We try to geocache in different areas, walk different paths, see different views.
Occasionally though, we find ourselves walking the same paths. Especially if a path contains geocaches.
Today’s trip around Green Hill achieved an unusual accolade – we would be walking the paths for a third time, and finding a third set of different caches!
It was a December lunchtime, when we received a Christmas card that we felt we ought to reciprocate. But with Christmas fast looming, we decided to head out, card in one hand, and GPS in the other.
We have walked and cached Green Hill on the Bracknell / Ascot borders twice (July 2017 and July 2019). The paths surround, we assume, an old – now filled in – rubbish dump. High fences surround a rectangular piece of land, with monitoring vents at regular intervals. Paths and trees surround the fence.
The two previous times we had cached in this area, the paths had been set by a caching team called JJEF. They specialise in ‘wooden puzzle’ type caches. Sadly they have stepped away from the the caching scene, and many of their caching routes are being reused. As indeed this one was. The cache owner this time was GilDean, who have met on a couple of occasions.
The first cache in this new series was called ‘Resurrected’. And it was indeed a resurrection of an old JJEF cache. We didn’t remember it all – made of wood in JJEF’s style – and after a few minutes of twisting and turning the cache we were able to sign the log.
The paths around the Green Hill are linear, so we had an out and back route. This is quite useful when geocaching, as it gives two opportunities to find a cache especially if the paths are busy. This footpath wasn’t and we didn’t see a soul all afternoon. We walked around Green Hill, pointing at trees, trying to remember…was there a JJEF cache ? Or was it…that tree ?
Cache 2 in this series was attached to a metal fence. Hidden in part by the last remaining leaves of the year, it was quite tricky to remove from the fence, as the bright, low winter sunshine was directly in Hg137’s eyes as he undid the cache.
Previous hides on this route strayed some distance from the footpaths and the fence line, but GilDean hid their caches with only a small step away from each. Cache three – ‘hidden in ivy’ – we groaned. There aren’t many geocachers that love an ivy hide, and we are no different. Fortunately the ivy wasn’t that thick, and we found the cache after only a couple of minutes.
The end of the path hosts the final cache in the series, a cleverly placed cache. Mrs Hg137 walked right by it, as she bent underneath some thick branches, and it was after a few minutes that we realised we didn’t need to go under the branches.
So our third time of caching this route was successful – we wonder if we will be back in 2 years time to find a fourth set of geocaches!
Just a short section of canal for us today, three miles or so from Kintbury to Hungerford. That would leave time for a walk around Hungerford afterwards.
Leaving Kintbury station, we were on the towpath and walking almost immediately. Some very impressive houses and gardens, including the very large vicarage, overlooked the canal. While admiring the gardens, we crossed a small footbridge along the path – almost unnoticed, the River Kennet diverged from the canal for the final time – we were onto the canal proper.
Kintbury Vicarage
The towpath here was grassy, and much softer underfoot than the gravelled/metalled path we had mostly walked so far. A little further on, a horse in harness was standing on the towpath; we assumed it was connected with the horse-drawn boat company based in Kintbury. But no, this horse once drew a gipsy caravan, owned by a lady who now lived on a canal boat, and the horse was to start a second career as a boat horse.
It was about a mile between Kintbury Lock and the next lock, Brunsden (or Brunsdon) Lock. We hoped to find our first cache of the day here, a very old cache, placed in 2004. It wasn’t immediately obvious where it was, and there was much furtling around in bushes before one of us emerged, not too badly nettle-stung, clutching an ammo can. The container is a bit worn, the hinge was broken, the inside damp, and the logbook black and mouldy. We left a sheet of paper to act as a new logbook.
Geocache in need of TLC …
Our next part of the walk continued along the canal, past Wire Lock and went looking for the three caches in the ‘Brown’s Kintbury K&A’ series. After varying amounts of searching, we found two : one, we spotted from afar, one had an average amount of looking, and one we simply couldn’t find : we searched up and down over around 25 paces (50 feet) of hedgerow, without success, watched throughout by three muggles and two short-haired German Pointer dogs. After a bit, we did explain what we were doing, lest we seemed a bit … odd … later on, we met them again, and gave them a little talk on geocaching, lest they still thought we were … odd.
By now, we’d reached Dunham Lock. A wide-beam canal boat was passing downhill through the lock, with two life-jacketed ladies, of a certain age, operating the gates. We asked if they were OK, and they replied that they were fine, just waiting for the boat to turn round. We walked on a little way, found a seat, and ate our picnic lunch. The two life-jacketed ladies were still there, leaning on the lock gates. That boat had been turning round for a long time … Mr Hg137 conjectured that they were beginners and that the boat was stuck somewhere. Umm, wrong. The boat returned after a little while and passed us. It was the Rose of Hungerford trip boat, full of passengers. Just as well we didn’t go and give benefit of our ‘knowledge’ as those ladies were the crew, who knew much better than us what they were doing!
