December 23 : Kingsclere and surrounding countryside

Hello, Mrs Hg137 here.

Two days before Christmas … the turkey was defrosting, the homemade Christmas pudding had been checked (a year old but fine), and all was pretty much under control, Christmas-wise.    On a dry, bright morning we made our way to Kingsclere in north Hampshire for some geocaching in the countryside around the village.   We planned to find the caches in the Kingsclere Kaper series, and maybe add in a few others as we went.

From the Fieldgate Centre on the edge of the village, we made our way uphill along a country lane and into the bare, wintry country, hearing the bangs of guns from a distant shoot ahead of us (luckily, not on our route, we don’t like being shot at).   Just before turning onto a bridleway, we were hailed by an elderly countryman, and stopped to pass the time of day. He said he was on his way home – from where? no idea. He was also clutching a laden carrier bag – we had suspicions that it contained pheasant(s) “obtained” from the shoot going on a little way ahead of us – but we can’t prove that!

Once off the tarmac, it was damper underfoot, but a lovely walk through trees, part of the Brenda Parker Way, a long-distance footpath.   We skirted a fishery, crossed a little bridge – there are lots of small footbridges on this route – and emerged onto fields.  Other people had the same idea as us and were out for a pre-Christmas walk: most were very clean and tidy and we wondered if that would still be so once they’d negotiated the muddy path!  Geocaching-wise, we were doing well, we’d already found eight caches, all but one from the Kaper series, and were making steady progress. 

We emerged onto the A339, the main road between Basingstoke and Newbury.   At the Star Inn, we saw that, again, other people were out for a pre-Christmas meal … but they weren’t watching us as we stopped to find a cache.

From here, we followed paths and field edges and made our way through the edge of the village.  It was lunchtime, so we found a seat in a quiet spot for a picnic.   (As an aside, this was one of our better lunch spots, overlooking the playground and allotments: we’ve previously had lunch in leaky bus shelters, industrial estates, graveyards …)  Afterwards, we walked back out into the country, passing the community orchard : much better seats here, we shouldn’t have stopped so soon!

We walked in a loop through the countryside to the north, crossing a few more of those little bridges on the way.   A brief furtle for a cache behind the postbox, then we made our way to the end of our walk along the delightfully named Frog’s Hole, following a little stream back up the hill; and a chance to cross yet more of those ‘little bridges’ that abound in Kingsclere.

Here are just a few of the many interesting caches we found: