Watermead country park

Saturday 7th November
We had to do some chores before we went out this morning. John bottled his homebrew beer which went well until the last couple of bottles when one broke and spilt all over the floor. A bit of cleaning up was needed before we could head out.
We drove to Watermead park near Birstall for a caching walk after the mornings bottling. After having a bit of trouble actually finding our way into the park we parked in the North car-park, and walked along the canal for about a km to find a cache. We stopped and had a light lunch at the Hope and Anchor and then carried on walking through the park.
There were lots of lakes and they were all full of birds and we were also impressed with this statue in the water.
We followed the footpath towards Birstall, still staying beside the water until we got to the south end of the park. Unfortunately the bridge to the other side of the park was closed for repairs and there was no alternative route round so we had to retrace our steps, and were not able to find 2 of the caches that we had planned or see the Watermead Mammoth! We did mange to find three other caches on the way round the rest of the park, one of which was very sneakily hidden. We got back to the car at about 4 after 10 km.

Calke Walk Caches, Derbyshire

Friday 6th November
As rain was forecast this afternoon we left home early to do a caching walk at Ticknall. We parked behind the village hall in Ticknall and walked towards Calke Abbey, before we got to the drive we turned left and walked towards the new plantation and headed towards Vees wood. We had a diversion to find the first cache and then followed the path through the new woods. It was quite muddy and we were surprised to see deer slots in the mud. We walked through a lovely mature wood, named Robin wood, which was lovely as we could kick through all the fallen leaves. The path left the wood and we continued walking along the outside of the wood, until we emerged onto the track running towards the Melbourne to Ticknall road. We started to walk down the road but then found that there was a gap in the hedge which meant we could walk in the new plantation. We followed this for a while and then found that the path came to an abrupt end at a ditch. We had to clamber back onto the road and then re-enter the plantation a few yards further down (via the gate this time). This woodland is known as Poppy wood and after finding a cache and then been growled at by a dog - the owners just smiled sweetly, I had to return to the cache as I had left my walking pole there. We found a bench and sat and had a biscuit and then walked through the wood. There were lots of information boards telling us what had been planted in each section and how the woodland would be managed. We left the wood and walked down the bridleway leading to St Brides - a close of posh houses, and then found the footpath to the other Melbourne road. We walked down Robinsons Hill and took the footpath which led to Staunton Harold reservoir. We used the facilities and found a cache - which we were surprised to find we were the first to find. We then headed across the fields with good views of the reservoir. We crossed into the Calke estate and walked along the limeyards arriving back in Ticknall. We had walked 11 km. found 7 caches and got home just before the rain started.

Harlaston, Staffordshire

Monday 19th October 2009
Time for a decent walk as John's dodgy knee is feeling a bit better. We drove to Harlaston which is just into Staffordshire. The small village was quite pretty, although there had been a lot of new building in the area. The church was unusual (although I forgot to take a picture). It had a black and white tower, and dated from Saxon times, with medieval and Victorian additions.
We walked along the street and found a footpath which wound alongside several pretty gardens and emerged by a farm. The footpath sign pointed to a pile of rubble and farm equipment blocked off with barriers. Hmmm, no way through there then. The cow barn was open (and empty) so we walked through and reached a field edge. We were walking parallel with the path we should have been on, so followed it until we reached the area where the footpath proper joined the field.
The next part of the walk was over fields with new crops but no signs to show the path, and when we did reach the stile it was broken with no cross step, so we had to carefully climb over the barbed wire. It was lucky I had put the route on the GPS, so we knew where the paths went; when the crops are grown it will be impossible to see the path .
It was warm and sunny and we had good views across the fields and we followed the path over Hogs hill (which was really very flat) and emerged onto Syerscote lane, a gated road which we followed for a while and then sat on a verge to eat our sandwiches and have a cup of coffee.
After lunch we followed a permissive path (rather than the lane) to Twizzle lane. We were surprised to walk around large fields full of elephant grass. I assume it was for biofuel.
After reaching Haunton we used the footpath to walk parallel with the road back to Harlaston. We had found 6 caches on the way round and wanted to do another before we left. We took a footpath near the church and crossed a field which had heifers in. All was well as we crossed the stile but as we found the cache we could hear snorting and puffing. As we went to go back over the stile all the cows had come to see what we were up to. John bravely persuaded them to move away from the stile and we crossed the field with them showing no further interest. Our walk had been 10km.

Rough Park walk

Wednesday 14th October
We only had time for a short walk today so headed off to find some caches around Rough park. We parked at the Lount nature reserve and then walked along the road to enter the park via the bridleway. This was another local nature reserve that we hadn't realised existed and only found because someone had placed geocaches there. We walked along the track and stopped to find "Curse of the First to Find no 8". It took ages to find and then we finally found it in the first place we had looked!
This nature reserve is a mixture of ancient woodland and new National Forest plantations so there was lots of birdsong as we walked.
We continued around the trail and found "Rough Speaking" geocache, hidden in a tree trunk. As we followed the trail we passed a small orchard with 3 large pigs in it. They were having a bit of a tussle and charging at the fence. We walked on and found "Rough Rising" on the outskirts of Rising wood. It was starting to get very noisy here as the park was running close to the A42. Our last cache was found at Rough Water, a small lake. We finished the walk by following the path back to the road and then back to Lount reserve. It had been a short 5 km but had at least stretched the legs.

