A geocaching walk from Chartwell, Kent

Saturday 23 April 2011
Another beautiful day and so we decided on a trip to Westerham with Dad to enjoy the bluebells. We parked at Chartwell, Winston Churchill's home and then set off up the steep hill towards French Street. Halfway up we headed off through the woods and then after getting a bit lost on the trails in the woods and finding a few geocaches we finally emerged on Hosey Hill lane and crossed the A25 into more woodland. We were very grateful of the shade today as it was so warm. We followed a forestry trail past a derelict tower which was so covered with ivy that at first we thought it was a large tree and then emerged onto a large grassy bank which we climbed to get good views across Westerham and the Downs.
Having walked through the very pretty town of Westerham, we stopped to have an ice-cream. We were surprised that among all the tea-shops and Antique shops there were no nice icecream parlours, so we had to make do with an ice-cream from the newsagents. We left westerham by walking up Mill lane, where we passed a lady who was cooling herself with the waters from the clear stream we were walking beside. There was a choice of footpaths here, a nice flat one beside the stream, or a steep uphill section. Our route followed the steep section! We climbed through the grounds of Squerryes Court but could not see the house as it was behind the trees.
As we walked through the woodland of Goodley Stock we were treated to carpets of bluebells with amazing scent.
We emerged onto the A25 but only had to walk a short distance before taking another footpath back into the woods. The woods were criss-crossed with footpaths and it was quite difficult to work out which path we needed but after a bit of back tracking we emerged at the top of the hill leading down towards Chartwell. We had been finding caches throughout and started to hunt for the last one when thunder started to rumble around. So as the cache was appearing elusive we decided to head back to the car before we got soaked.
We enjoyed a welcome cup of tea in the NT teashop ad then headed back home to dad's. As we left Westerham the rain started and was very heavy for a while, but as we got towards Maidstone the skies cleared and there was no sign of rain, so it had just been an isolated heavy shower.

Westerham and Chartwell circular walk

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Repton, Derbyshire

Tuesday 4 January 2011
It snowed again this morning and so we had a lazy morning before deciding to go out for a walk. We drove to Repton and parked near the centre and then walked through the village. Repton turned out to be a lovely place; the ancient capitol of Mercia and home of Repton public school, whose lovely buildings were scattered around the village. We headed off along the edge of the school playing field and then up onto Parsons Hills.
We had lovely views across the Trent and although the path was narrow and on a slope, it was frozen so was not as slippery as it could have been.


We crossed some fields towards Newton Solney, again, luckily the field was frozen as the cows had churned it up quite a bit. Having arrived in Newton Solney we walked through the village and then onto a footpath heading back through the fields back towards Repton. We had been finding caches along the way and having found the last of a series we had to do some complicated maths to find the bonus cache. We had not really left early enough and so by the time we were searching for the bonus it was dark. We could not find it so decided to return to the car and come back tomorrow for the bonus. When we got to the car we spotted a mistake in our sums and realised the cache was only 100m away so headed back with torches to get the last cache. It had been a lovely walk in an area we had not visited before.

PirateMania 4th September

Our first weekend at home for a while so we decided to go for a decent walk.
We headed to Ashbourne and to the UKGeocachers shop located in a caravan park, where we bought a few items and they kindly allowed us to leave the car in the shop car-park while we went for our walk. We had some problem finding the beginning of the walk as the footpath was not marked correctly on the map, but eventually we found our way out of the caravan park and across the field to a bridge. This walk had been set up during a Geocaching camping event, Piratemania, in the summer and so contained lots of geocaches.
We found the first one under a bridge and then followed the Bonnie Prince Charlie walk and the Centenary way towards Osmaston. One cache was found in a military type air-raid shelter, the woods that we walked in seemed to have several of these war-time buildings.

When we got to Osmaston we walked across the cricket field and continued along the footpath which passed though a field of 8ft tall maize. As we crossed into the next field I realised that it was full of young bullocks. As always happens they decided we were fun and decided to surround us, luckily the stile was close and I managed to hop over before we were cut off.