Our final few yards along the towpath brought us to a footbridge over the canal – we’d reached Hungerford. Had we only known, we would be back on that final stretch of towpath twice more, to collect two caches; if only we had known, we would have assembled all the coordinates first and done them in one go!
Hungerford Wharf, old and new bridges
Time for some sightseeing (and caching) in Hungerford. One main road, the High Street, leads uphill away from the valley where the A4 road, the canal, and the railway all run roughly parallel, east to west. The town centre is full of old buildings, many of them listed, and it’s a pleasant , bustling place to be.
Our ‘town trail’ took us to the bridge over the River Dun, back over the canal on the Diamond Jubilee footbridge by the canal wharf. And back along that final stretch of towpath, to collect a cache. We then walked up the High Street, with its selection of independent shops, pubs, and antique shops (which often appear on Bargain Hunt on TV), and continued almost to the edge of town. As we walked, we found geocaches (or saved the coordinates to visit later on). Among them, we found three Church Micro caches in a row – it seems that the population of Hungerford spend their time in church when they are not eating, drinking, or buying antiques!
Hungerford churches
Reaching the top of the hill, we wandered back down to look for the Sidetracked cache near the station (and our geocar, parked in the station car park). It took us some while to find (and a good few trains passed by) because we simply didn’t understand the hint. ‘Googie Withers’??? How does that help??? Anyway, we found the cache by sheer persistence and did some research later to understand the hint (we get it now). Then there was just one more cache to find. Yes, it was back along that final section of towpath for a third time!
We had had a mini-break from walking and caching the Kennet & Avon Canal, and returned today for the 6 miles or so between Newbury and Kintbury. We parked the car at Kintbury station and travelled the one stop back to Newbury.
The station is about half a mile from the canal so it gave us the opportunity to find some caches in Newbury’s town centre. (Previous readers of this blog, will know that Newbury has a Did-Not-Find jinx on us, so this may not have been a good idea).
Little did we know quite how bad the jinx would be.
Newbury Station
Our first attempt was a ‘Sidetracked’ cache, part of the Nationwide series of caches set near Railway Stations. We walked a short distance from Newbury station, across the car park and searched. We found the hint item, but didn’t find the cache. (Annoyingly another cacher, with only 2 finds to their name, apparently ‘found it’ within hours of us. Did they stand at Ground Zero and assume that was enough, or did they find something we didn’t. We may never know).
So one cache attempted, one DNF.
Newbury Baptist Church
Our next cache was part of the ‘Church Micro’ series. We collected information at Newbury’s Baptist Church and walked to a likely GZ. The hint was ‘choo choo’ so clearly we were looking for a train or sign to the station. There was one, but …no cache!
Two caches down and two DNFs.
(Ed : We have later discovered that the sign to the station has recently been replaced… and the cache has never been placed back onto the new sign).
Our third cache was part of the Curry Micro National Series. We found 2 Curry Micro caches on our last visit to Newbury, and here was a third. They must like curries in Newbury ! Again we collected some numbers, derived some coordinates, and strode off. The hint alluded to a metal barrier. There were a lot at GZ. It took us some minutes to spot a barrier, slightly out of the way of the others, and once there made a quick find. Phew!
Curry Micro start……curry micro end!
Three attempts, just one find.
We arrived at the canal, had a quick coffee overlooking the pedalo pond. (It is filled from the canal, but had been closed for cleaning (to be honest, it looked the same as before) and was being re-filled.
Fully revived we started our walk along the canal. We passed a few restaurants, coffee shops, lots of swans and a kayak school. The canal and its environs were busy.
Newbury Lock was also busy – it is close to the town centre, so it is easy for people to relax there. There is a sculpture ‘Ebb and Flow’ which is filled and drained every time the lock is used. There is also a plaque to John Gould who was the main driving force for restoring the canal in the 1960s.
After a short while, we crossed back to the town centre, to attempt to find a cache we logged as a DNF back in 2018. We collected information from the churchyard and walked towards GZ. As we did so, we noticed a BBC sound van, and so being the inquisitive types we are, we wondered why.
Back the cache. We arrived at a familiar location and started looking. ‘Hanging’ was the clue and we had a few poles and ivy to check. Just like 2018, we couldn’t find it. Grr!
Four caches – three DNFs. The Newbury jinx is alive and well!
We returned briefly to the canal, before attempting our last Newbury cache (thank goodness!). Part of the ‘post post’ series, the cache is generally attached to post boxes. We found it ok, but as we were signing the log… a lady wanted to use the post box for its proper intention… posting a letter!
Thank goodness – a cache we could find!
We left Newbury disheartened. There were only 3 more caches to attempt and 6 miles of canal footpath. The day was becoming hotter.
As we got further and further from Newbury the footpath became quieter and quieter, An occasional runner, a walker or two, a cyclist. The only noise we could hear was birdsong, and the scrunch, scrunch, scrunch of our boots on the stony, gravelly, track.
