7/5/11 - Wychbold - Curse of the Spanish Plume

Distance - 4.3 Miles
Number of caches - 19 in Series
Number found - I reckon I got 16 but a load of others of the trail.
The First Part of the Walk

Wychbold Wander - Part 2 at EveryTrail

The Wychbold series of caches are proving to be a challenge.

8 days ago, I blogged an attempt on this series on the day of the Royal Wedding which met with minor disaster caused by incorrectly loading a GPX, having too many high stiles for the geodog to attempt and then getting hassle from a bunch of malcontent ponies that mocked my fruitless attempt to cross their turf.

Today was a re-attempt at the remainders on the day we had a weather system known as the "Spanish Plume".  Lets just say that I got very, very wet.

Good coat, bad weather - at the Railway Bridge

I started at the Church again and crossed the familiar field of sheep to have another go at the high stiles.  Crossed the railway line for the first find of the day and then over fields to the canal.

Struggled to find the crossing on the bridge - and the route on everytrail will show evidence of my trespass as I ended up on the wrong side of the canal on private property.  Eventually found out that I needed a bit of a diversion to get across for the next in the series.

Why do people have such time wasting hobbies?  I thought the fishermen sitting in a row in the torrential rain would win most boring hobby of the day, until I got further around the route and saw a bunch of fellas in a treehouse looking at seagulls on a pond.  My god.  After they rebuked my offer of showing them how geocaching works, I suggested they would find a better quality of bird at our local tip. 

There were that many fisermen that I couldnt look for the next in the series and continued up to the boat and railway pub and a go at one that questioned my own sanity.  I ended up looking for a cache at a railway bridge that I didnt find and getting soaked by every passing car that hit the huge puddle at GZ.  How the fishermen and twitchers would have mocked my own form of entertainment.  Looks like its gone missing, as there are a few DNF here.

The best part of the walk over the two walkscomes around Hobden Hall Farm.  After lying low from a suspicious looking fella ferrating around in the undergrowth, I picked up an excellent path along a stream.  On finding other caches on the route, either he wasn't a cacher or was worse at it than me, as none of the finds had been signed since yesterday.  I can only imagine what he was up to but headlines of "cacher finds dumped body" must be nearing.  It used to always be dog walkers that found world cups and the fruits of lorry driver's night time activities.

Liked the look of the Swan at Upton Bridge and the walk around the back of Webbs Nursery.  Get my cacher eye back in, as I find all the remainder in the series, inlcuding the Last Post, which appears to have been causing some problems.  Its here that Snoop looks miffed that A) she is out in a storm and B) she's not wanted.

Looked rubbish over there anyway.

Come out at the ponies at Henbrook Farm who cause me grief last time.  Flicked them the v's and moved back past the pylons to pick up one I couldn't find last week.  As Mrs Mappiman always tells me when I can't find stuff at home - "I must be prepared to move things".

Back at the car as rather soggy mess.  Enjoyed the series a lot and the walking was very good today.  Thanks to dadu 13 for setting up what has been a popular series.

Now to add up how many finds I got.