We passed through a short stretch of woodland and out onto the road before heading into another field. The cows in this field were happy to ignore us and then as we passed beside Osmaston lake a very large herd of cows decided to follow a couple going in the opposite direction to us. We waited by the side of the path as they all passed us by and then we walked on and through a natural wetland that had been provided with walkways to rise us above the boggy areas nd out to the road.
Shirley was a pretty village with several thatched cottages. The track through Shirley park led down to a water mill, and we realised that we had walked in this area some years ago, but from the opposite direction. (See April 4th 2007). Just past the mill we realised we had a cache to find. It was obviously hidden at a large tree but there was a family playing near it. We waited until they moved off and then went to find the cache, we realised that the cache was not hidden in a hole in the tree but was actually up in the branches. John nobly decided to climb up and found the cache after a short search – I don't think he had climbed a tree for donkeys years.


This was a figure of eight walk and so we passed back through Osmaston and then headed off through fields and woodland back towards Ashbourne and the end of the walk. We had walked 15.5 km and found 28 caches which I think was a record for us.

Apologies and an evening walk

I have to apologise that I haven't written on the blog since March. A new job, harvest of experimental crops have meant that I have not had the time to blog.
We have had a few holidays and done some walks but I just didn't get round to writing them up.
I left work early on Friday and as it was a lovely evening we went to Hathern to do a geocaching walk. We parked in Pasture Lane and walked down the lane to a footpath across a field which had been harvested, ploughed and rolled ready for seeding - Autumn crops going in allready. We crossed a stile at a junction of footpaths and then headed across a field where the farmers were baling straw.
We crossed a lane and followed the direction at a footpath sign which was covered with wild hops.


With the hops and straw stubble it looked very autumnal. The footpath led down to the River Soar, where we diverted off to find a geocache. The view across the river was very good, the sun was dropping and causing everything to have a golden glow and brilliant reflections of Normanton church in the river.

We followed the river for a while before heading inland again and along a lane back to the car. We walked just over 5 km which was perfect for an evening walk after work and we had found 7 geocaches.

Belper Hills Walk

Sunday 21st March
We have done some walks recently but most have been short geocaching walks. This walk was a bit longer.
The day started badly as I discovered I had lost an earring. It was one of the nice diamond studs John bought me for Christmas a few years ago. We had a good hunt round but no luck.
The weather was going to be good so we decided to do the Belper Hills walk. This was a series of caches set up for the event we attended last week. We decided not to follow all the cachers last week but to come back and enjoy the walk on our own.
We arrived and parked at about 11.30 am and set off on the walk. Wes tarted off by walking out of Belper and past the church to find a cache hidden in an Alley. We were off to a bad start as we didn’t find this one. The next cache was attached to an information board about a philanthropist who provided a lot of facilities for Belper. We then headed out of the town, past the very impressive weir and along a path beside the river Derwent. We headed up the lane and as there were several people about we decided to sit by a small waterfall and have a cup of coffee whilst they passed. We then headed up the hill, finding a cache and then through a farmyard. As we approached the next cache we saw someone lurking – it turned out to be another cacher mJamezz, so we had a chat and hunted unsuccessfully for the cache. We walked on and up the hill towards the next cache, chatting away. After finding the cache MJamezz left us as he was out for a run; we continued at our more sedate pace. We walked along the Midshires way with very good views across the hills and over Belper. We found the next cache and then as we approached the next one we spotted MJamezz again – he was having trouble finding the cache so we all hunted together again. John clambered up a tree and the cache was soon found. MJamezz ran off again and we walked down the cobbley path a bit more slowly. Surprisingly we met up again at the bottom of the hill where I found the next cache then as we walked down the road, MJamezz came running back towards us as he had left his map back at one of our previous caches. He caught up with us one last time before heading off at a run. We crossed the road and headed up the track towards Farnah Green. We continued along the hills and emerged on a road where we spotted a pub - The Bluebell, so had a break for a pint and a bag of crisps. We then set off for the last stage of the walk. After finding a few more caches we found ourselves surprisingly close to Belper. We walked along the river and crossed back towards the town. We had walked 12.4 km and found 18 caches along the route. We had been lucky enough to have had a lovely warm day with no wind.