Occasionally a boat came by,or we overtook one at a lock, but our journey was quiet and uneventful.
Memorial to the trees cut down….… to create the Newbury Bypass (A34)
What noise there was came from railway line or the A34 Newbury Bypass. A mock-memorial is under the A34 citing the number of the trees removed by the bypass.
After about 4 miles we arrived at Hamstead Lock. Here there were about 8 or so adults and children attempting to paddleboard (note the word attempting, as there was an occasional splash as they fell in). Nearby was a cache. The hint was obvious, but it still took us a minute or two to locate. Sadly, the cache was lidless, but most of the contents seemed dry.
While no-one’s looking……let’s find the cache!
At Hamstead Lock we were to make a diversion to a relatively old cache placed in 2006. It was a multi with a difference. We had to examine various pillars and posts in the grounds of Hamstead Marshall Park. Only the pillars and church remain of a once great castle and one can only imagine how imposing a castle would have been on this site.
We assigned numbers to the various posts and derived some coordinates. We arrived at a location draped in ivy (Hint – hidden in ivy). But, despite looking all around the ivy, in the ivy, and much more besides we didn’t find it.
We discovered later the diversion to this DNF was a mile extra onto our day’s walk. Even more dispiriting.
Our next cache, another DNF! was far more painful. Near to Dreweat’s Lock. We had to walk through knee-high, and sometimes thigh-high, nettles. Mrs Hg137’s walking pole helped a bit, but we both got stung. And we couldn’t find the cache !
Monty ……and the boat he should have been pulling!
We were within a two miles of Kintbury, but just after Copse Lock the footpath was blocked … by a horse. We discovered the horse was called Monty and is one of two horses used to pull a canal boat on day or half-day trips. Monty and his boat had come from Kintbury, but his towing rope had got caught in some moored boats, and the boat was being turned round in a ‘punting motion’ while an untethered Monty blocked the towpath eating grass.
We edged by, and finished quite hot and bothered at Kintbury. A poor day’s caching (3 caches from 8 attempts), but we saw the preparations for a BBC concert, a canal-boat-towing horse, and the remnants of an historic castle. All-in-all quite varied!
One of the difficulties of undertaking a long linear walk, is determining where to start and finish a day’s walk. If we take two cars (as we normally do, parking one at the start of the walk and the other at the destination) there needs to be adequate car parking. Public transport can of course be used, but if the start and end points are not near bus stops or stations, then this becomes impractical.
We had a dilemma. Thatcham to Newbury was a bit short (3 miles), and Thatcham to Kintbury (the next decent car parking) was well in excess of 10 miles, and closer to 12 once we added in deviations for geocaching. Thatcham station was over a mile away in the wrong direction and bus services seemed sparse.
We opted for a short walk along the canal and a slightly different route back.
What could possibly go wrong ?
Well for one…the town of Newbury.
We have geocached twice in Newbury. With mixed success. The town seems to have a Did-Not-Find jinx on us. The omens were not good.
The previous week we had finished in the Nature Reserve at Thatcham, with a DNF. Given that Thatcham is only a couple of miles from Newbury Town Centre…the DNF jinx messages were already being thought about.
The cache we couldn’t find was ‘A Froggie goes a Wooing’ and as we parked a few hundred yards from it, we thought we would attempt it again at the start of this day’s walk. We had read, and re-read the logs on http://www.geocaching.com and within seconds found the cache (a frog, obviously). Not hidden as the hint suggested, but close by. Phew ! Maybe we would find a few Newbury caches after all!
Nearby was Thatcham’s Community Orchard. We had seen it back in 2018 when we walked from Sandhurst in Gloucestershire to Sandhurst in Berkshire and we wondered how much it had grown. By our estimates it had grown about a foot or so – it is difficult to compare an Autumn picture (2018) with a Spring blossom picture in 2022.
Community Orchard 2022Community Orchard 2018
We walked to the Kennet and Avon towpath and headed to Newbury. As we have mentioned before, there is a paucity of caches on the towpath, and our next cache we believe should have been a snail. The logs were less than helpful (‘coordinates out 100 metres out’ and no obvious hint as the method of hiding). We searched for 15 minutes, but with a canal towpath with lots of trees, a fence line and much more besides…we gave up.
We gave up on our next cache too. It hadn’t been found for over a year, with several DNFs by other cachers. This didn’t inspire us to search for too long. So three caches attempted and two DNFs…the Newbury jinx is working its magic again.
The canal was relatively busy – we followed a couple of boats working as a joint team as they approached each lock and swing bridge. A crew member of the first boat running ahead to undertake preparatory work at the ‘obstacle’, and a crew member of the second boat, closing the ‘obstacle’ once both boats had gone through.
