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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Kegworth canal walk

Friday 18th September
We spent an hour in the garden clearing the bottom corner and then went to the organic farm to get some meat for Sunday and some lunch for today.
We drove to Kegworth where we parked by the canal. We started by walking across a ploughed field towards the railway where we had to go under a very low tunnel. I could just about walk upright but John had to duck. We carried on across fields emerging onto the road at Kingston. After finding a cache we sat by the memorial and ate our lunch - bacon puffs and a scone. We found the next footpath which went between some lovely cottages with pretty gardens. We crossed a little bridge and watched some fish and then headed towards the power station. We crossed another bridge where another cache was found and John spotted a yellow frog. We continued along the footpath towards the power station and then followed a zig zag path through lovely woodland and then across rough ground to the road.
The map was very unclear at this point and we headed towards the A453 but decided it was wrong so headed back but still could not find a path. We went into Ratcliffe village and found the path which was very overgrown but which went past a garden with llamas. The footpath signs disappeared and we suddenly came face to face with some very big and loud dogs. We hastily retraced our steps but could still not find the correct path through. Consulting the map we found a different way through but when we found ourselves at the river there was no way across so we walked back up onto the A453, crossed the bridge over the river and eventually found our way down onto the other side of the river. We enjoyed the stroll down the river watching the ducks and swans. We reached the canal and crossed back to the car after 8.1km.

Catching up

We have been very busy lately, away on several holidays, trips to Kent and also trying to make some headway in the garden - a hopeless task, which means I haven't blogged for a while.
I will now make some attempt to catch up with details of some of our walks.
Wednesday 15th July
A local geocacher had laid out a series of 18 geocaches on a walk around South Ashby so when the rain had eased we set off for a walk.We parked at Packington and set off along the road and across a stile into a field. We found the Brookside cache quickly and moved across the field. After finding a sneakily hidden cache near a footpath sign we continued across fields and along the path to Normanton le Heath. We walked past the pretty church, finding another cache, and then took the path through some very overgrown fields. One of the advantages of caching is that it encourages people to use the footpaths, and when these have become overgrown, they do tend to have ways pushed through them. This was the case with the next cache. The path was very overgrown but a few cachers had been through recently and so there was the beginning of a path through. We battled our way through and found the next cache, the path now emerging onto a lane. We followed the lane and this was where our luck ran out with the next 2 caches unfound. The skies were now beginning to look very heavy so we followed the road back into Packington having walked 9km and finding 8 of the 18 caches.
Saturday 18th July
We set out today to do the second half of the South Ashby walk. We parked in the same place at Packington and waited for a shower to stop and then walked back down the lane to try to find the cache that we had missed on Wednesday. John found it tucked in a hole almost immediately this time. We walked back up the lane to do "Stylish" cache, but although we hunted for ages we still could not find it. We eventually abandoned it and walked across a field and over a stile, to cross a field of corn. We diverted here to go into Sunnyside, a National forest wood to find another cache. We had to walk through very long reeds and although we could see where cachers had been before we could not find it.
We walked back to the footpath and crossed onto the road where we searched for "North Pole South Pole". This again took ages and just as we were about to give up I found it, tucked inside a gate post. From here we folowed the footpath across fields and walked parellel with the A42. Here we found "Hitch hiking", though I don't know why it was called that. We crossed the A42 and walked towards Ashby but diverted along Packington Lane and along the back of the school and quickly found "No way out". After this we walked down the road towards Packington finding "Foot high", on top of a footpath finger post. We walked through Mill Farm where they are converting barns and followed the footpath signs, unfortunately the path is not walked much and it was deep with thistles, brambles and nettles. We battled through and emerged onto a bridge where we sat to eat a biscuit. Two rams came over to see what we were doing although when it was clear they were not going to get any treats they waked away. We walked across the field and stopped to find "Stoned", a clever hide in a tree and then left the field and the rams. We crossed the A42, again, which was very brambly, and did the last cache. We then walked down the bridleway and back to the car. We had walked 9.5km and another 7 caches.

Another caching day.

Monday 20th April
I had a check-up at the hospital today so as we were halfway to Market Harborough we drove there to do some puzzle caches that we had solved a while ago. We parked in the centre of the town and bought a sandwich which we ate whilst sitting by the corn market. The weather was lovely for a change.We then drove to Great Oxenden for a walk. We started off by finding a cache in the village and then walked along the Jurassic Way for a while. We had problems finding the footpath but a local man told us it went up the side of a house. We had quite a chat with him about walking, farming and sheep dogs. We went on our way following the Jurassic way. We had to cross a field of young cows which were all huddled round the stile we wanted, but we bravely walked through and they ran off. We were looking for a puzzle cache in the next field, I thought I had solved the puzzle and the location looked promising on the map but when we got there the gps was pointing into the middle of a field so was obviously wrong, so we abandoned it and continued our walk. We walked through a farm and came across 2 ladies with prams who had just gone through a field of cows. We decided that if they were happy pushing babies through, the cows must be ok. We shooshed them away from the cattle grid and walked over. They started to follow us but soon lost interest. We got to Clipstone and hoped for a drink but everywhere was closed so we continued back towards Gt Oxendon and the Brampton Valley Way, a disused railway that has been converted into a cycle path. Here we looked for another puzzle cache. We found the right place but had to cross a broken fence so thought we might be trespassing, but after quite a hunt John spotted the cache. We contined along the BVW and back to the car. We had walked 14km.