Markeaton Park to Kedleston

Saturday 20th February
Having had lots of short caching walks recently I decided we needed a proper walk so programmed a decent walk into the GPS –along with some caches of course. We drove to Markeaton park near Derby and after having trouble finding the parking area we finally found it and paid for 4hours +. We left the park, walked up the road and then headed off on a footpath leading to Markeaton Stones – I thought there might be something interesting there, but I think it was just the name of the farm as we didn't see anything. At the top of the lane we stopped to do a cache which was inside a tree and involved standing on a stump and leaning in, I was not tall enough so John had to retrieve the cache. Unfortunately, as he put it back he slipped and the cache fell down a hole into the depths of the trunk – oops, we will have to apologise to the cache owner.
We walked on and diverted off the path to find two more caches. After finding the first we started walking down the path only to have a big dog start barking at us. We stopped and wondered how friendly he was and as he did not come out of the farm drive we continued down the lane. Him, and his slightly smaller friend barked but did not come out as we walked past. We walked down a very muddy fields, found the cache and then had to walk back up the lane. The dogs had gone inside by this time so were no problem.
We followed a very muddy path past the boundary of Kedleston hall and out on to road. We could just about see the hall from where we stopped to have a cup of coffee. We walked up the road a little bit and then down the side of a garden centre. The footpath is missing from our new map but our old map still shows the path, we spent about half an hour hunting for a small cache which we were assured was still near the hedge but we didn’t find it but we did see lots of snowdrops in the area. We followed the footpath across fields and over some of the most dangerous stiles we’ve come across to the A52. We crossed the road and followed a path
through fields which were badly signposted and eventually found our way to the edge of a recently ploughed field.
We stood and watched a heron on a fencepost for a while, until I looked through the binoculars and realized it was plastic and then John walked across the field (so that he could map the footpath correctly) and I walked round the edge as it is such hard work walking across ploughed fields. We eventually emerged at Langley Common and went in to the Bluebell pub. We were too late for lunch but settled for a drink, sit down and a bag of crisps. However, someone else came in looking for a bowl of chips, so they agreed to put the friers back on and we had a lovely bowl of freshly cooked chips.
We left the pub and continued along the road and off onto a footpath at Radbourne Common. It was very slippy and muddy but we eventually got to a bridge where we were supposed to look for a cache but found it out on display and soaking wet. As we knew the cache owner had just broken his hip we did our best to dry the cache and put it back where it should have been hidden. We then struggled over some more stiles to the road.
After a stretch on the road we got to another footpath which went past a farm. Two large Alsatians were very vocal as we went past but luckily they were behind a fence.
We emerged at Mackworth and struggled to find the footpath that we needed to divert off to find a cache. We walked along the street searching; I turned round and could see the finger post hidden in the hedge beside someone’s garden. We went along the path, found the cache and then walked back to the road and off towards the pretty church. We found a cache near the church and then set off on the last stretch of the walk. A last cache was found just before we got back to Markeaton park having walked 18 km and found 7 caches. We had seen lots of snowdrops, robins, bluetits and a plastic heron

A walk from Narborough

Tuesday 16th February
We had missed out on our walk yesterday so today we went to Narborough. We parked by a medical centre and set off trying to find the start of the walk. We were aiming for a disused railway but there were lots of new houses which meant that the map we had did not make sense. We eventually found the start of the railway having retraced our steps to the main road.
We started out by looking for a cache called Tricky Trees. We were not hopeful of finding it having read previous logs. But we had a look. Suddenly I could see the cache, it was attached about 40 ft up a thin branch of a tree which was hanging over the river. There was no way we were scrambling up there. We retraced our steps to the disused railway and enjoyed a peaceful walk along the line. We stopped to find a very nice small cache called the Spider. It was a beautifully made metal insect that was hung on the railway bridge. We continued along the line until it ended at Enderby. The walk then went downhill as it passed a reclaimed refuse tip and industrial park. It was quite interesting seeing all the gas retrieval systems in place at the tip though.
We walked across Enderby Park where we found a cache and then crossed the road and across farmland and then skirted around Enderby College. We crossed a golf course and then mislaid the path as it went across the grounds of the old Carlton Park mental hospital – now owned by Santander. There was security stopping cars driving in, but no problem for us walking out. I wonder if it was so easy for the mental patients! We eventually got back to the car as it was starting to snow having walked 11.7 km and found 4 caches.