Clifton Campville

Monday 5th October
We decided on an afternoon walk so drove to Clifton Campville near Tamworth, Staffordshire.
We parked on the main street and then walked towards the church which had an interesting millenium tower of tiles, with villagers names on. We had a stroll through the new plantations on Coneyberry Green and then crossed the road and headed across ploughed fields.
We had problems at one footpath junction as the footpath had been ploughed up whilst harvesting potatoes and there was no footpath direction sign. We ended up on the wrong side of the field but eventually got back to the right path.
We walked beside a fishing lake and a stream for a while with the path surprisingly going through hedges and over bridges, and not around the field edge as it looked like it should do.
We chatted to a dog walker for a while as he complained about the lack of signage on the paths and asked whether you could walk to Clifton across the fields. We assured him you could.
We headed towards Haunton but found that the footpath across the field was blocked so we followed the road. Haunton was a small village with a convent, a nursing home and lots of catholic statues.
Having solved the clues of a multicache, which we found in Twizzle lane we walked back to Clifton Campville. We diverted off to find a cache, which involved walking through a new housing estate and what appeared to be someones garden, but the path went around the back to a field. As we hunted for the cache a lady appeared and asked if we had found it. She was very chatty and said she enjoyed meeting the people who came to hunt for the cache. The walk was 11km.

EBE caching series

Thursday 1st October
We decided on a walk today so drove to Etwall , in Derbyshire to do the WebRats EBE series (Etwall - Burnaston - Etwall).
The first problem arose when I overtook some lorries so did not see the signpost. We were at Utoxeter before we realised so had to turn round at the roundabout and go back about 10 miles. We parked in Etwall and set off along the road. This series had 16 caches in it so they were placed at fairly regular distances along the route. We soon left the road and set off along the border of the Toyota factory and into some very nice woodland. We found the Dave reincarnation cache, a bit off the beaten track, and also a cache which was disabled -not quite sure why, as it was clearly visible from the track and was well stocked.
We walked beside a stream for a while and then stopped by a bridge to enjoy a sandwich and a cup of coffee before walking onto the road which led to Burnaston. Here we diverted to find one of JustAlans puzzle caches. I had solved all these caches a while ago and this was the first time we had been in the vicinity to find one. Unfortunately this cache was not in a good condition so we have emailed the cache owner to do some maintainance.
We sat on a bench in front of the village hall in Burnaston for a coffee and then continued the walk. The next cache was near a barn, in a field of cows. I found the cache and hastily signed it before the cows became too nosey. We passed into some woodland and the cache listing here stated that it was the site of a secret nuclear bunker from the 60's. There is nothing there now as the site has been filled with farm rubbish but it was quite interesting to know the history of the area. Another Justalan puzzle cache was found, which involved me climbing through a hedge ad rummaging around an old tree stump before we were soon heading back towards Etwall having found about 20 caches, which has taken us into the top 1000 UK cachers. WooHoo!
We had walked about 9km so stopped at the Seven Wells in Etwall for our tea and to give the traffic time to ease off. We had two fish and chips for £9!

Curse of the Black Panther

Wednesday 23rd September
We did a bit of gardening and then decided to attempt a local night cache, called Curse of the Black Panther.
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=bb1246ed-9efa-433b-89c6-16f7a0bddac0
After dinner we drove to Albert village and parked by the road. It was not quite dark so we walked down the road to try another cache which was further down than I expected and by the time we got there it was too dark to see properly, so we abandoned it and walked back to Pick wood. Several bats flew over as walked up the road and past the lake. We put on the torches and followed the path to a large spoil heap which we climbed and after a bit of a search found the first cache - Pick Triangle. This area used to be the site of Wraggs pipe works but has now been planted up as part of the national forest. We then went to the correct place as mentioned in the directions and shone the torches around. John eventually spotted a reflection in the trees and we headed down the hill towards the reflector. We then stood and shone the torches again, and spotted another reflector on an information board. It was now quite dark and we stumbled through the grass and onto the next reflector. We could hear owls around us. It was a bit of a job spotting the next reflectors, but we did and then eventually spotted the one that the instructions said were only 30 ft from the cache. The cache was soon spotted but it was difficult getting it out of the hole, we had to did around it to remove it, we signed the log and put it back in as far as we could. We then had great fun trying to find the way back to the path and back to the car. The main paths certainly didn't show up well in the dark. It had felt like quite an adventure, even though we had only walked a few hundred metres. We did not see any night animals but did hear some owls. We got home at about 9 o'clock.