11/9/11 - What a lot in Quatt

Distance - 6.25 Miles
Caches - 28 in Trail, 27 Found, 2 DNF in the Trail

Quatt

13 days without a cache.  Had a great walk yesterday with no caches on route so thought that today, I would do something to keep the numbers up.

I bit of more than I could chew!

Up at 8am to take Ellie to work and a look on http://www.geocaching.com/ to see a decent place to go.  Stourbridge was considered but a recent log about the caches being vandalised (bloody west midlands) meant that I went up to Shropshire for a new trail.  A hasily assembled GPX download and I hadn't really taken note of just how many there were in the trail.

Provided a great opportunity to walk some favourite paths and a chance to discover some new ones.

Park up at the overflow parking for Dudmaston Hall.  No other cars there.  Just a pile of broken car window glass.  A concern.  There is a cache here somewhere but I had no joy.  Not part of the series.  Head out east across farmland.  2nd cache of the day is a 4.5 dificulty/terrain by Fungimanforager.  Last time I tried to find one of his it required a small child and a pair of step ladders.  So seemed a bit too challenging for my needs today.  A quick look at the gallery shows a man emerging from a water culvert with a pot holing helmet on.  Don't think this was for me.

First of the series proper comes with a good clue and is a classic of its type.  This is what we need when attempting so many on a route.... nothing too complex.

Skirt around the Old Hall and then head south on good paths alongside various coppices, picking up the caches along the way.  First great views over the Clee Hills come at SO764870. where we head to cross the motorbike racetrack and head down towards the river.



Clee Hills

Cross over the road, heading west towards the river and then go further away from the car (time is getting on!) heading south to the pools and waterfalls at Doggets Batch.  This next section of walking represents the best on route and I have been here before.  The paths take you through the well hidden hamlet of Hampton Loade.

Staring at the sun, sweaty and brown.

Come through Hampton Loade.  Actually see the foot passenger ferry today - but its not taking punters.  The fella is sat on his boat/raft having a cup of tea.  I do like the country's first "Sat Nav" error signs that are at the top of the road here.  Apparently TomTom thinks you can get your Mondeo to Highley by taking Huckleberry Finn's raft.

Follow the river upstream.  Proud of myself that I retrieve a cache that is directly where two fishermen are partaking in their completely pointless hobby.  Have to hide the other side of a big old tree but I am determined to get 100% on this route.

Alas, once passing the waterworks, this has all been futile.  Muggled twice at Number 23, so give up and head up the great path that is Long Covert. 

I am being followed by a berghaus clad dog walker, so get a bit of a sprint on to find the four that are just off path along here.  After number to, I stop and allow her to overtake.  It was either that or hide behind a tree and I am not built for hiding.

We are now in the grounds of Dudmaston Hall.  I have been caching here before, last January I think, when the lakes were completely frozen over.  There are still loads of others to find here and I do manage to pick up another Wacky Racers cache which is well off piste.  Look at the route on Everytrail and you will see that I end up struggling to get out of the grounds of Dudmaston, having chosen a path that came to an abrupt stop. 

Ended up dragging the labradoodle down a bit of a stiff incline, to pick up the main path out.

A few more on the road back to the carpark - including the last of the series.  I am a bit cached out by this point and my quick caching trip has taken 3.25 hours.  Didn't fancy hunting in a road - so had a cursory look and will log as a second dnf.  One day I will get 100% on one of these mega trails!

Thanks to spekey for setting up this trail.  The paths and views are excellent - so cachers get a really good walk for their money as well.