25/04/21 - Longbridge Manufacturing History Geoart Trail

Distance - 11.2 Miles

Geocaches - 44 Available

First Cache

Completing a 44 Geocache Trail is challenging enough but when its a Geoart trail, there is more preparatory work to be done.

This series is based on the manufacturing history of Longbridge. Back in the 90's, I worked for AT&T who managed the computer systems for the Rover Group and I worked on site for 9 months. It has stayed in my memory for two reasons.

1)  Only people with a Rover car were allowed to park on site. I had a Ford Escort.

2) AT&T were trying to win contracts to support the PC and Novell NetWare computer systems but Rover Group rightly claimed they had no skills to deliver these services. So they went out and recruited a load of us with those skills. But didn't win the business. I spent 9 months travelling on a 30mile round trip and did absolutely zero work.

If only Geoart cache trails had been around - it would have provided me with some entertainment to get through the working day.

Preparatory Work

GeoArt gives the Cache Owner the opportunity to represent the mystery caches on the map as art work.  In this case, a Mini.

Can you tell what it is yet?

The finder (me) has to work through each cache in turn and solve the mystery. The majority of these were on-line jigsaw puzzles that were taking me about 20-30 minutes each.  The black and white ones were especially time consuming. Still, it was better than watching Coronation Street.

Example Jigsaw - Prince Phillip visiting Longbridge asking, "Where's the Netware Support Team?

The Walk

Parking given at Forhill Picnic area - which is dangerously close to the best pub in the area - the Coach and Horses at Weatheroak. With a family meal booked (including Mother-in-Law) at 1pm, I am under strict instructions to not be late. Knowing how much work is required to find 44 caches, I am parked up at 7am and heading out into the dry, bright but very cold April morning.

And the trail doesn't disappoint - the caches are mainly sizeable and placed to be found. The walking  is varied and excellent.... a mixture of agricultural land, woodland, canals and around the Bittell reservoirs. With the ground dried solid through the third driest April in history, I didn't even get muddy boots.

Here are the photos.

After some fields, we drop down to the Worcester/Birmingham Canal

Hunting for this type of thing - Red log book bags replacing jigsaws in last nights dreams

A new approach to the Bittell Reservoirs

Pretty Overspill Lake

Bluebells are coming out - and maybe a cache location

I make it back to the car 4.5 hours later but with plenty of time to avoid a family telling off.  

As always, when solo caching, I don't get a clean sweep. Two eluded me - and I do wonder how the mini will look when the Geoart is displayed on my caching map.  On logging, I can confirm I am missing the top part of my rear wheel :-)

Thanks so much to T A G for an interesting and well through out trail that must have taken a long time to devise and setup. 

24/04/21 - Centenary Way - Stage 2 - Shustoke

Distance - 7 Miles

Geocaches - 2

Pub - The Griffin, Furnace End

Previous Stages - Stage 1

Just when I was thinking the Good Beer Guide 2021 was one of my more pointless of purchases.

For this walk - which will not stay in the memory for long - will be famous for the first tick of 2021.  In April.  A lightening fast response to my opening hours Facebook query meant that I knew I would be rewarded with a decent pint and that they didn't mind pre-walk use of their car park.  

Which even contains a stile to access the Warwickshire Countryside.

The walk was pretty hopeless to be honest.  We pass two sides of Shustoke Reservoir but never really get close enough to see it.  A railway - that isn't HS2 - causes route disruption - with the path on my elderly OS Map showing a crossing that doesn't exist on the ground.  My subscription to OS Maps would have paid for itself - if only I had looked at it in enough detail.  The rest is a dull circuit of Whitacre Heath, Nether Whitacre and Botts Green.

Comparing OS Maps - Right Hand Side shows the CW diverting to the right to cross the railway

The only thing of interest - Shustoke Reservoir.  TBF, it ain't that interesting

So - onto the good news.

Good Beer Guide Tick #541 - The Griffin Inn, Furnace End

Of course, the stone bar and inglenook fireplaces were off limits but they have made a good job of taking a pubby experience outside.

A large marquee hosts a proper bar, holding 6 hand pulls - no less.  The waitress reeled off the 6 names - with only Salopian Hop Twister ringing any bells.  With no time to check on Untappd for a description of these unknown beers, I simply chose what the previous guest had ordered - as I could see it settling on the bar top.

My first Abbeydale Absolution was a fine choice to declare myself back in the pub beer garden ticking game.

Tasted as good as it looks

 

17/04/21 - Ye Olde Swan and the Thames Path at Radcot, Oxfordshire

Distance - 6 Miles

Walk Inspiration - Walking Along the Thames Path - Walk 5

Geocaches - 0

Hallelujah - things are getting back to normal.  We can head off for a walk with a better prospect than just finding tupperware in bushes.  Food can be ordered from a menu.  Cask Ale can be delivered in frothy pints to the parched.

I've been looking forward to this day.  Even the sun shines.

Ye Olde Swan in Radcot commands a perfect position - next to the oldest bridge on the Thames - with a suntrap garden, where the boozers and feeders can watch the sailors clean their vessels or head off paddle boarding.  But how are they coping with the new normal?  We'll find out after the walk.

Ye Olde Swan has everything going for it

The Guidebook discusses how this is a tranquil part of the Thames.  The author is not wrong - few are encountered on land, a handful of mariners are saluted and the majority of life is bovine.  Guide Dog in Training Abi enjoyed the freedom and the chance to show off her skills.  Lets hope she get placed in a City.  Or with a strong swimmer.

