26/08/17 - Deja Vu Geocaching

Distance - 7.5 Miles
Caches - Found - 39
First Cache
Pub - The Bridge Inn, Brewood

Geocaching numbers for August were looking fairly pathetic.  Another case of work getting in the way of life.  Fortunately, with the late summer bank holiday weekend, there is a chance to rectify some of the damage.

I've had my eye on this 40 Cache Trail in Brewood, Staffordshire, since it was published a couple of years ago.

It ticks all the required boxes for a lengthy Caching Trail.

Interesting Village - You can feel the history dripping out of Brewood, a place that I've not previously visited.  I don't think there are two buildings the same.  Two Churches, with the Church of St Mary and St Chad dominating the landscape on the early part of the walk.

Brewood from the Shropshire Union Canal

Great Paths - Not only do I get the a couple of stretches along the Shropshire Union Canal, the Staffordshire Way and the Monarchs Way are also picked up.  County long distance paths are usually in good condition and the Staffs Way was no exception.  A really good walk, as well as a caching round.

Picking up the Staffs Way

A Country Lane down to The Hattons

Crossing the Avenue twice on the walk.  A one mile drive to Chillington Hall

Easy Caching - With 40 finds, you don't want to spend an age looking for individual caches.  The clues made finding dead easy and I could get on with the walk.  7.5 Miles walked in 3 hours and 12 minutes.   Even so, I cannot claim 100%.  #36 has gone, with 4 previous DNFs logged.  A mixture of dog walking muggles (duggles?) and barge driving muggles (chuggles?), along with my own lack of skill, stopped me getting #39.

Easy Caching.  Man in Blue may have been a cacher - he's coming from #3

Sense of Fun - I may have been without my caching partner today, but she does read the blog and wouldn't want her to miss out on this.

All quiet on the Staffs Way - No one can see you dress up in cache contents

Refreshment - I had it all planned to go to on to Coven and grab a CAMRA Good Beer Guide Tick at the Harrows Inn.   However, the round starts at a Cask Marque Pub, The Bridge - so it seemed rude not to give them the Mappiman dollar.

The Bridge Inn

Thwaites Lancaster Bomber

Marstons pub, with an admittedly high number of their regular brews.  The Lancaster Bomber was in good condition but it had to be drawn out, as the sandwich took 35 minutes to turn up.

I notice there's another caching loop North from Brewood.  I'll add that to the "To Do" list for a future low scoring caching month.

Thanks to the The Washers UK for the placing and maintenance of a top round.