29/10/11 - Gorgeous Industrious

Distance - 7.3 Miles
Inspiration
Caches Found - All looked for

Ironbridge

At the end of August, I took the Times Newspaper with me to Greece.  As I sat and read it in our prison apartment, there was a walk detailed at Ironbridge in the pull out weekend section, with a link to the details at the end of the article.  Despite having a toilet that wouldn't accept paper, we did have wireless Internet - so I spent a week booklinking various free walk series and dreaming of cool autumn days to walk in Blighty.

Its taken me 2 months to get time to do it.  Where do the weekends go?

This is the birthplace of industry and you could make a real day of it by getting passes to the museums.  However, I don't have time and do have a labradoodle that probably wouldn't have been welcome.  I just concentrate on a stunning walk, that was more woodland than river.

As its an working class town, there are working class vices.  Just as I am about to cross the famous bridge, I spy a pub next door to an award winning pork pie shop.  And more of that later.

Pies Left

There was always going to be a shot of the bridge.

Cross the bridge and find cache number 1.  I have downloaded all caches within 0.25 miles of the walk and a world record of 46 were found.  I have only attempted the ones on route and it provided a nice distraction.

Head East along the south side of the river.  Have to nip off track for cache 2 and re-emerge from the bushes in front of startled Germans.  Continue all along the this cycle way, passing the tile museum and ending up at a foot bridge on the way to the Tar Tunnel.  I don't know what it is either.

Find a canal here and I can see a tramway up the woodlands that mean that I am in for my first climb of the day. 

Uphill next to the tramway

This sets the scene for all the return journey - getting high in woodland and having the occasional stunning views through the trees.  Stop to arrange the camera from a footpath that is right next to the dining room of a hotel.

Power to the People

Come around the back of the Bliss Hill Victorian town and get a few caches.  One involves a precarious dangle down hill from a tree on a steep hill and as I am signing the log, the labradoodle comes barrelling down past me.  No harm done but she does get frustrated with my caching.

Through Lloyds Coppice on the Rigeway path. 

It's in the trees

Finaly work my way through Dale Coppice and a dodgy council estate before taking the downhill path back to the carpark.  I oass colebrookdale church and the YHA before dropping down a path called simply paradise.  I wouldn't go that far, but it was better walking country than Greece.

This is why I want to stay at a YHA

If I changed one thing about the walk, I would go in reverse order so that you pass all the pubs and pie shops on the way back to car.  I drive back through and fortunately, I can pull into a bay to load up at Mrs Miggins.  I cannot choose between the pie and pasty.

You all know what I ended up doing.... a two handed savoury chow down.

Get back home and check the Times.  This weeks walk is in the Wyre Forest.  I have it scheduled for the end of December.

22/10/11 - Why walk when you can water taxi?

Distance - 7.8 Miles
Walk Inspiration
Caches - 5

Cardiff

A city centre tour, called for as Ellie visits another university town.  This time it is Cardiff and once again, http://www.walkingworld.com/ has a city centre tour to keep me entertained whilst Ellie learns that the best way to stop your student housemates from stealing your cheese is to lick it.

We use the Park and Ride and get dropped of at the edge of Queen Street, one of the main shopping areas.  A short walk is required to the university and as time is pressing, we get a wriggle on.  Ever seen a 17 year old who cannot keep up with a pair of 42 year olds?

The university building is brand new and its rather nice that someone has put a cache over the road.  Its also the location of Cardiff's oldest pub, the Vulcan, which is now freestanding and presumably a listed building.

Blue Sign tells Ellie where the shoes are.

View of Uni from a cache.

I follow the railway line, past the main station and on to the River Taff.  This part of Cardiff is called Temperance Town and was bequethed to the city by Colonel Edward Wood on the condition that none of the businesses sold alcohol.  So they have built the Milennium Stadium on the land.  Not many drunk rugby fans there.  I hope the colonel comes back and haunts the town planners.

I walk along the river in the shadow of the stadium.  Cross over the road at Cardiff Bridge and have my next wow moment as I walk through Bute Park, with its great views of the castle.

Work my way to the Town Hall, another impressive building, and find cache number two of the day.  I then have a walk through the town centre.  All pedestrianised and you could be anywhere in the country, with its identikit shops.  I am on a parallel road to the infamous Chip Alley.  If you want to see what Ellie will be getting up to, should she be successful, you can see photos in the Daily Mail or here.

