24/05/16 - Ullenhall to Henley Geocaching

Distance - 5.45 Miles
Geocaches - 27
First Cache

I've had my eye on this geocaching round since it was published around 6 weeks ago.  I had to complete the Miserden caches first - a series of 100 caches over 3 Loops down in deepest Gloucestershire.

On my 2nd visit to Miserden, there was a car parked up with a trackable in the Window.  I recorded the details and on logging my discovery, found it belonged to, dadu 13 , the owner of this loop today.

The Geocaching world is a small world.

I've not to Ullenhall before but I know the area pretty well from the Millennium Way, which I have been walking over the last couple of years.  Its no hardship to come back.

Park up outside the church, grateful I have saved this for a spring evening rather than a Sunday.

Handsome Church in Ullenhall

Quick look at the village before heading out onto the trail proper.

Nice Village Square

27 Caches are not going to be recorded in detail.  It would bore me, bore you, and leave nothing to put in the logs.  A summary is that they start off nice and easy, lulling you into a sense of security and then get a touch tougher when the clues start to disappear.  I did OK - getting 25 out of the 27 and adding a couple more outliers to bring the numbers up.

A couple of fine examples of the art of geocaching - one of which deserves a tweet - and one that made me laugh out loud.  Its not everyday you wait for the passing of traffic on a busy road to extract a test tube from a chicken's backside.

I have excuses for my fails.  #19 is called "Busy Bees".  I made my way to ground zero and the CO is true to his word.  There is a monster bees nest right there and I could see the headlines in advance if I was to anger the little varmints.  #22 seems to have been found by others using the uploaded pictures as clues.  I tried the same in the field.  I think the CO has removed the photos.

Still, happy with my work and a decent walk.

Views out of Ullenhall at Walnut Hill Farm

Views on the way back from Henley near Builth Farm

Regular blogfans will know what normally happens at the end of one of my walks.  I had checked in advance and I knew that there was a pub in the village but that it was also closed.  A real shame, as Ullenhall looks to have lost it's social hub and a piece of history.

There are hopes for it - the last review on beer in the evening was from Feb 2015 - a reopening that didn't last for long, as it is up for sale again.  Maybe its just looking for the right owner to bring it back to life.

For Sale and unable to provide Mappiman with succor 

Thanks for the round dadu 13 and I'll look out for your Geowagon in the future.

16/05/16 - Miserden Part 3 - The SW Loop

Distance - 9 Miles
Caches - 40
First Cache
Pub - The Carpenters Arms, Miserden, Wye Valley HPA
Previous Loops - Northern, SE

I said I would be back in May to complete the third and final loop of the Monster 100 trail.  If you love geocaching, you simply must put this on your plans.  Superb walking and loads of pots, just waiting to be found.

It's a good job I didn't leave it much longer.  I watched the seasons change over these three monthly visits, the new born lambs arriving and the stingers growing.  Quite a few GZ are going to be swamped by nettles before long.

So out from the usual start and across fields of yellow rape seed.

Fields of Yellow

The early walking is merely fine on the early stretch, farmland and fields, with the odd green lane, with increasingly aggressive signs for the poachers.

Jail, I can understand

But Snipers?

A couple of navigational mistakes caused by the low evening sun making the GPS near unreadable before I arrive at Bilsey.  Looks a fine village, but we never quite enter the environs (pub) and I can't afford a detour because of the disappearing light.

Bilsey - Not quite investigated

The quality of the walking gets even better. Superb paths and then into the most wonderful wild garlic woodlands, complete with herds of deer rummaging around.

My sort of path

My sort of woodland

In typically perverse fashion, I am doing these anti-clockwise fashion - counting down from 35 to 1.  Get to number 7 and there's a previous DNF.  It's been taken - by what or by whom, I don't know.

I didn't have 99 problems, but this is one.

Never mind, there have been a number of outliers to add to the numbers, even if I do leave an unfound smiley on the map.

I know what to expect from the Carpenter's Arms now - added bonus is that its a cask marque pub and I have started to collect visits in the app.  I am spied by someone taking a photo and a full on conversation about CAMRA ensues.  By the end of the conversation, I have determined that the Birdlip viewpoint is a popular dogging location.  All knowledge is contained within.

Last visit to the Carpenters Arms for a while

Wye Valley HPA

So, not quite a member of the 100 club.  But what a round.  I've said it before and I'll say it again - many thanks to rupertmh for three super walks and all the smileys.

These pots will not be forgotten.

99 Pots

14/05/16 - The Wimbledon 8

Distance - 13.8 Miles
Geocaches - 13
Pubs - 6





A walk that was born whilst on holiday in Valletta, Malta.  You see, we were in a pub - handily called "The Pub" - and got to reading about it's most famous patron.  A man, who died as he lived.  On the floor of a drinking establishment.  On the floor of The Pub in Valletta, in fact.

