21/4/12 - Surveying Villians

Distance - 7.5 Miles (The Book Lied)
Walk from - Heart of England Walks (The Liars)
Geocaches - 8 found, 3 DNF


Strange walking day today.  Sonia has work to do at Villa Park, surveying fans on what has gone wrong this season.  Option include;

1. Hiring their arch rivals manager who has relegation form
2. Playing a formation of 5-5-0
3. Emile Heskey

She had to be there at 11am and we thought parking would be a problem, so I volunteered to drop her off.  But where to walk?  I have always fancied a look at the cathederal town of Lichfield and as it is 16 miles further, it's a perfect opportunity.

Hope the walking SatNav behaves better than TomTom.  At every junction on the way here, the SatNav wants to take be in a different direction to the road signs.  I had already told it I was too tight to pay the toll charge.

25 Minutes later I am parking up at the bus station.  Quick walk through town and I am at the magnificent three spired cathedral.  The only other similar one is in Truro, which we visited last year.  The walk is only supposed to be 4.5 miles, so there should be plenty of time to explore the city centre on my return.

One more Spire than Lincoln's - Their 3rd fell down.

Bit of a detour around the back of the catedral to find cache 1 of the day - took me a while to find the correct path to be on.

Walk gets on in earnest - ominous storm clouds gathering as I pick up the Heart of England Way to get into Pipe Green.  1st DNF and another easy find.

Heart of England Way

Work my way to Grange Lane, where I leave a dual carriageway to hunt for a cache behind some trees, hiding away from the cars.  The trees provide limited cover when we have a hailstorm for 10 minutes.

Some fairly uninspiring walking on a path that runs alongside this main road.  A few more caches.  First human contact with a man dressed in khaki, carrying an air-rifle.  I think he was after squirrels but quite why he had to dress as rambo to do this is anyone's guess. 

Then we pick up a series at Elmhurst nature reserve.  Easy walking and caching, although there is still one that I cannot get.  It has a proper cachers trail around the back of a tree but no treasure.

At Aspley house, I cross the railway line and head to Curborough Hall Farm.  I have been walking for 2.5 hours - and Sonia phones to say she has finished.  Strange, I should be well back in the town deciding whether it is McDonalds or Colonel by now.  It would appear as though the 4.5 miles promised by Roger Noyce is a hopeless fibber.  Check when I get back and its 7.5.  The good news is there is a complex of shops at the Farm and I buy sustenance in the shape of a coke and pastie the size of my shoe.  Didn't resent paying the extra 20% tax for it.

Some new fishing pools have been built so that the bored men of Staffordshire can sit in the rain looking at nothing.  I pass them and head back into town at Nether Stowe - working my way through housing estates with the cathedral in full view to guide my way.

Pass down the right hand side of Stowe Pool.  Having such a sized fishing pool in the heart of the city shows just how seriously they take their fishing.  The heavens open again for a proper downpour.

Too late and too wet to explore the town, so head back to the car to pick Sonia back up.  Get to Villa Park at 3:10 and its amazing how many fans are still making their way to the game.....  they obviously knew they weren't in for much entertainment today.