A couple of inner city caches are on offer, in the usual locations.

I am soon on my way to Cardiff Bay, walking along the straight road that is Bute Road, through ButeTown.  Its a bit rough here, so my caching pen is held as a ninja weapon, ready to take a hoodies eye out should he try and half inch my sat nav.  There is a nice cache along here which is part of a Shirley Bassey series.

Butetown leads to Cardiff Bay.  This is part of when Cardiff had one of the world's biggest docks and is going through something of a regeneration.  The buildings are impressive and new entertainment places are springing up everywhere.  Stop for a pint at the Packet - one of the old hotels from the dockland history. 

Nice pint of Skull Attack.  Hat is model's own.

This gives me chance to read the Times.  Does life get any better than this?

Its then a short hop down to the bay itself and its like being at the seaside.  A few micros caches and then I see an alternative way of getting back to the City that avoid going back the way I came in on foot.

Taxi for Mappiman

For £3, this takes 20 mins to wind up the Taff and drop me back in the City for a rendevous with the ladies.

It would appear as though the university ticks all the boxes - deluxe rooms are available, there is the chance of trips to New York, one of the students presenting is working a gap year as a stylist on the XFactor.

I like it cause the city is lovely and we got home in 80 minutes.  Although the drive was a bit nervous, listening to the Albion hold on to their first win at Villa Park since I was 10.

15/10/11 - Lickey, All Day Long

Distance - 5.3 Miles
Walking World
Caches - 3
The song that inspired the walk

Lickey Hills

Beautiful autumnal day, althought Sonia comments that "there is a bit of a nip in the air", as we load up to dog into a mist covered car.  We can see our breath... it won't be long before the scrapers is dug out.

I used to make this journey to Longbridge every day for a year in an elderly Mark 4 Escort with faulty heating.  In those days, I had never stopped to explore the views and great walking that is on offer.

I've walked here a number of times since getting the dog.  The first time was following a guide from "Short Walks from Worcestershire Pubs" which showed a picture of a magnificant castle.  On arrival, its more like a lego castle.  But it does have the sort of views that all generations of brummies need to be grateful to the Cadbury Family for making publically open.

As good a view as Parliament Hill in London

We head east on the North Worcestershire Path and rather than walking in the Lickeys, we are doing a circuit of Waseley Hills Country Park.   Cross the Rubery Expressway and pick up the paths that form an anticlockwise tour.

I came walking here about 2 months ago and I have picked up most of the caches that are present.  That means we can concentrate on admiring the ranging views in all directions and fight off the attentions of a woman trying to sell us a dog.  Soz Lady, we've already got one.

Stop, and someone will try and sell you something

Being in the country park does mean we can have a quick stop for supplies at the Visitor Centre.  I am sent in for water and come out with bonus cake.  Chapter 1, from my new book, "how to seduce women".

Back on route and we head around Chapman's Hill, take a bit of a wrong turn up it, and then through Chadwick Manor Estate.  We have to walk through a field of cows and calves.  They are all lying down (surely can't be expecting rain) and as we make our way through, they start to move.  The sensation can only be compared with cowboys making their way through the sacred indian burial grounds and you do not want to bring attention to yourselves.

A big dog takes us slightly off route and we go back under the A38 and find the first cache of the day.  This is part of a 11 series placed by the bailey rangers.  Having completed several of their other series in the past, I will have to come back to this neck of the woods again.

Having been walking seriously in Worcestershire for the last 8 years (since getting the doodle), I have walked these paths before.  As we head up someones drive on the edge of Beaconsfield, I am still filled with discomfort.  This isnt helped when they are all out doing the gardening and we have the rights to just march on through.  Still, they seemed friendly enough.

Sonia is starting to flag on the uphill climb through the woods.  I am off looking for the next two caches.

Done in, but its the last climb

Cross Beacon Lane.  Complain about a locked gate on a public footpath, only to find the stile next to it after we have all clambered over it.  A great path through the triffids.

Sweet.  Corn.

Back at Monument Lane and the car.  For a joke, I ask Sonia if she wants to run the last mile back.  Her complaints mean that I have undone all the good cake work.

Super Walk and just right for my lazy weekend.  If anyone wants me over the next couple of days, I am on the sofa with the remote control and the Times.