More Saints caches - Rutland

Saturday 13th February
We hadn’t planned a walk today but decided at the last minute to go to Rutland to finish off last weeks caches. We drove to Preston and walked up to the co-ordinates we had solved last week after finding "Neat Stripe" cache. The co-ordinates were actually on a bit of private land that the farmer had put up a notice saying keep out. We will inform the cache owner when we get home. We were a bit worried but we hunted around and John spotted the cache. We thought we would just find the coin needed for the puzzle but it turned out to be a bracelet of buttons with more co-ordinates on. We had trouble reading one of the numbers but followed the direction and eventually found a footpath where we found the coin stuck to a tree. After getting back to the car we drove to Morcott and parked. This was to find "Ninja Host" - the next Saints cache. We crossed the road and walked down beside a wood along a wide footpath. We were near the cache but were on the wrong side of the stream, but we eventually found a bridge. The cache was near a disused railway. We hunted for a while and found a couple of red herrings, one saying "nope" and the other "a helping hand". We eventually found the cache in one of the first places I had looked! We took the blessing and walked to find the coin. We got to a bridge and hunted around and I got down and looked under, after several looks I suddenly saw the coin hanging in front of my face. That's 5 Saints caches found now. A few more trips to Rutland will be needed to finish this off. We returned to the car and drove to Braunston in Rutland to complete a puzzle that is part of another series of puzzle caches called Curse of the Black Cat. we had walked about 12km on our hunts today.

Rutland -Saints caches

Saturday 6th February
There are a series of caches on Geocaching.com which are very fiendish puzzles. We solved and found a couple of the caches a few weeks ago but having solved a few more we decided on another trip to Rutland. Finding the cache is usually easy (having found where to go) but it is following the instructions included in the cache which causes the problems. We had found "Hobnail Staith" -St Botolphs a few weeks ago but had struggled with finding the hidden coin that gives extra information. So today we started off by visiting Wardley and taking a walk down the muddy lane to find the coin that we missed two weeks ago. The cache owner had told us that it was still in place we went to the co-ordinates and I spotted it straight away this time. We noted the details and returned to the car. We then drove to Ridlington to do the next cache – “Neat Stripe and Apian Lust”. For this we had to find some information in the church and then add it to the co-ordinates we had worked out at home. These led us to Preston, which we had visited a few weeks ago. We followed the footpath and found the cache. We took a copy of the Saints Blessing and tried to work out where to go to complete the puzzle. It had us foxed, so we drove to Lyddington to find some lunch and see if we could solve the puzzle. We had no luck with the puzzle but did have a nice lunch at the Old White Hart. We then walked to the hiding place of the third Saints puzzle "CatsFire". I had solved the location for this yesterday, but we did not have co-ordinates,just a rough location. We chose what we hoped was the correct direction, and walked down the lane towards Thorpe on the Water, we knew we were looking for a footpath and a stile, 1.15 miles from Bedes house! We found a footpath and a stile and hunted for the cache but no luck. We nearly gave up but decided to follow the footpath a bit further. We crossed the river Welland which was very full; the foot bridge vibrating with the force of the water as we waked over it, and then spotted another stile a bit further on. Bingo – we found the cache. This time we knew what we were doing with the additional clues – 2 vials of herbs, that we had to identify and then use to gain the co-ordinates for the last bit of the puzzle. We headed back to Lyddington and off on another footpath, which we slipped and slid along as it was very thick with mud. After a bit of a hunt we found the last bit of the puzzle. We have now solved 4 out of 8 of the Saints puzzles and have collected information from 3 of them. It was getting late so we headed home, leaving the 5th puzzle for our next visit. As soon as we got home we managed to solve the clues from Neat stripe, so that will be found on our next visit too. We had walked 9km on our various trips today.

