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.