18/2/12 - The longest geoslump ends

Distance - 4.05 Miles
Geocaches - 7 out of 10 attempts. 15 in trail. And a bonus.
First Cache


20 long days since the last cache find.  We can blame this on snow (two weekends ago) and international travel (got back yesterday).  Seems a long time since I have been out in the wind and the rain, looking for tupperware.

Wasn't really sure if I would be going today or not, but a marathon snorathon meant that I was up at a good time with no obvious signs of jetlag.  I knew that there was a local round available but my planning has not been great.  The Sat Nav battery was as dead as a doornail.  Gave it a hour whilst I PQ'd the caches, getting the power bar up 30%.  Still, rain is expected, so I went out in the knowledge of not having enough juice to complete the round today.

The dog was in a good mood on my return last night.  However, she adopted her usual stance of pretending to be asleep when she saw me strap on my geocaching utility belt. 

I've had three weeks off from Geocaching.

20 minutes down to Crowle (rhymes with Coal).  Don't know much about the village, but it does have some nice thatched cottages and importantly, a pub.  Park up at the church and head out by the moat. 

Apparently, Molly has a doppleganger in the village called Daisy.  My hunting was interrupted by three seperate dog walkers.  The first one thought had I had half inched Daisy but as he got closer realised that Molly isn't as fat.  He warned the second one that it wasn't the tubster doodle.  3rd fella said nowt.  With all the dog related chatter, I got off to a poor start and gave up on the cache.  Still, this is not an easy round.  The clues are more related to what the caches are, rather than where they are and it makes a change not to be told exactly where they are. 

Head north towards Crowle Green, passing exotic wildlife and get my first couple of the day.  Might have a FTF on a replaced cache and then a very tricky one at the duck pond.

3 Llamas, one headless

Head up the road passing a stream of road racing bike enthusiasts.  Regular blog fans will know that their place in the Mappiman pecking order of idiot hobbies for miserablists puts them slightly ahead of fisherman.  Gave an unacknowledged hello to the first three groups who were obviously too busy comparing shades of lycra to respond back.

Next up is a right hand turn into the old horse racing fields.  At least I learn things with my hobby.  Nice stiff walk uphill for some great views over Worcestershire.  A second DNF, which I know will limit my ability to get the bonus, but with omninous clouds and dwindling power, this won't be a problem.

Would have been trampled underfoot between 1841 and 1939

Into the woods, and I avoid the outlying cache at Sale Green to turn right for the next three caches down to the road.  Proud to say that I got all of these, dropping off a TB that I have had for some time, and picking up a nice GeoCoin for tomorrows adeventure.

Head South East towards the manor house.  One last find in a field corner, navigate the world's poshest gate (fully electric) and with just 5% left on the GPS, fail at a bridge over the Bow Brook.  The first time this has been recorded as a DNF.

With no more battery and the heavens opening, I leave the last four, heading back west through Crowle and to the car.

Home time

No doubt I will be back.  Thanks to the Hoosplorers for a tougher than average round.  Enjoyed being back in the beautiful british countryside.