Dunstall circular

Monday 1st February
No work today so we decided to do the Dunstall circular cache walk. We drove to Barton under Needwood, parked and set off for the first stage of the walk. We spent a bit of time looking for the first cache unsuccessfully (we found out it was archived when we got home), and then set off across the field towards the next cache,which was very small, but hidden in plain sight,but well disguised. We then headed towards the woods where we found another cache. It was very slippery here as the ground was icy so we walked carefully down the slope and out into a meadow. We followed the path across the field with views of a lovely house and church on the opposite side and emerged at the Old Hall farm which was having a lot of work carried out; scaffolders and builders everywhere. We left the farm track and emerged onto the road which we followed to Dunstall, where we found a cache near a well; it was a stone lion but the water in the trough was frozen solid today.

From here we followed the path along field edges to Highlands Park, another large house covered in scaffolding and then headed back along a path towards Sprinks Bank farm. We struggled with finding a cache here but John braved the hawthorn and found it. We found the next cache under a bridge, to the sound of barking dogs, and then headed away from the farm to emerge at the other end of Dunstall, where we went to have a look at the church which had very impressive stonework inside the church. We followed a bridleway through the woods, past the lake (which was frozen) and eventually arrived back at Barton under Needwood. We found two police officers by our car, because they said it was causing an obstruction. It wasn’t our car causing the problem but all the mummy’s picking up their darlings from school who were parked opposite!

Belper, Derbyshire

Saturday 30th January
It was a nice day so we decided on a Peak district walk. We drove to Belper and parked in the market place. It was lovely and warm as we left the car so we wondered if we needed coats, but took them just in case. We walked up the Butts and then onto a rough lane leading out of Belper. We stopped to find a cache in a field containing a nice horse called Partridge (or that’s what it said on his stable, any way). He munched on his hay whilst we hunted. We then continued up the hill and found another cache. It was the first of a series where we had to collect the numbers from the cache to find a final cache at the end of the walk. We got to the end of the lane, crossed the road and walked onto a track that went past a reservoir and then past a farm, across a field and through farm stables. There were several horses in the field but they ignored us. We ended up in the corner of a field where we had a cup of coffee and then went for a short diversion along a footpath that was along a disused railway and under a tunnel under the A38. It was an interesting path, the sleepers and tracks were still in place. John will map it on OSM when we get home. We walked back onto our route and followed the path through a lovely bit of woodland and over a stream. We emerged into Holbrook. There was a nice pub here – the Dead Poets which served very good beer but no food. We had a bag of crisps and ate our sandwiches in an alcove near a roaring fire. It was very cosy and we had to drag ourselves away to carry on with our walk. We walked along the road and then joined a farm track that led back towards Belper. It was bitterly cold now but we found a few more caches and completed the sums needed to get the co-ordinates for the final cache. Unfortunately my PDA decided it was too cold so stopped working and we were unable to get the co-ordinates to put in the GPS. We will have to come back to find that cache another time. We had found 12 geocaches and walked 10 km.

Egglington, Derbyshire

Monday January 18th
As it was still dry we decided to go for another walk before the snow comes back in. We drove to Eggington (Derbyshire) and parked. We walked out of Eggington finding a few caches as we went, and then walked along the busy road, beside Eggington common. Everywhere was very wet and flooded. We walked along the Etwall road and then took the footpath that followed a lane past a farm. We were heading towards a cache called Shall we play a Game, which had been quite a fiendish puzzle. John had solved the tricky bit this time. We crossed a field with a stream running though it, although it was difficult to see where the stream really was as it had escaped it’s banks a bit and then we crossed a bridge and found the cache – being surprised to find we were only the second people to find it. We continued across the field and emerged onto the new Sustrans cycle path. We diverted along the path to look for a cache –we were unsuccessful this time, and decided not to continue along the path as it was so smelly – there is a nearby composting unit which may have been creating the pong, or it might just have been farming smells. We walked past Derby airfield and were treated to a light plane coming into land and then taking off just before it set down. We decided someone was having a flying lesson.
We had a bit of a problem finding the next footpath but eventually found the path and headed off across more very muddy fields before arriving back in Eggington. We walked through the village and visited the church, which has a working gaslamp outside. The church was locked but we did get to look around Wilfs retreat, a peaceful area which had been created from the BBC Breathing spaces scheme. We followed the road from the church towards the A38 but took a footpath just before we reached it. We had a bit of a problem deciding where the path went, but eventually found a stile which led into a field of sheep with new-born lambs. I bet they were pleased they hadn’t arrived last week. We had more trouble with the footpaths – they don’t mark them well around here, but eventually found one which led through the garden of a rather posh house. John decided the footpaths needed mapping correctly so we took a further lap round following all the paths. The paths were either not marked or had stiles which were very high and with no cross pieces. Not easy for people with short legs! They are obviously trying to dissuade walkers but John will now have all the footpaths on Open Street Maps. We had walked 9.3km.