Heading up stream, we pass WWII Pill Boxes, the only civilisation at Grafton Lock and reach the wooden bridge at Kelmscott to cross and return on agricultural land on the opposite bank.

Someone else living their best life

 

Former WWII Pill Box Sprouting A Tree

A Bovine Encounter on the Way Back

2 hours fifteen minutes and the frisson of what will be on the menu - liquid and solid - returns.  For reasons I won't bore you with, its been 6 months since I have had a decent steak.  Five days since I have had decent cask (of course, I had to visit my local on the glorious 12th).

We take a shortcut into the garden, but are spotted and frogmarched to the track and trace system.  Passports validated, we are shown to a river side terrace.

This will do us

They are setup with an outside bar and kitchen and ordering is slightly complex in that drinks and food are taken separately.  My inquiry as to the real ales is met with a slightly heart sinking Doom Bar, only to flutter at the mention of an Otter.  Not sure which one, but from the look, I will guess at Otter Bitter.

That's delivered in a disappointing plastic glass, which we hope doesn't stretch to the food.  This comes on a paper plate and as our waitress heads off to fetch cutlery, we hope that isn't plastic.

Fear not, it's a wooden knife and fork.

Have you ever tried to eat a thick steak with a wooden knife?

Have you ever tried to negotiate with a 15 year old waitress that their policy may not be well thought out?

She wasn't budging.  Not even when the wooden fork snapped in half.

Like a Premier League Manager after a disappointing result, I am left with the phrase - we go again next week.

 

10/04/21 - Longdon - Caching, old style and new

Distance - 5.5m

Geocaches - 34 + An Adventure Lab Cache

First Cache

A last weekend before I spend weekdays looking for pubs, Good Beer Accredited or otherwise, that have enough outdoor space to justify emerging from a too long hibernation.  

Longdon, Rugeley is chosen for a two cache trail series.  Recently maintained and with an embedded image that had to be made with Memory Map - it reminded me of how caching trails used to be.

Three hours out in the fresh air - just what was needed.  Only two errors committed - getting told off for casing someones house for robbery at the beginning and then actually entering someone's garden at the end.  I need the pubs to re-open to stop me from getting arrested.

Thanks to andycpuk  for the placement and recent maintenance.  It is appreciated.

Old School Cache Listing with the Route

When a Micro isn't a Church Micro

Dark Lane

Staffordshire, under hail heavy clouds

Farewell Longdon - I'm off for an Adventure Lab Cache

After the traditional round(s), I decide to use a more modern device than my 10 year old GPS to complete an Adventure Lab Cache around Slitting Mill.  Same concept, but you use your phone to find and input information into an App.  I am finding these mildly addictive.  Waterfalls, Pumphouses, a semi detached church were investigated and further proof that after cyclists, fishermen are the most miserable creatures on God's Earth.

A week too early for post ALC refreshments

03/04/21 - The Martley Circular

Distance - 6.5 Miles

A quick blog for a fine walk.  In lockdown, not too much to get the casual reader excited but I'm sure its one I will do again.  After-all, Martley does have a pub - The Crown Inn - although it was hit and miss whether this was trading before the plague.

Parking at St Peter's Church, where you will find the first of the well placed signposts.

These will take you north through fields - sometimes crops, sometimes cows (friendly), sometimes Orchards before crossing the B4197.  A stiff climb to the Worcestershire Way for a fine ridge walk with views out over Herefordshire.

Spot the Guide Dog in Training

Yellow Markers on the Orchard Trunks

Views from the Worcester Way

The real walk highlight, sadly not photographed, is the short section along the river Teme.  The reason for the lack of photos - too busy playing in the water with Guide Dog in Training Abi, who loved the walk as much as us.

02/04/21 - Symonds Yat and the Wye Valley

Distance - 11.5 Miles

Geocaches - 3

Walk Inspiration - 100 Walks in Gloucestershire, Walk 

I know I've walked from Symonds Yat in the past, yet for some reason, I have never blogged from here.  Two potential reasons for this - 1) it was pre-blogging days or 2) I was still in shock from the parking fees.  

£5 for 4 hours that required actual cash - which no-one has seen for at least 12 months. The question is, will I be able to complete 11.5 miles in 4 hours?

At least there will be no pubs to distract.

It's a endless steep drop from the car park, down the east side on the Yat, with the smell of garlic in my nostrils. Worth it for the peace and tranquility when the valley floor is reached.

Pickingup the Wye Valley

East walking along a disused railway - view unspoiled until we reach the light industry opposite the out of bounds Welsh Bicknor.  

Navigational skills at the fore as I skirt the western edges of Lydbrook to pick up the Forest of Dean.

I bring you trees

My original plan was to park at the Globe Inn in Christchurch but in the circumstances, this would have been a touch cheeky.  Instead, I get to see what I could of won, as I wander through the deserted streets, populated only by weird scarecrows.  And the Church is called Salem.

An End Point in Happier Times

That's your lot... I forgot to photo the scarecrows

Back into the Forest to drop down and pick up the river again, for the three geocaches available on route.  

The stiff climb to Symonds Yat awaits and I make it back to the car with the Relive App telling me there is 4 minutes left on my ticket.  

A braver man than me would have waited for a bacon and brie baguette from the cafe.  

But if they charge a lady for parking, what would the fines be like?

Forest of Dean

Back to the Wye

A final farewell to the set of NetFlix's "Sex Education"