12/05/13 - Hampton Loaded

Distance - 6.5 miles
Geocaches - 12
Walk from - The Severn Valley by Peter Kerr

Saturday is my usual walking day, but things change this weekend.  Our 20th anniversary is upon us and to celebrate, Sonia would like an engagement ring.  For our 30th anniversary, I am planning on asking her out for a first date.

So, we headed off to the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, leaving the kids on the train to go shopping in the town.  When you are unsure what you are after, the advice is to know what your budget is.  First look through one of the many windows makes me realise I need to double what I initially planned.  After picking up the real ale pub guide and popping into several hostileries in between looking at many, many rings, we make the decision surprisingly quickly.  That's lunchtime mojitos for you.

Combin lunchtime cocktails with the FA Cup final and its not surprising that I was looking for a local walk today.  Had my eye on Highley since some new caches were published a few weeks ago and a walk from "The Severn Valley" by Peter Kerr hit the mark.  On plotting, I saw a pre-blogging hand written note to say that I had completed this back in 2004. 

No doubt, Molly was a lot more sprightly then.  The usual pantomime of her hiding and me cajouling her into the boot ensued.

Park up at the Country Park and take in the first cache of the day in the parkland before dropping down to Highly Station, just as a loco is pulling in.

Old Dog and a gentleman cacher

Drop down to the river and see that the Ship Inn has had an extensive looking make over.  It was well shabby back in 2004.  I can feel an evening trip coming on here.

The walking couldn't be easier, as I keep the river to my right and head up to Hampton Loade.  I am 2nd to Find a nicely hidden nano.  Dog has a dunk.

Taking my eyes of the caches.

The impromptu swim means I have not been paying attention to the caches and have a think about whether I should double back to the one I missed.  I need the numbers, so little internal argument, although the dog thought she was going back for another swim.

Grab this, one more in a tree and arrive at Hampton Loade.  Nicely hidden cache at the station and a few people milling around waiting for the train.

Its a long way to Cornwall on a Loco from here

Stiff climb up the road to pick up the Jack Mytton way at Hampton House.  I remember this being an absolute quagmire.  Some work must have been done on the track, as there was barely a puddle today.

Get my only DNF of the day, where I spend a good 15 minutes looking for, and failing to find a "dead stump".  Found nothing matching the description and missed out on the promise of a GeoCoin that had just been placed.

Bit of a detour now, as I go heading for the "Around Highley Caches".  The OS Map doesn't show the GZ as footpaths but they seem well used tracks.  Pick up four but cannot get the one at Highley village as it is being guaded by gardeners.

With my car at the far other end of Highley, you realise quite how big the village is.  Grab two more in the town and stop at the monument celebrating the village's mining history.

Model Dog

The rains start just as I am getting back to the country park.  Just time for a last nano, making a decent walk a pretty good caching excursion.