Working down in Surrey and looking for somewhere interesting to stay. So I settle on Godalming. I have never been here before. It looks like it might be better than Guidford, where my customer is, and tonights walk will allow me to compare.
The walk is vert straightforward along the River Wey and its navigation. Very flat walking. as I don't arrive at the Royal and Kings Arms Hotel until late, its a very quick change into walking gear and find my way down the high street to the river.
Lots of canoists at first and then solitude. Just the usual artifacts that accompany a river/canal.
Come on Surrey Vandals - where's your Y
Nothing of any interest to report really, apart from a quick cache on a bridge. Walk into a field of horses that has a sign saying that if they are not removed by 11/7/12, they will be sold at auction and all costs will be claimed by the national trust. One of them strangely reminds me of the boy.
Boy
Horse
Find a place for half time refreshments. The stratching are stale. But then again, we are a long way from Tipton.
Take me to the Black Country
Head off and find cache number 2 at a WWII Pill box. You have to say that if the Nazi's had made it this far into the homelands, then we would have been done for.
Public Image Limited
More canal and then we reach the civilisation that is Guidford, passing the world's most rubbish bridge. I mean, what is the point, I could have leapt it.
Too small for a troll.
Guildford proper. Stop at the Navigation for Tea proper, served by a student with low slung jeans revealing stripey pants. Pity he had a beard. Text home to get the train times and theres one in 10 mins, so hot foot it to the station for a £3.10 return back to Godalming and a cache at the station.
Then I look for night time entertainment. There is latina music blaring from the 1st pub on route and its salsa night. Unfortunately, there are just the two dancers and I am unsure if Surrey operate a "gentlemen's excuse me". Next pub has no music. And no punters.
I am forced to go home and order a last pint of doom bar and blog. As I order, I hear the story of a man who was found asleep in the bar, asked to go home and was then found dead. I hope he wasn't drinking doom bar.
Checked out the weather forecasts for the weekend. Saturday is fine, Sunday is a wash out. Need a hill fix, so decide to dust of the Long Mynd Classic. This has been completed many times before and is the closest hill walk that I can get to.
Leave basecamp with glorious sunshine. I very nearly didn't bother with my rain coat. In quiz related musical inspiration, I listen to Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, singing along to
"What a life" as I head through Hopton Wafers, Clee Hill Village and Onibury to park up at the Cunnery in Church Stretton. Feel that the intriguing name needs some investigation and it turns out to mean "an ancient field with rabbit warrens". Not what they are saying at the Urban Dictionary.
Just as I am pulling up in the car park the heavens open. Proper big chunky rain drops and driving wind. It's awful. This is getting a bit too repetitive. I cannot remember the last time I walked when I didn't get soaked to the bone.
So I decide to sit it out. Noel skips onto Nouvelle Vague on the iPod. These are a French lounge band that cover alternative/punk songs in a jazz styley. I haven't heard them for ages and there is something a little surreal hearing a french lady doing the dead kennedys in a breathy singing style.
"I went to a party, and danced all night
Drank 16 beers and started a fight"
If this rain doesn't let off, I may follow her lead. After confusing the dog my staying in the car for 20 mins, I decide to wrap my camera in her poo bags and head off into it. What is the worse that can happen? I'll have to flick it with a stick.
The walk is an absolute classic. Stiff climb and drop to Townbrook Valley and then pick up Carding Mill Valley. I love this spot. The first part of the path, where you overlook the road below is a classic.
Carding Mill Valley
Turn left to go to Ligh Spout Hollow.... Shropshire's only waterfall. Take a couple of photos and then find the only cache of the day - one of the Little Quest series of caches in every county in the UK. That's two I have - here and London.
Dog's had enough of Photos and Cache hunting
That's the climbing more of less over. Its a gentle walk up to Pole Bank. As always, there are goretex clad teenagers doing the Duke of Edinburgh Award. In the main, they are cheerful. In the main they are lost. I can impress them with my sat nav wizardery.
Second cache is at Pole Bank. Its somewhere in the heather, but there is a lot of heather. They is a cacher's trail, but no bounty at the end of it - but its no doubt just my inability to find it. Always a good stop for lunch here. Wish I had packed some.
You bought a camera and no Sarnies?
Drop down to Pole Cottage and then the winding path through Round Hill, Grindle, Callow and Nills. Classic walking and views.
She's now that grumpy, she even sheep don't interest her
But she's not bad with the camera
Down into Little Stretton. Rain starts again. Past the campsite and families are pretending to enjoy themselves by playing cricket.
The usual path back is over the fields through the owlets, but I can't be bothered to hoike the dog over a large stile. I walk back along the old ludlow road, admiring but not stopping at the Ragleth Arms.
Get back into Church Stretton and go to the chipper. If you are lonely and want to meet people, sit on a town bench with a dog sat looking at you while you eat out of chip paper. I had no end of requests from strangers to "go on... give her a chip".
Start of the weekend - I love them, but why are they so short? Always going to be a lie in after the england game last night and original plans were to go up Stagborough Hill. Booted up PC and saw that a new trail of caches had been placed down near Claines on the Droitwich-Worcester Canal.
