when they are in bloom.

It's definitely worth a visit to see the beautiful fields when the lavender is in flower.

Next on the agenda was the Chipping Campden Walk Adventure Labs stopping off at Broadway Tower on the way.  

Broadway tower is one of the stages on the Monumental Erections on the Cotswold Way Adventure Labs.

The Chipping Campden Walk Adventure labs start at Dovers Hill.  If you've not been before it's definitely worth a visit.  The views from there are fantastic.  There's a trigpoint, toposcope, an old Wrighty cache from 2007 along with an Earthcache.

Then onward to Chipping Campden.  We have enjoyed many visits here over the years.  When our children were little we'd come to the area for walks and stop off in Campden for chips from House of Simon Chinese Takeaway before heading home.  It was nice to see the chippy was still there but it has now been renamed The Crystal Palace and sadly we were too early in the day for chips.

It took quite a while to do the caches as we were popping in and out the shops along the High Street as we went.

Next we headed into Broadway for a set of Adventure Labs. We'd planned to spend longer there but it was really busy so we quickly moved on to Guiting Power which was much quieter.

To round off the day we found a couple of Adventure Lab bonus caches that we'd had to leave on our last visit as the weather had taken a turn for the worst and we'd headed home so no such worries this time.

Sunday

Woke up to thick fog again today which, if the forecast is correct, should soon lift.

We had a bit of a relaxing start to the day and sat in the van reading, drinking coffee and eating cake before heading into Northleach for a set of  Adventure Labs.

Northleach is where the 'Mockumentary/comedy' This Country is filmed.  It's actually based around life in Cirencester but they decided that Cirencester was too big and used Northleach instead as it was a smaller town.  We watched the first episode but that was it, just didn't grab us,  maybe we need to give it another go.  What do you think, should we give it another watch?

Kerry's House - This Country

Then onward for a walk around Chedworth and another set of Adventure Labs.

We parked at Chedworth Roman Villa to start the walk.  I first visited Chedworth Roman Villa on a school trip from Junior School, funny because I don't remember much about it apart from the big orange lunch box that I took for my packed lunch.  I was destined for a future with Tupperware 🤣.  There is a cache series that starts here too called Chedworth Wood Ramble, we did this series in 2015, so this time we just concentrated on the lab caches.

Monday

Monday has rolled round so quickly so we were up early this morning to do a few caches starting in Eastleach.

Next stop was Cleeve Hill Toposcope for another one of the Monumental Erections on the Cotswold Way Lab Caches.  Another place we've visited many times over the years.

We rounded off our mini-break with a trip to Winchcombe for a set of Adventure Labs.

We had a brilliant weekend, shame it had to come to an end but I'm sure it won't be too long before we're back in the area again.

Meon Hill

Meon Hill Series

Hidcote

Meon Hill is a series of 22 caches set on a 7 mile circular walk.

The series starts and finishes in the village of Mickleton which is the northernmost village in Gloucestershire and lies 8 miles south of Stratford-upon-Avon.  There is a village store near the suggested parking which is ideal if you need to stock up food or drink for the walk.  There are also a couple of pubs in the village, can't vouch for those as we haven't tried them.

A bit of a late start for us this morning, set off on the walk just after 11.30 but a beautiful day to be out caching.

We have very fond memories of caching in Mickleton back in May 2007, our children used to enjoy coming with us back then and our dogs were young and fit, just the two of us today.  We remember walking past the greenhouses between #2 and #3 and having a conversation with a nearby home-owner on the history of the area.  The greenhouses have become somewhat more dilapidated since our last visit.

Old Greenhouses

The walk takes you along well maintained, undulating footpaths with fabulous views around Meon Hill and will take you on parts of the Heart of England and Monarch's Way.  You will pass Hidcote Manor which is well worth a visit if you have the time (check opening times) and Kiftsgate Court Gardens and in the summer months there's a Maize Maze in Hidcote which we've enjoyed a few times when the children were younger, again check times etc to avoid sad faces .

We saw quite a few cute lambs on the walk, lovely to see them and lots of signs that spring is well and truly on its way. 

Aww so sweet

 
At #6 you could make a slight detour to a handy farm shop with toilet facilities, only open Tues-Sat though.

Refreshments anyone?

  
Our favourite part of the walk was from #16 to #18, the walk through the wood with the sun coming through the trees was very pretty then out into the open and some fantastic views.

