16/09/18 - Packwood House Geocaching

Distance - 4.75 Miles
Geocaches - 25
First Cache


One way of getting publicity and interest in your walking festival is to plant a high volume series of Geocaches along the route.

This is exactly what the guys managing the Millennium Way have done - and one week after the event, 26 geocachers have walked the route.  It's working!

The Millennium Way?  A 100 mile Long Distance Path across the centre of England.  Uniquely, the website details 44 Circular day walks to complete the length.   These walks kept me entertained for 3.5 years and if you're really bored - here's my summary blog.

Packwood House, a 1540s timber farm house, was certainly one of the highlights previously found, so it's no hardship to be heading back on a Sunday Morning to get some smileys in the bag.  Plenty of runners, cyclists and other fans of history are around, so maximum stealth required for cache #1.

Historical Highlight

I struggle with Cache number 2 and the hunt is suspended when I notice 3 ramblers and several dogs approaching.   Trying to look innocent, I am immediately asked to hand over the cache (hello team Sky4lue & WarwickWelsh).  They saw me making the find at number 1, so I'm not as stealthy as I think I am.

8 eyes prove better than 2 and I'll take a find made by others any day.   I leave them to enjoy their walk, bypassing #3 and getting into my caching stride - just as the duck motif is revealed through many caches of the same style.

Quackers Hobby on the Millennium Way

Good progress is made, with no DNF's and some admiration of unique hides.  Pop up caches in a birdhouse, anyone?   At #18, I spy a man in the distance.  I meet up with Dadu13 at #19, where we both struggle to open a clear perspex box.  With a strict "No Sign, No Log" policy, neither of us want to admit defeat. 

Working as a team, we complete the remainder of the round.  Multi-cache Co-ords are shared, along with tweezers and some information that will help when I go back to #3.  It's definitely easier when there's more than one cacher.

A clean sweep of the remainder and we say our goodbyes at the final location of the multi-cache - Dadu heading to the car park and me along Packwood Avenue to leave no gap on the geocaching map.

Packwood Avenue

Thanks to the Millennium Way Team and good luck with the continued promotion of some fine walking.