Caches - 1 out of 2
Walk from - Trail Magazine - Nov 2006
Lunch - Chips, shared on a bench with a dog
Long Mynd Classic
Checked out the weather forecasts for the weekend. Saturday is fine, Sunday is a wash out. Need a hill fix, so decide to dust of the Long Mynd Classic. This has been completed many times before and is the closest hill walk that I can get to.
Leave basecamp with glorious sunshine. I very nearly didn't bother with my rain coat. In quiz related musical inspiration, I listen to Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, singing along to
"What a life" as I head through Hopton Wafers, Clee Hill Village and Onibury to park up at the Cunnery in Church Stretton. Feel that the intriguing name needs some investigation and it turns out to mean "an ancient field with rabbit warrens". Not what they are saying at the Urban Dictionary.
Just as I am pulling up in the car park the heavens open. Proper big chunky rain drops and driving wind. It's awful. This is getting a bit too repetitive. I cannot remember the last time I walked when I didn't get soaked to the bone.
So I decide to sit it out. Noel skips onto Nouvelle Vague on the iPod. These are a French lounge band that cover alternative/punk songs in a jazz styley. I haven't heard them for ages and there is something a little surreal hearing a french lady doing the dead kennedys in a breathy singing style.
"I went to a party, and danced all night
Drank 16 beers and started a fight"
If this rain doesn't let off, I may follow her lead. After confusing the dog my staying in the car for 20 mins, I decide to wrap my camera in her poo bags and head off into it. What is the worse that can happen? I'll have to flick it with a stick.
The walk is an absolute classic. Stiff climb and drop to Townbrook Valley and then pick up Carding Mill Valley. I love this spot. The first part of the path, where you overlook the road below is a classic.
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| Carding Mill Valley |
Turn left to go to Ligh Spout Hollow.... Shropshire's only waterfall. Take a couple of photos and then find the only cache of the day - one of the Little Quest series of caches in every county in the UK. That's two I have - here and London.
That's the climbing more of less over. Its a gentle walk up to Pole Bank. As always, there are goretex clad teenagers doing the Duke of Edinburgh Award. In the main, they are cheerful. In the main they are lost. I can impress them with my sat nav wizardery.
Second cache is at Pole Bank. Its somewhere in the heather, but there is a lot of heather. They is a cacher's trail, but no bounty at the end of it - but its no doubt just my inability to find it. Always a good stop for lunch here. Wish I had packed some.
Drop down to Pole Cottage and then the winding path through Round Hill, Grindle, Callow and Nills. Classic walking and views.
Down into Little Stretton. Rain starts again. Past the campsite and families are pretending to enjoy themselves by playing cricket.
The usual path back is over the fields through the owlets, but I can't be bothered to hoike the dog over a large stile. I walk back along the old ludlow road, admiring but not stopping at the Ragleth Arms.
Get back into Church Stretton and go to the chipper. If you are lonely and want to meet people, sit on a town bench with a dog sat looking at you while you eat out of chip paper. I had no end of requests from strangers to "go on... give her a chip".
She only likes them with ketchup on.
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| Dog's had enough of Photos and Cache hunting |
Second cache is at Pole Bank. Its somewhere in the heather, but there is a lot of heather. They is a cacher's trail, but no bounty at the end of it - but its no doubt just my inability to find it. Always a good stop for lunch here. Wish I had packed some.
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| You bought a camera and no Sarnies? |
Drop down to Pole Cottage and then the winding path through Round Hill, Grindle, Callow and Nills. Classic walking and views.
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| She's now that grumpy, she even sheep don't interest her |
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| But she's not bad with the camera |
Down into Little Stretton. Rain starts again. Past the campsite and families are pretending to enjoy themselves by playing cricket.
The usual path back is over the fields through the owlets, but I can't be bothered to hoike the dog over a large stile. I walk back along the old ludlow road, admiring but not stopping at the Ragleth Arms.
Get back into Church Stretton and go to the chipper. If you are lonely and want to meet people, sit on a town bench with a dog sat looking at you while you eat out of chip paper. I had no end of requests from strangers to "go on... give her a chip".
She only likes them with ketchup on.
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