Sunday January 17th
It was dry and all the snow had gone so after ages without a walk we had the opportunity to stretch our legs. We drove to Etwall, Derbyshire and parked near the church. We started off by getting lost, we followed a path which led through school grounds. We didn't think it was right but it was leading where we wanted to go and there were other people walking there. We got onto what appeared to be a path but we soon realised it was a path running above the path we wanted, and there was a fence separating us. We followed along the ridge and eventually found a way to get down onto the cycle path. We followed the lane and emerged into a different part of Etwall and then headed along a footpath across a very wet field leading to the busy A516. We took our lives in our hands as we crossed the road and headed into a field full of sheep. We were amused by the sheep as they all lined up to cross over a bridge, stand at the top to admire the view and then walk down again. We found a cache and then left the field and climbed up onto the disused railway. We diverted a little from the track to find some caches – one of which was hidden in the pocket of a scarecrows dungarees! We returned to follow the disused railway for a few miles, finding several caches as we went. There were several stretches of the path which were still very icy and slippery. The railway path eventually finished at Mickleover, where we walked around the roundabout and then followed very muddy fields to Burnaston. We eventually left the fields, with heavy boots clumped with mud, and walked along the lane back to Etwall. We had walked 12.7 km and found 14 caches.

First walk of the Year -Frisby on the Wreake

Sunday January 3rd
It was a cold but bright day and as heavy snow is forecast over the next few days we decided to go for the first walk of the year while we can. We drove to Frisby on the Wreake, which is on the Leicestershire / Rutland border, and parked opposite the pub. The pavements were very icy and we had to be careful as we got out of the car. We slipped and slid up Bell Lane and then found a footpath between two houses. We passed through the gate, and were intrigued by the way the gate was hung; it was too close to a tree, and so a large chunk had been cut out of the tree enabling the handle to pass through, and the gate to open. We crossed the field which was frozen and covered with a light dusting of snow. A couple of horses were huddled under their coats looking very cold. As we approached the first cache site there were suddenly walkers appearing from all directions, so we had to admire the view until we could hunt for the cache. It was quickly found and we continued our walk. Several large fields were crossed until we emerged into Kirby Bellars. We diverted to find a cache and then walked down a small lane to a bridge where there was a lovely view of the church. We walked along an embankment, though a field containing lots of black sheep with curly horns, and then over a bridge which had crossed an old canal and then onto an icy lane, which led to Ashfordby Valley. We had planned this to be just a diversion to get some caches but studying the map we discovered we could use a different footpath to make a small circular walk. John is putting all the footpaths from our walks onto Open Street Maps so using new footpaths helps build up the database. We walked along the road at Ashfordby and eventually found the footpath, leading back over the fields towards Kirby Bellars.
At the church we turned right and followed the paths in the snow towards the lake. The lake was frozen but was covered with birds, lots of swans, ducks and geese. We were treated to the sight of a flock of swans taking off. The noise of their wings was incredible as they took off from the frozen lake. We were surprised to see that the footpath went straight through the middle of the lake, it was built up on a small embankment, and we then walked beside the River Wreake and the railway until we got back to Frisby. As we were signing the log book of a cache by the church, two people came towards us, they were also cachers and had been doing a similar walk but in the opposite direction. We had walked 10.5 km and found 11 caches.

