07/07/18 - Summertime and the caching is queasy

Distance - 4 Miles
Geocaches - 4 out of 17
First Cache


If this is foreshadowing for the way the World Cup is going to pan out, then there's a Volvo in Worcestershire that is so going to get it.

6am start - to be back before the heat, to be back before England vs. Sweden at 3pm - heading off to the Wrekin area of Shropshire.  An area with a rich seam of geocaches, many entombed in soggy black socks from Matalan.

Today's circuit is the Rushmoor Ramble - 17 Caches and parking at a pub.

Things have changed since Google Streetview was in town.

That's the post walk drink cancelled

Off with the caching....  even with an OS Map and GPS route finding is tricky.  I don't need the track to the disused railway line but the road and a footpath along the side of houses.   Overgrown stile, leads to overgrown paths and a GZ for cache 1 that is... you've guessed, overgrown.

Still, I'm an experienced cacher, I can improvise.

Mappiman Weed Whacker 

Caches 1 and 2 are found, but not easily.  At three, there is no chance.  I get the clue but no way to fight my way through brambles to find something that I realise has not been found this calendar year.

I must be really late to this party, as this is most unusual for a lengthy cache trail.   I make the decision not to drop my TB off and if I succeed if one thing today, its liberating another that's been lurking since 29/10/17.

Longtime not found

I proceed, attempting the ones that I can but not worrying about the inaccessible ones.

After the horseflies, the next hazard is the cows.  A field full of them is traversed and a wide birth applied.  Just as I get past them, I can hear movement and the one with very bull-like udders motions towards me.   The weed wacker is held aloft in preparation for combat, but after some snorting, he releases the longest fart I have ever heard and lies back down.

The 4th and last find of the day comes at #8 and the hazards intensify.  Horses.  God, I hate them.  I sometimes wish I was French, just so that I could order them off the menu.

Most are behind fences but along a narrow public footpath at Lawn Farm, the most skittish of the lot is bucking and broncoing his disapproval that the world's worst cacher wants to get by.

I decide not to antagnoise him and attempt to climb over the fence to avoid death by hoof.

The fence is waist high and of course, its electrified.   I find this out mid straddle, at the time my testicles get electrocuted.

There's people that would happily pay for this level of entertainment on a Saturday morning but I am questioning myself.

Caching now given up, I try and enjoy the walk.  There are fine views over the Wrekin.

Best of the Views

You might think I'd end this blog on a high point but no, I've got to get through this path first.

Footpath runs direct to the gap in the hedge, where there's a cache.  A DNF

It was a question of what to first when I got home..... Eat, drink, pick the pointy bits of grass out of my socks or log the poorest attempt at caching in my 10 year history.   4 out of 17.

A handful of stings, scratches and fly bites.  An extended shower required to check for ticks.  Zapped nuts.

I'll be back caching next weekend.