A day of caching

Friday 27th February 2009
Instead of a planned structured walk today we decided to do some caches. Some of these were very fiendish puzzle caches that we had solved some time ago and then not had the opportunity to find. We drove to Great Borden near Market Harborough and parked near the village green. We first set off to do a short multi-cache called Kiddies Delight, where we had to answer a few questions in the playground and then walk over the railway bridge into pasture where there were about a dozen horses; but they ignored us. We soon found the cache location which was very muddy and thorny, but I managed to get through, find the cache, signed the log book and then continued along the footpath towards Market Harborough. We next found “Where the sun don’t shine” one of the puzzles we had solved last August. We soon found Nasty the Gnome with the logbook placed Where the sun don’t shine! and then continued along the road where we found ourselves at Union Wharf, the location for "Confederate Hideout". The instructions for this one were a bit strange. We sat with our backs to Mr and Mrs Bushby, a bench near the canal basin, the instructions said that “if we pulled the chain it would not empty the canal”. We looked around and noticed a chain hanging from a barge mooring rope. Feeling a bit self conscious, I got up and pulled the chain. It was very long and I kept pulling, eventually a film fixative can emerged, which when opened revealed the log book. We signed the log and returned the cache to the water. We continued into Market Harborough and bought a roll from Subway for our lunch and walked back to the car, unsuccessfully searching for another cache on the way.
After lunch we drove along the A6 and parked in a layby to search for another puzzle cache. This had involved answering questions about 60’s tv detectives. I had managed to do most of them, some with the help of the internet. We found the cache which this time included a cd with clips of 60’s tv theme tunes, which we have to listen to and then answer the questions to find the next cache. We also found the "Hermitage" cache whilst we were here.
We then drove on and parked in Foxton where we found 2 more caches before walking along the canal to do another puzzle cache. Here we found ourselves at a Swing bridge on the canal. As we were trying to work out where the cache was, a barge came along and moored whilst the lady opened the bridge, which involved closing the gates to the road traffic and then swinging a section of the road across. The lady could not manage on her own so John helped. Quite fascinating as we had not seen a feature like this before. After finding the cache we walked along the canal and found another 3 caches. We then walked back to Foxton and the car. We had walked about 14 km and had had quite a fun day finding 11 out of 12 caches.

Family Weekend

We had visits from dad and Emily and Mike this weekend so redid a couple of walks that we had done recently.

On Friday we took dad to do the walk at Nanpantan. It was a bit drier than when we did it a couple of weeks ago and we were very lucky that the rain held off. We had a nice walk to Woodhouse Eaves and then after a stop at The Curzon Arms we set off to Beacon hill and then across Buck Hill -about 8 miles round.

On Saturday we walked across Bobs Closs and then over the fields to Swannington and Coleorton, we had fine views of the Swannington windmill. We finally ended up at the New Inn at Pegs Green where we all had a very nice pint of Guinness, (this walk had been at Mikes request). We were lucky again in the weather -it was quite warm and sunny. This was a shorter walk of about 6 miles. It was a very nice weekend.

Nanpantan, Leicestershire

The weather forecast was not good so we decided to do a local walk. We drove to Loughborough and parked in the sports club in Nanpantan road. We walked across fields and through woods to Woodhouse Eaves , it was exceptionally muddy after last nights torrential rain and in places we were walking through streams of water. We saw daffodils in flower next to clumps of snowdrops (shows how spring is progressing) but not much in the way of wildlife -1 squirrel and a few blue tits and possibly a yellowhammer. We stopped for lunch at the Pear Tree. It has been modernised since the last time we went there but was very welcoming, even with our muddy boots. We had a crayfish ciabatta roll with Macdonald style chips! It started to pour with rain while we were eating so we stopped for a coffee. We continued walking when it the rain stopped. We followed the road to a lane and then through woodland past the site of an old windmill (couldn't see it) and then through to Beacon hill. It was a long slog up to the hill but we had good views at the top. The rock outcrops were interesting, the oldest rocks in Britain! We sat for coffee and then worked our way off the hill and down through more small bits of woodland. We past several small electricity generation wind mills which were quite noisy. At the bottom of the hill we had to cross a stream via stepping stones which was interesting after all the rain as the stones were mostly under the very fast flowing water. We next worked our way onto Buck hill which was a nice short ridge walk and then down through more woodland to Jubillee woods, the Outwoods and finally back to the car. The walk was 13.2 km and we were exceptionally muddy at the end. Plus my boot had sprung a small damp patch.