Last walk of the Year - Breaston

Thursday 31st December
It was a lovely day today –cold crisp and bright and after the excesses of Christmas we needed a walk. We drove to Breaston which is close to Long Eaton. On the way we drove past a spot where we should have emerged on a path during the latter part of our walk, only to discover that the path was within a Severn Trent water works and meant that we would not be able to do that stage. We parked opposite the church and set off across the fields. Our path was quite dry but the rest of the field was under water and the next field which was also flooded had a horse standing in the water. Our field contained a couple of rams, with very impressive horns, who decided to take an interest in us, luckily we were quickly over the stile, as I think they could have done quite a bit of damage! We crossed the railway and walked along a pleasant lane to a new plantation known as Orchid wood. There was a cache in the nature reserve so we diverted off the path and did a lap around the reserve, finding the cache on the way. A lady passed us with two dogs one of which was very bouncy but after a stern “Sit” from John he promptly obeyed. We continued along the footpath and arrived at Church Wilne. There was a lake here called St Chad’s Water and after finding a cache we decided on a complete lap of the lake, to make up for having the latter stage of our walk cut short. There were lots of birds on the lake, which was frozen at the edges, including swans, moorhens and cormorants. We continued our walk along the road and then crossed a bridge into a field and followed the footpath to Great Wilne. We checked the map to see how the walk should continue and found that we could do a little more and then use the MidShires way to head back towards Breaston. It was a lovely walk even though it was a series of small circles. We found 5 caches and walked 10.5km.
We managed to walk 1276 km this year, a slight improvement on last years 1208 km.
The camera was found (left in the caravan) so Ican now start adding pictures again!

Ticknall to Foremark reservoir

Saturday 19th December
We hadn’t had the forecast snow at home but it was cold, frosty and bright sunshine so we drove to Ticknall and parked in the community centre. We followed the footpath beside the cricket pitch and into the new woodland where there was a smattering of snow on the floor. We found Bolt on By cache and then continued our walk towards Foremark. The views were good as it was so crisp and clear. We followed the footpath towards Bendalls farm and then walked along the road and into Foremark reservoir. We stopped at the visitor centre for a cup of chocolate, sitting on the snow covered benches - good job our trousers are waterproof! We then walked on to find a Cup of Tea beside the Sea cache. This was a bit strange as it was a sandy bay which looked like the seaside instead of beside a reservoir, although today the sand was covered in snow and white rocks in the water looked like ice-bergs! We continued through the reservoir park following a couple with a dog. At one stage the man climbed over the fence as the dog’s ball had gone over. As soon as the man got over the fence the dog jumped over and collected his ball himself!
We left Foremark and crossed the road to a footpath. We followed the path to The Scaddows and alongside strawberry fields (must remember this walk next summer!) where we lost the footpath for a while. A lady came out of her house and pointed us in the right direction. The last path was followed back to Ticknall. We walked through the churchyard which had several ruined arches standing in the grounds, the remains of a previous church. We had had a lovely walk of about 9.4km kicking through the snow and jumping in the icy puddles! Unfortunately I have mislaid my camera somewhere and so could not take any pictures.

Lincoln Christmas Fair

Thursday 3rd December
We were up and hitched up by about 10.15 and arrived at Whisby at about 12. We are staying with South Lincs DA again for the Christmas Fair rally.
It was very cold and wet, the field is a bit boggy but ok. We decided against putting up the awning as it was so muddy. We caught the rally bus at 4.30 and got to Lincoln at about 5. We walked round the fair looking at things and eating lots of nice food. We had mulled wine and mince pie, some roasted nuts, then stopped for a hog roast roll with apple sauce. We bought some xmas tree decorations,ostrich steaks, kangaroo burgers and danish pastries. We had had enough by 7 so caught the bus back to the caravan.
Friday 4th December
We had a panic this morning as when I cooked the toast, smoke was coming from the back of the oven. We realised that the t-bag that John had dropped in the vent during the summer was now dry and smoldering on top of the grill. The smoke carried on for some time but then stopped. Hopefully it is now burnt out.
It was lovely and sunny, so we thought we would take advantage and go for a walk. We drove to Skellingthorpe, only 10 minutes away and parked in the community centre. We then walked along the disused railway finding a series of caches. They were all micros, but were hidden quite cleverly. We managed to find all 10 and then did the sums to find the final. It was a nice walk with good views and was surprisingly warm. The final cache was halfway back towards the car. We had walked about 10km by the time we got back to the car.
Saturday 5th December
We were ready early so decided to catch the 11 am bus which we only just got on. We were planning on doing a few caches, so set off to the conservatory to get some information. The fair was packed and it was almost impossible to move; you couldn't see any of the stalls as you were swept along in the crush. We finally got in to the conservatory and sat and had a coffee. We got out of the crush and walked to do the Seldom Seen series, they were all in nice little gardens around the city which are often overlooked . We eventually found our way down to the river and called into the Horse and Groom for some lunch. It took them over an hour to produce the sandwiches, by which time we had gone past hunger. While sitting there we discovered we were 40m from a cache, so went out and found a few along the waterfront before slowly making our way up Steep Hill, which was still packed. We went for hot chocolate at the referectory in the cathedral and then went into the cathedral for the carol's by candlelight service. We had planned on staying in Lincoln to eat, but it was pouring with rain and still crowded so we headed back to catch the 7pm bus.
Sunday 6th December
It poured with rain in the morning. We packed most stuff away and then went over to the Pride of Lincoln where there was a geocaching event. We went in to meet some new gcers and a few we hadmet before. We had lunch and a chat and then went back to hitch up the caravan. Everything was very wet but we got off the field ok and were home by 3.30.