11/10/11 - Cookham and Winter Hill

From 100 Walks in Berkshire and Oxfordshire
Distance - 4.5 Miles
Caches - None Found

Cookham

Cookham is that nice that Ulrika has made it her home.  I have driven through it once before and been impressed enough that I would come for a weekend away.  Today, there is only time for a quick walk around the Thames and back up Winter Hill.

Park at the free parking and head out to the Thames to see all the posh houses with their boat access on the other side.  Find the answer to the question "When is a pub not a pub?".  On the OS map, there is the beautiful blue symbol of a pint glass but on reaching the People's republic of Cock Marsh, I am confronted with a rather posh ice cream parlour.  And its shut at 6pm.

Have to make do with a skirt around the viking funeral pyre.

Dead Sailor

Bear South and can see Winter Hill.  This is a great view point to overlook the Thames and the resevoirs.  Nice paths through farmland and up the side.

Crop rotation in the 14th Century was considerably more widespread after....

Guess where I am going?

It's then a straightforward return over the golf course, avoiding flying balls.

The River Thames continues to be a theme for 2011 walking, having taken in Goring, Richmond and Shepperton in recent weeks.  Must find the source one day....

3/10/11 - TOWIE!

Distance - 3.5 Miles
Caches - Err, only 1 found
Walk from 1001 AA Walks - Walk 632

Weald Country Park

Evening walking when away on business is going to have to stop now.... darkness falls too quickly.  Start in good light, end up flapping around in the pitch dark looking for a way out of the park.
I am down working on the Kent/Essex border and find a likely short walk that I should be able to complete before nightfall.  Starts and Ends at a decent boozer as well, which is a bonus.

The walk is in the grounds of Weald Country Park, steeped in history and full of people walking their dogs.  After a tricky navigation of a busy road, I turn right into the visitors centre.  Straight away faced with a common sight on this autumn walks, more deer.  Still they are cute.

Who killed Bambi?

Dissect the two pools and then head into the area of woodland imaginatively entitled "the forest".  Capability Brown may have been great at country gardens but he couldn't come up with decent handles.

There are a few caches here.  None have descriptions and most have several DNFs recently recorded.  I have a bit of a look for a couple and only find one, right at the end of the walk.   The walk is straightforward, a square route on good paths through woodland.  There are plenty of Essex folk out with their dogs.

Nice bit of fresh air after 200 miles of driving and a day in an office.  Pity that the autumn evenings close in too fast.

2/10/11 - No Sleep till caching....

Caches - 19
Distance - 6 Miles
First Cache
Found - 16, DNF 3

Kingsford

The indian summer continues, so after an escape from the X-factor by going to the pub, we went to bed with the windows open.  This proved a mistake as there were two independent parties going on from the Trevithick Massif.  The first family, named after a well known vegetable, kept the party going till 2am.  Its the second lot who made the real noise.  His identity shall be kept secret but we think his friends are werewolves.  There is no other explanation for the howling at the moon at 4am this morning.  You know who you are Toy the Darber.

So up early.  Yesterday when blogging yesterday's walk a new series of caches appeared over Kingsford.  It was always going to be a challenge, as there were no clues, apart from the cache names.

It did lead to an absolutely stunning walk and some very amusing caches.

Park up at the recommended parking just over from kinver edge.  Are there any other cacher cars here?  It looks a bit early, so I may be OK.  Drop down a lane for cache number 1.  Nice easy find and it looks like I will be Ok on this trail.  Number 2 is similarily easy. 

Cache 3 is up the hill, but people are coming

Cache 3 makes me laugh.  Its in an Urn (as per the name) and I was setting up the camera to take a victory pose with the pot aloft when I hear voices coming through the woods.  Maybe another search party are on their way!  I quickly put it back and then make my way to cache 4 which I cannot find. 

The voices belong to cyclists rather than cachers, so I let them overtake but confidence is shattered as U cannot find 5 and 6 as well.  30 mins into the walk and it is Mappiman 3 - 3 All-Weather-Cacher.  I need to bring more people out with me to help look.

I don't mind because although I know the area well, I have not been on these paths before.  And they are stunning.  Great views out over the woodland and good tracks.  Makes a great round.

Get back into the game at cache 7, after a long hunt and then thinks get interesting as I make a U turn at Start Green Farm to enter Arley Woods.  Some great walking and the caches get really amusing.  I kiked the hammer of the gods and the big acorn a lot and my previous DNFs are fogotton.