As we approached the centre of Newbury, the canal and towpath got much busier, and here, under a bridge was another cache. One we had DNFed on a previous visit to Newbury. We had discovered that the cache was missing then, but had been replaced as a false bolt/screw. These magnetic caches are very effective, and if the colour of the false bolt matches the metal it is latched onto, it is very difficult to spot. What made it easy for us, was that a previous finder had NOT lined up the false bolt with other screws on the bridge. Its random positioning shouted ‘why am I here’ ! An easy find, because the previous cacher had not replaced it accurately.
It was lunchtime, and just after the bridge, was a large park, with seating. Ideal!
Victoria Park is Newbury’s ‘Jewel in the Crown’. There is lots to do and watch – a children’s play area, tennis courts, bowling green, a skate park and a boating (pedalo) lake. We sat and ate lunch overlooking the pedalos. Each pedalo was powered by two people with varying degrees of success. Fun to watch – less fun to participate!
We had four caches to find to North of the park. Two of them were part of the National ‘Curry Micro’ series of caches. We collected numbers from objects near to each curry house and walked to each of the cache locations. The first took us to a tree on private property (some offices). Being Saturday, the offices were deserted, and we searched the tree, fruitlessly. We scoured other likely hosts, all on the same private property. We read the previous finder’s logs, and realised we were searching a few yards from the correct location. Cache located…but you needed to be 7 foot tall to reach and replace it. (Somehow we did this!)
The second Curry Micro was in the opposite direction, and hadn’t been found for some time (two DNFs since January). We were not that hopeful of finding the cache, but within seconds we had it in our hands. Maybe the Newbury jinx has been broken!
Nearby were several pubs and hotels, one of which is used for a monthly geocaching meet, organised by Cunning Cachers. They have also placed a nearby cache. And it was cunning! Hidden in a barrier. We saw three car park barriers near to GZ, all of which were private property and ‘didn’t feel right’. After much searching, we sat on a nearby wall, about to log a DNF when…we saw another barrier – and the cache was soon ours! Phew!
We walked back to Victoria Park. On its northern outskirts was a cache in the ‘Post Post’ series of caches. These tend to be magnetic nanos hidden underneath the post box. This cache was no different. We needed some stealth here, as the post box was near to the manned entry to the Bowls Club Car Park. The Bowls Club had a home match and visitors were slowing down at the postbox before being let in.
We paused for a quick coffee break in the park, before heading back to Thatcham. We had a long pavement walk and only one cache to find. The pavements took us by a supermarket, and a DIY shop, which we had observed from the canal path earlier.
Our last cache ‘Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree’, was indeed in a Chestnut Tree. A glorious tree and a fine host ! A great hiding place to finish our day’s walk !
Had we broken the Newbury jinx ? We had 2 DNFs, but we did find the other caches we attempted.
Riseley is a small town/village just inside the Berkshire border. Today’s caching trip (of 10 caches) were from 4 different series.
The main cache of the day, was the Village Hall cache. Between January 24 and January 30 2022, cachers marked the anniversary of the first village Hall cache way back in 2013. Riseley Village Hall is 1161 in the series. We have found less than 10 of these 1161 caches!
Riseley Village Hall
The Riseley Village Hall cache had been placed as part of this year’s Village Hall week. Also two other series had been laid out nearby (Riseley Wander – 4 caches) and 2 Counting Vowels. These series had been set by 2 local cache owners, whose modus operandi we are familiar with..
We arrived at the Village Hall, and squeezed into the car park (Saturday morning at 915, coincided with football and tennis practice). We collected clues around the village hall, including its newly planted orchard and walked to the Village Hall hiding place.
Overlooked slightly by some houses, it didn’t take us too long to find. As we retrieved the container, Mrs Hg137 remarked .. ‘Is this one of VR7’s caches ?’ – indeed it was. Their method of hiding is well known to us.
We were on a narrow-ish path leading away from the Village Hall and passing a modern housing estate, At the end of the path, we found the first cache in the Riseley Wander series, again set by VR7, and a similar construct to the first cache.
A lot of finders in the first 5 days of this cache
These caches were so new (5 days old), yet the logs already had a fair few finders. Earlier in Village Hall week, there had been a cacher’s meet at the Hall, and during the meet the new caches had been released. We think a group of 10 cachers walked the same route as we were doing, a few days before. Quite what the residents of Riseley thought about it , we will never know.
ColdHarbour Cottage
Riseley Wander 2 was in a hedge between two cottages, the first ColdHarbour cottage looked idyllic and straight out of a film set. The cache, was a variation on a theme we had already seen.
Then we started the first of the two new Counting Vowels caches. Here we had to write words at three different waypoints, and calculate coordinates from the numbers of each vowel we had found. It was a longish walk between the 2nd and 3rd waypoint and we thought nothing of it. After we calculated the final coordinates, we entered a wood, and arrived at GZ looking for the cache. Whether the tree cover played havoc with our GPS, or the coordinates weren’t quite right, we spent far too long looking. Eventually we did find the cache, in a tree we had rejected early on. We made note of the location to inform the cache owner of a possible correction.