All Tooled Up

Monday 30th November
We decided to do a different sort of cache today. We sorted out a tool kit and drove to Croft to do a cache called "All Tooled Up". We were quite impressed when we walked into the playground beside the car park as there was an outdoor adult playground included. There were exercise bikes, rowing machines, ski simulators etc for a bit of a work-out. We walked across a playing field and the first task was to extract a film cannister from a hole, using the bit of cane we had brought. We collected the co-ords, and then onto the next stage where we had to find some numbers stamped on a gatepost. They were very small and required a magnifying glass. The next stage was missing but it didn't matter as there was only one footpath to follow. On the bridge over the river some more numbers were stamped. The next two stages involved using a magnet to remove a bolt, and a spanner to extract a bolt.The co-ordinates were stamped on the shaft of the bolts. We followed round the church to a tree where we had to use a bit of steel to pull out a bolt. Then into a new woodland where the co-ords were attatched to a chain inside a long tube. We had to make a hook to pull the chain up. We were then stumped, as the footpath was closed and the diversion was under a foot of water. We walked via the road to find the last clue but could not get to the cache as the bridge was also under water. It had been good fun solving all the clues even if we hadn't got the final cache. We will have to come back in the Summer when the water level has gone down a bit. We walked on to do "Neither on the hill or the hole" cache which was found easily and then we walked to the top of the hill where we had good views of the quarry and Leicestershire.

Caching and the search for a new GPS

Tuesday 17th November
We decided on a trip to Nottingham to have a look at new GPS’s. We caught the park and ride (£4 per car) and got to the town at about 11. We first found a micro cache at Fletchers gate and then followed the GPS past the station and towards "Nutts in Nott’s" cache. This had been a puzzle cache which had had interesting logs posted on the web site so we felt we had to give it a go. We ended up near Anchor Supplies in an industrial estate. We spotted the "Geocachers Welcome" sign so wandered in. It was an Army surplus store and was filled with ammo boxes, old bits of artillery and various other equipment. We knew we were looking for an ammo box but didn’t fancy searching through all the boxes on display. We wandered up and down for a while and then someone gave us a knowing grin. He pointed out the Geocaching sign on a shop door. We hadn’t thought that it would be inside the shop -being against geocaching rules. We went in and the assistants grinned and we soon spotted a small museum, where we found the correct ammo box. The shop owner came over and had quite a chat with us. He has become very interested in Geocaching recently and was pleased to meet so many people in the shop. We eventually got away and walked towards the Trent where we found another micro cache before heading back towards the city. Our last cache was by the station – there had been youths lurking when we had walked past earlier but they had now gone. However, just as we had retrieved the cache a transit van full of police turned up and parked opposite. We felt a bit suspicious relacing the cache under their gaze. We had some lunch in the Salutation (very uninspiring) and then went to Blacks where we found both the Dakota and Oregon GPS on display. John tried the Dakota but found that the compass was dificult to calibrate.The Oregon was nice, with a big screen and extra functions. Looks like his birthday present might be ordered on-line when we get home!

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.