This is a cache

Tracks in Arley wood are stunning, although I do get a bit lost at a pheasant farm trying to follow the green path on the map and we have to go cross country to get back on the route.  Molly loves it when she has to follow me through the undergrowth.

Arley Wood.  What's not to like?

At Witnells End, there is a expanse of grazing field that is surrounded by the woodland.  More picturesque views.

Lovely

The cache containers maintain interest levels and for the rest of the round, they are all finds.  Will I ever forget a trainer and the danger mouse (how on earth was that created!). 

Work my way through the Bodenham Estate.  Nice of them to build a room for you to record the caches.  Would have thanked them but do you think I get them to say hello to me?  Country folk with their country ways.

High Speed Internet

On the walk through the grounds of High Hobro farm, the path was blocked by an unusual obstacle.  A more senior man snogging his asian bride.  You would have thought that they would stop and move over, but they were so into their passion that I had to squeeze past with my labradoodle.

Back on familar ground at Kingsford Caravan Park, the last couple of caches (what was 17 all about?) and back to the car.

Do this for the walk.  The caches are an extra.  Fantastic route - thanks All-Weather-Cacher.

1/10/11 - Trench Cache Fayre

Caches - 9
Distance - 3.3 Miles
First Cache

Trench Wood

Today was going to be a long walk.  I was thinking about a nine miler over Ironbridge.  However, as with nearly every day in life, work is getting in the way.  Not mine, but Ellie and Sonias.

Sonia has gone out to work looking like a victim of domestic violence after a row with a fridge.  She also has a cold.  She doesn't want to let the team down but should blend in well in Walsall.

Ellie is currently holding down two jobs.  As a result, I am letting go the yoghurt pot tops, permanently on lights and the dining room which looks like the painter Jackson Pollack has a good session.

Why do we all work so hard?  For what purpose?  With Sonia, it's holidays, with Ellie it's shoes but me, I need nothing but the fresh air, a round of caches and a decent malt on special days that end in 'Y'.  On the radio yesterday was a story about a man that walked for 16 years continuously, taking in 64 countries.  One day.....

All this lady work is not what has stopped me going on the big walk.  It's deemed not right to leave Alex on his own all day.  This is not because we fear a Facebook style party but because we will come home and find him watching the Simpsons surrounded by the debris of multiple bags of crisps. 

So, a small round of geocaches is in order.  There is a round of 9 at Trench Woods, just the other side of the J6 M5 Motorway Island.   Not been there before, so head off before the row about whether Ellie had time to wash her hair escalates to Def Con 1.

There is parking and a short walk through the woods.  I can hear rustling in the trees and me and the doodle stand dead still to be rewarded by two deer running across the path in front of us.  This, and the squirrels, gets the otherwise disinterested dog interested in the walk.

Cache one is where the woodland ends and reveals some great countryside views.

Camera on Cache Post, Tree flopped in the way

We then walk around the permiter of the farmland, with Fillet wood on our left.  A hunt for cache 2 but found and then I should have taken the hint that cache 3 is at the far end of the bridge, I should have crossed it.  Instead, I continue on the field edge and have to scramble over a ditch stream to get cache 4.  I'm too old for this.

Pick up the lane around Netherwood Farm Cottages and fail to find the cache along here.  I have read the previous logs and know that I have to worry about killer dogs, and just as I am lay prostate over a large fallen tree to see if the cache is on the other side, I can see the cavalry charge coming up the lane.  Two of them, and its always the small one that makes the most noise.  Just as Molly and me take our defensive positions, the farmer comes out on a 4x4 bike and calls them off.  They are angry but obediant.  I decide to abandon the hunt but part of me feels that the Jack Russel has half inched it.  He's that sort of dog.

The rest of the caches are fine and we head back up to the woods through sheep fields at Oddingly Bridge (#2).  Back into the woods for the last couple and soon back to the car.

Scene from the last cache - who would have thought is Oct 1

Perfect little round for my needs.  I get home and clean the dog and out comes the boy in his bumble bee pants demanding £8.50 for Microsoft XBOX loyatly points (no wonder Bill Gates is so rich) and a bacon sandwich.  The crisps were safe.

Thanks to  matt232323 for the round.