So many trees, so few hiding places !
As we left the wood, we realised we should have stopped on the long stretch between the 2nd and 3rd waypoint to find Riseley Wander 3. We turned back and headed there. As we did so, we saw a couple walking towards, they looked vaguely familiar and indeed they were cachers too, Penwood Plodders, who we first met back in August 2017.
We chatted, and told them about the ‘slightly off’ coordinates. We went our separate ways, us returning to Riseley Wander 3, them to the final waypoint. We found the cache quite easily, and passed them again as they were busy counting As, Es,Is, Os and Us.
So many books…we can’t take them all
Our next cache was another part of a National series, Legends of the Call , set near telephone boxes. This was 28 in the series. The telephone box had been turned into a mini-library and Mrs Hg137 spent some time checking every book, and found one, at the second attempt that fitted into her bag. We paused for coffee, fully expecting Penwood Plodders to walk by. They didn’t. We were concerned that maybe the ‘correction’, that we had notified them of, was in fact wrong.
We walked on to find the final Riseley Wander cache behind the playing fields associated with the village hall. We could have finished the morning’s walk there, but we had a few more village outlier caches to attempt.
Post Post
The first was the second counting vowels. We realised we were walking near to the final two stages of a 4 stage multi, so collected appropriate words for later. As we were doing do, we waved at Penwood Plodders who were now marching towards us. Our mission though was to find the Post Post cache (another National Series, set on or near postboxes). This post box was some distance from the village – we wondered who used it, as it was some way from houses.
After a successful find we headed back, and skirted around a field to arrive at the Devil’s Highway, a former Roman Road.
Hidden behind a large holly bush was our next target cache, Holly Tree Lair Revisited. At first we tried to walk into the holly bush, but eventually we ducked under some barbed wire and found the cache easily. The cache was even big enough to hide the ‘Hedgehog trackable’ we had with us.
Farewell Hedgehog… good luck snuffling out more adventures
We had one cache left, the counting vowels we had started earlier. We soon arrived at the remaining waypoints, and we calculated the final as being close to the village Hall. (Handy end to the day!).
We arrived at the cache, found another trackable, and noticed Penwood Plodders had been there before us.
We arrived back at the Hall, triumphant having found 10 out of 10 caches. Penwood Plodders were sat on a bench enjoying a coffee and lunch. We chatted some more, they had omitted the Post Post cache, and intended to drive there. They had also seen another cacher near the first Counting Vowels cache hence their delay in catching us up.
A pleasant morning, some interesting containers, and as always really great to see other cacher’s out and about. Here are a few of the caches we found :
Although we have quite good logical, puzzle-orientated, minds we sometimes struggle with some of the puzzle caches that have been set.
The cache owner may have displayed some pictures, numbers, letters or phrases from which to extract the cache co-ordinates. Sometimes we don’t even understand the question!
A local cache owner has created a series of 26 puzzles named after each letter of the alphabet. Some times the letter is meaningful in the solve, sometimes not.
Cache Q is a rare, relatively simple, solve. That is, assuming you see the answer….
Mr Hg137 had solved the cache sometime ago, and realised the final hiding place was close to one of our (few) daily walking routes. But for much of 2020 this cache had been DNFed (did not find), by cachers who went looking for it. But early in 2021 another cacher had find the cache implying the cache was there to be found!
As we hadn’t found a cache in 2021, Mr Hg137 mentioned the puzzle to Mrs Hg137 (mainly for confirmation of the solution). Mrs Hg137 couldn’t work out the puzzle, she made a few valiant attempts (including singing the song ‘I can sing a Rainbow’ … Ed : don’t ask !). Mr Hg137 provided a different musical nudge and Mrs Hg137 zoned in on the solution and confirmed the final hiding place.
Today, was the day we went for the find.
A small amount of snow lay on the ground, there was light drizzle in the air. No-one in the their right mind would be out. (Except us, of course). We had a clear run at GZ, following the hint explicitly… and drew a blank.
The hiding place was a sign very close to a prickly berberis bush. We both incurred blood scratches as we searched. Eventually we found the cache. Or, at least. we think we found the cache.
We retrieved the log, signed it and noted…there were only 2 signatories – the first to find cacher..and a finder from 2016 !
We returned the cache as found and claimed the cache. But the puzzle that remains… did we find and sign the correct cache log ? We’ve messaged the cache owner….and we’ll wait and see. Fingers crossed this was our first find of 2021 !
A relatively short caching trip today, but one with a mission.
Cantley Park
Each week when we’ve been geocaching we like to look at the statistics provided by http://www.project-gc.com which shows lots of information about our geocaching history.