Oliver Reed - Arm Wrestler & Drinking Champion

After reading the wall mounted memorials, I completed some further research into his life.  It seems he had a pub crawl, "The Wimbledon 8", named in his honour.  I instantly thought it worthy of investigation and to make a day of it, tie it in with a decent walk.  More on this later.

Maps were perused but in reality, I needn't have bothered.  Through my own volition, I created a route that ran nearly 14 miles from West to South West London that followed the Capital Ring almost step by step.  It was fun to revisit this long distance path that I walked over several summer evenings 5 years ago.

Train to Southall, West London.  A place that seemingly has little going for it with the exception of providing access to the Grand Union Canal.

Grand Union

Its a decent stretch of easy walking, running past St Bernards Hospital and meeting the River Brent, where it shares the route with the Capital Ring.  When I was here five years ago, I must have been a hopeless cacher, as I recorded a 50% fail rate.  Today, I am on fire.  There is nothing better than righting wrongs and the cache count increases all the way to the green bridge at Brentford, where the canal is left behind.



Back on familiar ground again, as I revisit the Thames Path, heading through Syon Park and picking up the river at Isleworth.  At least I am going in the opposite direction to previous walks, which throws a quite a different perspective on things.  On another day, there is little doubt that I would have stopped at the London Apprentice, where a artisan market is in full flow.  The pubs can wait till the end of the day.

Syon House

The Thames at Isleworth

One of my favourite pubs - The London Apprentice, Islewoth

A quick note on the joys of geocaching.  When I started the Capital Ring in 2012 - a small cache had been placed on Richmond Lock.  I spent an age looking for it in the rain.  I had another go last year when walking the Thames Path.  Failed again.  This is what it looks like when you spend 4 years and 3 attempts and meet success.

The small things that make you happy

Enter Richmond with a spring in my step.  To be honest, it's hard not to.  What a delightful place this is.  Again, I have to walk past a handful of great boozers that I have visited in the past but this just makes me vow to come back another day.

At night, the sign glows.  Red.

View from Richmond Hill

This of course, leads me to some of the finest walking that London has to offer, Richmond Park.  I will never tire of it.

This is London.  I could see the Shard moment earlier.

And so is this.

And with just the cross of a road that would be better described as a motorway, I am in the wilds of Wimbledon Common.  Finding caches, annoying golfers and humming about "things that everyday folk leave behind".

And now, blog fans, the walking stops and the pubs start.  #Walk1000Mile and #WFP aficionados can depart here.  Lovers of www.beerintheevening.com and www.pubsgalore.com, pay attention.

The Wimbledon 8 Rules
So, our dear friend Ollie set the rules.  It was 8 pubs and 15 minutes to get from one to another, downing a pint in between.  The most times he completed it in one night was apparently 3.  But you know how these legends go.  I found out yesterday that Dylan Thomas was practically teetotal.

Anyway, I am not going to attempt this.  For one, it would be like challenging Linford Christie to a race.  Sometimes you need to know your limits.  So, its as long as I like in each pub (train departure at 16:08 permitting) and half pints.

And, in another indication of the killing of our culture, two of the pubs have disappeared, leaving me with a manageable 6.

The Fox and Grapes is the first encountered, as I reach civilisation from the Common.

Fox and Grapes

There are two doors - one marked "Bar" and one marked "Lounge".  I should have taken it as a warning when the one marked "Bar" wouldn't open.  For this is the worst kind of pub.  A Gastropub.  Where the only place for drinkers to sit is a handful of stools at the bar and every other table is handed over to diners.  I think we all know what Ollie would do, faced with this abomination.  He'd have showed them his special tattoo.

Next up its a BOGOFF.  Crooked Billet gives two pubs for the price of one - the Hand in Hand and the Crooked Billet.  There is nothing to choose between them - both Young's Pubs, both with lovely outdoor areas and both serving Youngs Special at £2.10 for a half.  Presumably, you have to pay more if you want the head.

The only choice to make is whether to have it in a plastic glass and sit on a deckchair on the green (yes, really) or partake inside.


Leave this scene of the English summertime behind by aptly enough, finding a Geocache.  Its on to the Swan on the Ridgeway, which is the only "Cask Marque" pub on the route.  Blogfans will know that last week two geocachers in Ledbury introduced me to the app that enables you to collect real ale pubs for prizes.  I was keen to get number 2 into the system.  48 to go before a free glass.

The Swan on the Ridgeway

Quite why this is the only Cask Marque pub on the round is unclear to me.  It may be because you pay for the privilege.  This pub had five pumps but only two ales on - the ubiquitous Doombar and Speckled Hen.  Still, my Doombar nearly had a head, so its winning the prize for best half so far.