It's 9am... am I going to be early enough for any FTF?
Quickly download the GPX and head off, parking at Hawford layby. Drop down to the 2nd cache on the trail. Its an initial DNF. Why do I always struggle with the 1st cache on a series? Decide to leave it and move up to Cache 3. Find it, open it up unravel the log and there it is.... a previous find 30 minutes before!
Shouldn't have had that last pint last night.
Knowing that I am not going to be FTF leaves me to concentrate on keeping my feet dry and avoiding killer swans.
Armada is coming up the canal
Cache 4 is an off set multi. Find the first part and then can't find the path to the 2nd part - so think that I will save this for the way back. I did this with a number of caches, to break up the walk up and down the canal.
Work my way through 5-10. In my haste to get out this morning, I do not take my Geocaching Utility Belt (TM) and as a result do not have any tweezers on me. You would not believe how long I stood in a monsoon, trying to extract a log from a nano. At one point, I am using the end of a broken fishermans float. In the end, I give up and hope that photo evidence will suffice.
Found it - Honest
Then I get to cache 11 and I get what I wanted! A nice blank piece of paper. I don't usually chase FTF but having changed plans and survived mud paths and weather more suited to rainforests, I am glad that I record them from 11-15 and then pick up number 10 on the way back. If I could have got the damn log paper out of number 9, I may have had that as well.
Claim to Fame near Claines
Turn back at 15, picking up any ones that I deliberately missed. Finish off the Multi from earlier. This involved negotiating a field of cattle but worth it for the views of the Salwarpe. The rains have made it impressive.
You've upset the swans, you can leave the cows alone
Get back to GZ at Cache 2 and fully zoned into the mindset of the cache owners. Very cheeky hide here. Liked it.
Then moved to where the canal meets the river for Cache 1. Not been here before - nice but I am soaked through to the bones.
Camera on GZ.
Great caches and happy to get 100% with 6 FTFs. Cheers Chickowee.
After a week of beautiful and planned coastal walks in Cornwall, it was time to just catch up on a few local caches in the area. I know from doing the Seven on the Severn series that new ones had been planted around Quatford. I had no idea just how many. Last night on downloading the GPX and plotting on a map, I decided that I would just go and get as many as I could. Stopping when either a) it started to rain b) I got bored or c) the GPS ran out of juice. It was point C that put an end to the day!
Woke to glorious sunshine. Attempted to get the geohound interested. Last week has obviously done her in, as she hid upstairs and even a strategically placed boot up the backside failed to get her to move.
Solo caching today.
Park up at the Danery again and walk down the road to pick up the last of the seven on the severn series that I missed out last time to walk past Quatford Castle - where some of today's new caches are.
Cache number 2 and the first on the new trail, causes me no end of problems. 15 minutes of hunting and a DNF will have to be recorded. Cache number 3 is no easier and it takes me an age to decipher the clue and then find the cache. Going to be a challenge but enjoying the paths around the castle again.
Caching in the woods - no one can hear you scream
Turn left on Chapel Lane and then over the A458, popping into Stanmore Country Park for an off series caches. The lane has the first great views of the Shropshire Countryside today.
Now in unchartered territory and turn right to start on the "Pools and Up" series by the same cache owners. Past a couple of pools, complete with fishermen. I've asked it before and I'll ask it again... "Why do they do it?". I am yet to meet a happy fisherman.
In a hamlet called barnsley and across farmland where I meet some baby cows and get hassled by the abundance of bite me hurt me's that are plauging the cowpats.
One in the eye as the shutter closes.
Record my 2nd DNF - which is a nasty nano. Also work out that whatever I am allergic to grows in these fields, as I serenade the cows with a sneezing fit. Superb views from the top of the hill here. The cows are lucky.
The views (and caches) continue down the lane to Upper Farmcote. Caches are easier here, and made even easier by the distinct cachers trails through the undergrowth.
Emerge at the big blue cup of joy on the OS Map. It may be one of the cider houses in the area, but to be fair, it looks like someone's house! Too early for a drink anyway and despite wanting to get 5 a day, fruit based drinks are for the ladies.
Has a pub sign - but do you need to be invited in?
Realise that I need to plot a way back, so I return to the A458 for a cache that will make you smile if you do it. Fortunately, the log is easily found. Then have a stupid bit of road walking - maybe I should have plotted the route a bit better. Its only a short while before you can dive into the woods at Burfe castle and find yet another series contained within. I don't do them all - only a couple.
Then its lane and into the grounds of Dudmaston Hall. This is the home of FMF and the cache is never going to be easy. Could have done with a small child to help out. After reading previous logs, and fashioning a tool out of something placed near by, I was disappointed that I came up empty handed. Then I found it on the floor. Had to re-assemble tools to put it back where I think it belonged.
GPS bings that the battery has gone and the last possible one of the day is up a tree, so I call it day. There are pubs open that sell fine continental lagers and those need to be my next finds.
Thanks again to blokiebloke. The caches are always well engineered and never the same. I shall be back for the other - maybe applying some more logic to the walking.