One such piece is the ‘finds by hidden date’. After the Medstead Meander we noticed we had found a cache placed on every day, except one … Christmas Day! So using various search methods we discovered there was a Christmas Day placement in Wokingham, just a few miles away!
So today’s trip was to find that cache…and of course a few other nearby caches too.
We parked in Cantley Park (or at least tried to – as being Saturday morning the car park was full as various youth football teams were playing). We eventually squeezed into a spot near to the Tennis Courts.
Cantley Park is large area comprising open grassland, some sports grounds (football, cricket, hockey, tennis) all edged by well established trees. There are solid tracks around the perimeter allowing joggers to exercise too.
Our first cache was near to the perimeter. In fact we thought it was outside of the park so we started our walk on the pavement before realising our error. A quick find (made easier because we could see the cache from the pavement!)
Cantley also hosts a ‘counting vowels’ multi. We had to visit several signs around the park and count various vowels on various signs to yield some final coordinates. We found a couple of signs and then left the park heading to the Christmas Cache – the aptly named ‘Hope Yule Find It’. A mighty oak was the host, and an apt cache container for Christmas was found (but not for the an oak tree!).
We had completed our ‘finds by hidden date’ grid !!!!
Then we started another ‘counting vowels’ multi. This time in the Nature Reserve at Holt Copse. Here, quite a reasonable amount of woodland has been interlaced with paths and more importantly noticeboards. These boards tell of the different wildlife in the woods, mammals, birds, flowers etc. Using certain words – from 8 different waypoints, we accumulated a large number of each vowel.
We set about calculating the final co-ordinates, and discovered in our haste to leave the woodland
(to have a seating area to do perform the calculation), we went very close to the final location. Back into the copse we went, with a quick find.
Back into the copse
After this we returned to Cantley Park to continue the ‘counting vowel’ multi. By now the park was very busy, and there children riding bikes, families out for a walk as well as a ladies football match being played. We were surprised about the location for the final cache, but a straightforward find.
Our fifth and last cache of the day, was the hardest. Situated near to the car, by the tennis courts, we should have had a short route from finding the Counting Vowels Cache, and this final cache. Instead, for some reason, we chose not to take the slightly muddy path and opted for tarmac thinking it would only be a little longer. It was half a mile longer !! Whoops!
The cache, when we did arrive to find it, was called the ‘Pillar of Cantley Park’. We searched around, looking for pillars…obviously !, but nothing could be found. It was only when we said…’where would we hide a cache’, did we find it and the cache title made perfect sense!
Eton Wick is a village on the outskirts of Slough and Windsor. It is where, for the first 7.5 years of Mr Hg137s life, he lived. Even after he moved away, he would return to visit his grandparents, uncle, aunt and cousins.
A series of 9 caches has been placed around Eton Wick and today’s trip was to find the caches…and bring back some childhood memories….
Normally a cache series has the car parking near the start point of the route, but Eton Wick is relatively self-contained so that it was only a short walk from the village centre to the edge. Eton Wick is just in Berkshire and the first cache of the day was yards inside the county boundary. At the end of the village was the village sign, a lovely flower box, and a wildlife noticeboard. Three great hiding places… and we took too long to find the simply placed cache. (This was to be an underlying feature of the day, as we frequently didn’t seem to be on the same wavelength as the cache owner’s hints).
The county boundary
Each of the eight village caches would contain a number, which we would need to yield the coordinates for the ninth ‘bonus’ cache. We had noted beforehand that previous cachers had found it extremely difficult to locate the bonus without finding all the caches. We made sure every location was double, triple and even quadruple checked before we gave up.
Growing up as a small boy, and visiting relatives, meant that some roads were more well known than others. It was one of the less well-known roads we found our second cache (a relatively easy find). It was at this point it started to rain – and as none had been forecast – this was slightly annoying. We pondered whether to head for the car or press on. We opted for the latter and the rain eased. As it did so we approached a play park which Mr Hg137 remarked he didn’t know about.
Let’s hope the horse doesn’t tread on the cache
Just away from the park, on a bridleway junction was our third cache. There was much to search here, several trees, broken wire fences, footpath gates, horse gates, field posts and lots of undergrowth. We spent ages here, dodging runners, walkers, horse riders. We searched. We kept searching..we didn’t want to lose our ability to find the bonus cache.
After about 20 minutes (maybe more, possibly 30), we gave up. We wrote ‘DNF’ on a piece of paper (we write notes as we go for the geocaching log and for the this blog). We set our GPS to number 4 in the series. Then Mrs Hg137 went quiet. Another walker was heading our way. He passed. Then she said “I can see the cache!”. Amazing! We hastily unclipped the box, signed the log, wrote down the bonus number and moved on.
As we did so, our route took us into a narrow road. Made narrower by cars parked either side. Suddenly Mr Hg137 knew where he was…at his grandparent’s house. The park he now remembered as he was now standing where he stood as a youngster… Sadly his grandparent’s house had been knocked down and replaced by a much more modern version. From what he could see the apple trees in the large back garden had gone too.
Are there still tiddlers in this stream ?
The twisting roads led to a stream (Mr Hg137 vaguely remembers catching ‘tiddlers’ here) and a large tree. The tree hosted our next cache and unusually for a terrain 2 cache, involved a small tree climb. There were two ways to gain about 4-6 feet of the ground, and we both went up simultaneously. Even with two pairs of eyes, this cache took far longer than it should.
Before visiting our next cache we took a small diversion to a parade of shops. For many years one of the shops was run by Hg137’s uncle and aunt. First as a home-brew shop and latterly as a post office. Now it is a party shop. Mr Hg137 is in that industry himself, so went in and chatted at length with the shop owner – we even made a purchase too !
From home-brew to a Post Office … and now a Party Shop
Before we resumed our caching trip we paused for coffee on a nearby memorial seat. There are lots of seats in Eton Wick, many with memorial names on…but this one was of a gentleman Mr Hg137 had actually heard of !
Our route took us down some more roads Mr Hg137 was unfamiliar with and another tree cache. This tree though was special as it was planted in 1897 to mark Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and a fine tree it is now!
Queen Victoria’s Oak
Finally our route took us to the main road that bisects Eton Wick and a magnetic nano. Lots of places to hide it, and we got lucky with a quick find.
A very full river Thames
About half a mile south of Eton Wick is the River Thames, and our seventh cache. Mr Hg137 frequently came here as a child as it was a short walk from his house. Part of his family history is that when he was very, very young he removed one of his bootees and threw it in the river…never to be seen again!
The cache we were looking for by the river had disappeared too and we spent a long time peering at the undergrowth. We paused often for the many families passing by (replicating the walk Mr Hg137 had taken all those years ago). We resumed our searching to no avail. A friendly robin came to help, but was unable to communicate to us where the cache was. Similarly a swan couldn’t help either ! We gave up and hoped our missing bonus number wouldn’t be too crucial.
“I don’t know where the cache is”
“and I don’t either”
Cache 8, was back in the village. Mr Hg137 remembered a quick route across the football pitch, into a small alley and arrived….at his former house! Yards from it was the cache! While he was reminiscing about who lived in each of the houses…Mrs Hg137 reminded him of the bonus cache and its calculation.
Mr Hg137 used to live in one of these houses!
The missing cache would have yielded a very useful number, as it was, using some basic maths and a working knowledge of map coordinates…we derived three sets of plausible co-ordinates. The first two were both in back gardens, but the third led us close to the start of our walk.
There were trees, plenty of them. We searched for 10 minutes, aware we were close to houses. Sadly we didn’t find the bonus cache. As we were not 100% we were in the right place, we gave up.
So we found 7 out of 9 caches and revisited Mr Hg137’s history. A good morning’s work!
PS We’ve subsequently discovered that cache 7, by the river, has disappeared and that we were looking in the right place for the bonus – meaning our maths and logic skills are better than our caching skills!
Winters, especially wet and windy ones, provide distinctly uninspiring weather for geocaching. There is a high likelihood of getting wet and footpaths are giant morasses of mud.
So we decided to undertake many of the puzzle caches we had ‘solved but not found’. Many of these we assumed would be ‘cache and dashes’ minimising the risk of getting a soaking and squelching through mud.
There’s a cache in these woods…shame about the mud!
Then we discovered many of the puzzle caches we had solved over the years had been archived. We had the co-ordinates but the cache had been removed. Our list for ‘caching and dashing’ had been severely depleted due to our tardiness in finding them!
We formed a series of puzzles we could collect, and found a couple of caches nearby. One of which was an unusual multi. Most multis require the cacher to visit at least one or two places, sometimes many more, before acquiring the co-ordinates to finding the cache. This multi, called ‘Post Code’, was different. The cache co-ordinates were given. The cache was a padlocked box, but to unlock the cache, one had to visit four post boxes in the Crowthorne area. Find a particular number on each post box (generally the post code of the area the post box stood in) and use the numbers on the padlock. Easy !
“I can’t read the number from here”
Except…these post boxes formed a 2 mile walk! Now, dear reader, we were in a quandary .. should we drive round the roads of Crowthorne to each post box in about 20 minutes… or take a separate walking expedition … and locate a couple of caches near the four post boxes?
We, of course, opted for the latter.
There were only two caches on our ‘post box’ route…the first in a alleyway adjacent to a relatively new estate in Crowthorne. As we approached GZ, a dog walker approached the path from the estate. (We say ‘dog walker’, but the size, weight and momentum of the dog meant it was more like ‘dog taking man for walk’. We wished him well as he was dragged by, and we searched a couple of likely host items. We were looking for a ‘man-made’ structure hiding the cache..and we were very surprised when eventually we found it !