Finally, with the clock showing 15:08pm, its time for the two pubs in the "village".  The Rose and Crown was pleasant enough but instantly forgettable and the Dog and Fox was the pick of the bunch.  It's the only one that played on the tennis heritage but its size, position and outside beer garden to watch the hullabaloo of village life made it my favourite of the day.

Rose and Crown

Dog and Fox - #1 of the 8 (or 6)

Surprisingly, after so many pubs in a blog, it's going to be the walking and geocaching that sticks in the memory of a fine day out in the Smoke.

07/05/16 - Wye to the Thames - Walk 1 - Hereford to Ledbury

Distance - 18.5 Miles
Geocaches - 6
Pub 1 - The Crown, Woolhope, Wye Valley HPA
Pub 2 - The Talbot, Ledbury, Wadworth 6X
Pub 3 - Prince of Wales, Ledbury, Wye Valley HPA

So another adventure begins.  A long out of print guide that detailed a route following the Cotswolds Railway Line from Hereford to Oxford looked right up my street.  The first leg is a whopping 18 miles, so perfect conditions were needed - including Sonia being at work, decent weather and British Summer Time.

May 7th 2016 and I begin.  The 12 stages (remainder are mercifully shorter) will be completed over the year.

Found on Ebay

First direct Train from Droitwich and at 8:20am, I am alighting at Hereford.  A quick couple of miles through suburbia to reach the Wye Valley and the countryside.

Scene from a Sidetracked Geocache

The Wye Valley Walk

The route looks like it is along well established paths.  In addition to finding the Three Choirs Way and the Herefordshire trail later in the day, I start off along the Wye Valley Walk.

Wye Valley - A brewery and a Walk

Decent walking along the river takes me through Hampton Bishop, the River Lugg and onwards to Mordiford.  As well as having the oldest surviving bridge in Herefordshire (1352, history fans) it also has one of the Top 10 Pubs in Herefordshire.  I console myself with the fact that I am not going to be able to visit at 9:30am with the thought that two more await me in Ledbury.

Mordiford and a 14th Century Bridge

The Moon Inn - Return Visit Required

Up into Haugh Woods, where an early lunch is nipped in the bud by a million flies that have a thing for Roast Turkey Baps and onwards to Woolhope - where the OS Map has a Big Blue Cup of Joy.

Coming out of Haugh Woods and Into Woolhope

It's too much to be walking past two pubs on such a thirst inducing walk.  I approach the pub at 11am, more in optimism than expectation.  Like arriving at a bus stop, its always a good sign if someone is already waiting there.  And there is.  My icebreaker that I cannot be an alcoholic if I am not the first to be waiting for the pub to open builds enough rapport for me to determine the pub is being opened early for the start of a stag do.

I just have to hope its fancy dress and the theme is rambling.

Crown Inn at Woolhope

Comparing the Walk with the Beer

Nice halfway stop, watching the stags arrive and greeting each other with bonhomie based banter.

I need to press on, so hit the countryside with bucolic views over Herefordshire.  I adjust my route slightly to take in something on the OS Map marked as "The Wonder", which also provides the chance to grab a couple more geocaches.

Herefordshire - and the threat of Thunderstorms

Bigging up "The Wonder" - A landslip that occurred in 1575

The only thing to break up the uniformity of the many orchards (we are in cider country) is Putley.  I ignore Putley Court, with its awful bolted on extenstions and focus my investigations on a wonderful little church.  Even test the door and have a look inside.  Would like to report on how spectacular this is (home based Internet research confirms this) but alas, I couldn't find the light switch.

Putley Church

Carved Sandstone Cross - 4 effigies, with Jesus facing west

The orchards take me to Ledbury.

My path through the Orchards

So Ledbury - what do you have for me in way of reward for a monster walk completed on the hottest day of the year?  Fine medieval architecture and two top 10 pubs in the county of Herefordshire.

The best of the Architecture - 1617 Market House

My first pub is new to me - the Talbot.  Built in 1550, its now serving Wadworth to 21st Century punters.  I take a 6x out into the sheltered courtyard and have my first encounter with the Silurian Border Morrismen.

The Talbot - 6th Best in Herefordshire

Morris Dancers - Bringing a bit of colour to proceedings 

Quick pint here and I have time before my train home to revisit the Prince of Wales.  I think I am falling in love with this pub.  Super fine setting and great beer.  Every village should have one.  I get talking with some people taking photos of the Cask Marque sign.  They tell me there is an App that helps them locate great pubs - with the chance of winning prizes for your endeavours.

Oh, yes, I have a new hobby.

And then the silence is broken.  The jingle of bells and shouts of who has the kitty can mean only one thing.  The Silurians are coming - they are both thirsty and recruiting.

Now, what could be finer than a pub crawl, preserving England's heritage and a bit of a dance around with a blacked up face?

The only thing that stops me joining is that it would interfere with my walking.

4th Best in Herefordshire

Wonderful Wye Valley HPA

The Silurians - recruiting in Ale Houses around the Country.