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Friday, 14 March 2014

14/03/14 - Titter Ye Not

Walk From - Country Walking Magazine Jan 2014
Distance - 5 Miles
Geocaches - 2

Titterstone Clee Hill at EveryTrail


All turning out rather nice. 

I have taken a couple of days from work.  Yesterday, was the annual Jolly Boys outing to Cheltenham Racing and it would have been rude not to make a long weekend of it.

We wake to a heavy blanket of fog but a check on the weather websites, suggests that the Shropshire Hills may be clear.  I noticed a walk up Titterstone Clee Hill in a recent CW Mag, so quickly plotted a route and headed out.  Once in Shropshire, the fog lifted and we had glorious blue skies.

I could not have planned it better if I had tried.

We park up at an abandoned quarry site and we have the place to ourselves, with the exception of a man who has brought his dog all the way here to just throw a ball for it.

The route takes us eastbound over some tussocky grasslands.  Cache 1 of the day is found in the boulders - never the easiest location.  Spot on Co-Ords make for an easy find.

Head towards a strange Totem Pole looking tree at the oddly named Random Farm.

Totem
Random Farm in the background
The walking is good - not too muddy and we follow the diverted footpath into Cleeton St Mary.  Sonia hopes for a tea shop but the closest we get is a mobile shop in the back of a van.

They don't do tea.

Cleeton St Mary
Impressive Church
Some road walking, dodging all the land rovers that are racing around the countryside and then out into the wilds again.  The walk is meant to take us around the hill, but there is a cache on the top and I want to see the Trig Point.

The Shropshire Way up to the top does not look too steep but is deceptive.  Sonia's C25K training pays off and she goads me for being more "Hill Fit" than me.

As with all hills - it is well worth it when we reach the top.  Especially on a day like this.

Up on Top
We can see for Miles
Trigg Point
Third Highest Man in Shropshire
The second cache of the day is soon found and logged.  All that remains is just to get back to the car.  We were rather surprised at how much higher than the car park we were.

My Car at the Quarry Floor
My Fiat 500 (L) is down there somewhere
Just time to play hide and seek with a labradoodle in the old mine buildings before de-gaitering at the car.

Molly Playing Hide and Seek
She isn't the greatest at this game
The plan was to stop off at the Kremlin in Clee hill on the way back.  We parked up and thought taht it was was quiet.  It opens at 5pm on weekdays.

Kremlin is not open during weekdays
Make do with the Crown at Hopton Wafers
A perfect warm up to the weekend walking that I am now planning.

3 comments:

  1. Sir Hugh14 March 2014 at 22:33

    Has the labradoodle got geocache finding skills?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mappiman15 March 2014 at 07:58

    Nope. However, when she starts to cry it means I have spent enough time at GZ and its time to move on!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sir Hugh15 March 2014 at 08:34

    I walk every Thursday with either one or two of my good friends who are not geocachers. I always plot the route, then have a look to see if there are any geocaches directly coinciding. But looking for Gs with others who are not committed is no good. If we have spent more than five minutes I feel that patience is running thin, and anyway I can't concentrate on searching because I am concerned about overdoing things with the others. Geocaching does not really lend itself to combining with a normal walk and it takes up too much time if I am on a multi week backpacking trip when I am usually under some kind of schedule to reach a prefferred destination within the day at a reasonable time. I find that this activity is best undertaken with only that specific purpose in mind.

    ReplyDelete