Gateway to paradise!

Is it really only February?

We completed the walk in 3 hours and 34 minutes, this included stopping for a picnic en route.  

A thoroughly enjoyable walk, all caches were fairly straightforward, some of the co-ords were a little out in places but with great hints this wasn't a problem.  We'd highly recommend this walk to anyone who loves walking in beautiful countryside.

Snowshill Scramble

Snowshill Scramble

St Barnabas Church, Snowshill

Length of walk - 8.45 miles
Caches - A series of 24 caches + 3 extras

We'd initially planned to go to an event this morning but couldn't make the early 8.15am start so decided to make other plans and when we saw that the forecast was for sunshine today we thought we'd head out and do this new series instead.

Geocaching has brought us to Snowshill many times in the past 5 years, we love walking in the area, in fact caching in the Cotswolds is what got us hooked on caching and we've spent many a happy weekend finding Wrighty's caches, until we'd found all of his and then we had to go elsewhere for our caching trips so it was really great to be here again.

The best time of year to visit Snowshill is when the fields at Snowshill Lavender are in bloom, it really is a stunning sight and worth a visit.

Snow on the ground in the shade

Anyway about the walk ..........

We parked up next to the church in Snowshill at about 10:00 and off we went. The stretch uphill between #3 and #4 was quite slow going due to the mud, we think the path here is always muddy as we've walked along it in summer time and it's still been really muddy .  Between #6 and #9 you pass through some very pretty woodland, there was snow on the ground and it was very sheltered here and we could hear a noisy water pump clanking in the distance, the other logs mention it so it must be working all the time.  We spotted an information hut through the trees so we popped inside to have a look.

Information Hut

Griff Groff has gone to a lot of  time and effort to set this series up, all the caches were easy to find, the most difficult bit was having to wait for passing muggles, it would seem the sunny weather had brought everyone out and quite a bit of the series is along the Cotswold Way which is  a very popular walking route but it wasn't a problem as it gave us chance to stand and admire the stunning views.

Stanway House

We have been to Stanway and Stanton a number of times for caching trips and it was lovely to walk through the villages again and see the Cotswold stone buildings and well kept gardens. 

#12

 In Stanton we stopped off to do Stanton Calling no more, where the phone box has now been utilised as an information centre, an excellent idea!  On our travels we've seen this done a few times with one village making use of their phone box for book swapping!

Tourist Information

 It was a great opportunity for us to do Twill Surely Rain by Wrighty, this cache was published after we'd completed all of the others in the area back in 2008 so it had been stuck by itself for a long time, so we made the slight detour to find it today.  The funny thing is, just as we arrievd at GZ it clouded over and we both looked at each other and said 'Hmm Twill Surely Rain' .... but no luckily it didn't and the black clouds eventually disappeared.

Twill Surely Rain

A thoroughly enjoyable walk which we completed in 5 hours and 20 mins, this included stopping for a picnic in Stanway and making a half mile or so detour to bag a trigpoint to satisfy our other hobby of Trigpointing .   We didn't take Poppy and Whisper with us today as it would be a little far for them now but the walk is completely dog friendly as there were no stiles and no fields of cattle.

Church Westcote

St Mary the Virgin Church, Church Westcote

Westcote Wander

A series of 20 caches on a 5 mile circular walk

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.

Westcote Wander

Kildane Again

A free afternoon so decided to head over to the Cotswolds to do the new Kildane series.  The old Kildane Bottom series had to be archived due to a permission issue with the estate manager, that's all sorted now so new caches have now been placed.  It's a lovely area to walk in so it was nice to return and do the walk again.  On our way back to the car we were busy searching for Kildane (9) when we heard footsteps running towards us, as they got closer we realised it was Griff Grof himself the cache owner, he'd run all the way from his house to see us as his mum and sister had driven past and noticed us searching here.  Enjoyed a good chat before going our separate ways.

Then we headed off to do the new earthcache nearby, an interesting location that we didn't realise was a disused quarry, even though we'd stopped there to eat our lunch on more than one occasion on previous caching trips.

 
We were hoping to do the CFTCH series as a complete walk, it's a 6 mile circular walk of 10 caches but realised when we set off that we would run out of daylight so just did 7 in the series before heading home.

Is that a cacher?

A very enjoyable afternoon in the Cotswolds our favourite place to go caching, can't wait for the nights to draw out again.