24/3/13 - Cabin Fever

Distance - 4.4 Miles
Geocaches - 8 Found, 1 DNF

Wombourne

If you want to make God laugh, then tell him your plans.  Yesterday, the dog was booked in for her 10th birthday barnet trim at the dog clippers.  This meant that I could go for a lengthy drive, without having her whining in the back.  If the weather was good, I was going to attempt the mountain walk from Hay on Wye... if the weather wasn't so good, it was going to be a city walk from Bristol.

The weather conspired to be the worst March in 50 years.  Instead of walking, I spent the day looking at the snow storm through the window - getting into the spirit of things by watching the final part in a Scandavian crime triolgy.  Slowly climbing the walls. It got the point where I was going to start writing "Red Rum" on the walls in red paint, when the evening was rescued by a trip to Sainsbury's. 

It was that bad.

Today could not afford such a repeat but with the weather still the wrong side of Artic, we headed off to Wombourne, knowing there was a recently laid trail.

We parked up at Bratch Bridge and headed up the canal.  A stop for the first cache of the day, which Sonia found in the darkness.

Springtime in Wombourne

We head north, saying hello to friendly joggers and not so friendly fellow dog walkers, finding the 2nd nano but failing to find the third of the day.  The clue and co-ords were spot on and we can only assume that it was buried beneath the ice and snow.

 

Back in the game as we get a find and drop off a TB at Awbridge Bridge.  So good they nearly named it twice. 

 

Grin.  And bear it.

Short bit of roadwalking and we hope that we can get up to the railway line to head back down to pick up the caches along the way.

Julia Bradbury is right.  Beeching may have decimated public transport but he did leave some nice walks.  And the great news is they are long and straight so you can see the muggles coming.  Two more found without embarassment.

We walk the line

 

As we a up a touch higher, we are more exposed to the beast from the east and Sonia starts dreaming aloud about the prospect of a nice warm cafe for a cup of tea. 

I have been this way before and know what is at  the end of the line.  What I don't know is quite how to get into it.  The cafe is the former railway station but there is no obvious way up from the line itself.

A woman cannot be kept from a bacon sarnie and with the same fortitude she displays when hunting for treasure, we manage to burst our way in.

Molly checks for where the Bacon Sarnies are

This brings us back to the car.  But we have only walked a couple of miles.  I manage to convince them both to do a bit more and we find the cache of the day at the Bratch Green.  Very ingenious.

 

The footpath takes us up through a housing estate and into the village proper, where we complete a quick loop around the historic church to grab a couple of micros.

 

 

Nearly chucking out time

It's not that easy caching as the church congregation are exiting. We head back the car, praising the lord in our own way for the fresh air and the chance to blow out the cobwebs.