Our second cache was one we had ‘attempted’ back in May 2013. We blogged about that day here, and we remember it well as we left home with maps with geocaches marked, pens, etc… but no GPS! We tried to find caches with no GPS and hints! ‘Grimmetts Grotto’ we never found. Today, even with a hint (‘Base of tree- leave no stone or brick unturned!’) and no leaf cover interfering with GPS reception, we had trouble getting close to anything useful. So we searched every tree in the copse, turning over every stone and brick we could see. Eventually we located the correct tree and stone and signed the log.
Then we started our post box walk.
The Crowthorne estate we walked around was mixed in age.
New Houses
Some bungalows, possibly 1930s in style, and where these had been knocked down large 5 (or more) bedroomed, houses behind metal gates.
A new estate being built on the old Transport Road Research brought the houses into the 21st century. A pleasant pavement walk and at each ‘post box’ we peered at the box to acquire the numbers we needed. Fortunately there were few people around to quiz us, otherwise it may have been just a tad suspicious!
Four posts boxes found.. four numbers acquired…the multi cache awaits!
Our previous caching trip had left us on 2996 caching finds, and we were wondering where to cache to claim our 3000th find before the year was out.
As we mused, some days previously, we noticed a brand new series published in the area of Sulham just West of Reading. It was an area we had not cached in, so we looked at the caches. They were all mystery caches…and all online jigsaws. 21 online jigsaws varying in size from 80 pieces to 440 pieces.
Here are the pieces…
Lovely pictures, but a little mono-chrome (a sunlit Autumn leaf path, a long view over farmers-fields to a folly). Many contained dogs, or possibly the same dog, so we guessed they celebrated the life of the owner’s dog(s). (One of the dog jigsaws was called ‘In Memoriam’). On completion of a jigsaw the co-ordinates of the associated cache would be displayed.
…. getting there!
These jigsaws were published on the 28th December. We saw them on the same evening and set about trying to solve the myriad of online jigsaws. If we could solve 4 jigsaws we would drive to Sulham, and find the caches needed to reach the 3000 milestone. We may even be the first-to-find (FTF) the caches!
We spent several hours looking at several jigsaws, honing our online skills late into the early hours of the following morning. We awoke, and discovered another cacher had solved many of the puzzles and had already claimed many of the first-to-finds (about 16 of the 21 on offer). We continued our solving realising we might need to solve 5 or 6 jigsaws to give us a couple of caches as contingency (to allow for a did-not-find) in order to reach the magic 3000 finds.
Over the 29th and 30th of December, we solved quite a few jigsaws, and focussed our attention on those where the FTF hadn’t been claimed. Of course as we solved a puzzle, the 5 remaining unfound caches were slowly being found (including the bonus 22nd cache). Until only one cache hadn’t been found….
..so early on the 31st December we drove to Sulham, parking up by 9am. We surveyed the other early morning visitors to the car park. Were they cachers ? Were they dog walkers ? We walked down a muddy, tree-lined path, checking our GPS making sure we were heading as quickly and as accurately as we could.
More people. More dog walkers. A couple of litter pickers. We arrived close to Ground Zero for the unfound cache (cache 19 in the series). We had passed no-one resembling a geocacher. Would we be the first to sign the log?
We headed to a likely looking host. No cache to see, then we espied another a better example … wandered over to see a tell-tale pile of sticks guarding a container.
With trepidation we opened the cache, a cute dog to reveal….
…a blank log! We were the first to find!!
Hooray!
(our last First-Find was way back in November 2017, and before that, spookily, exactly three years ago on 31st December 2016!)
We took copious photos and left the cache grinning. We now had 3 caches to find to reach 3000 caches.
Of the puzzles we had solved cache 17 was the next nearest. We had plotted the coordinates on a map (somewhere between two footpaths and a road) and headed there. Suddenly the path became very, very muddy and a field of 19 horses looked on as we slipped and slithered our way past. The cache was still not any closer so we walked along the road and then we turned around to walk back along the second muddy footpath..the cache was still 60 yards away. We gave up..we couldn’t see how to get to the Cache 17.
Good job we had a few caches in reserve!
Our next cache was number 5. (We’re quite sure if we had solved all the jigsaws our route to the caches would have been in a better sequence). We trudged through more muddy paths and arrived a large grassy field. Here a stile/gate guarded the entrance to a large wooded area, and the cache was quickly found. (Our only delay was caused by a dog walker with 4 dogs going by). That was cache 2998.
We were going to attempt cache 3 and cache 1 to reach 3000 finds, but as our contingency had disappeared looking for cache 17, we realised cache 14 was quite close. More mud. But a quick find. 2999.
So we headed for cache 3. In the middle of woodland, and probably where the GPS would wobble. We followed tracks as best we could, but eventually went ‘cross-country’ jumping minor water-courses until a very large hint item came into view. There a pile of sticks and piece of stone shielding a camouflaged bag. We undid the bag.. there was cache 3000! Hooray !
Then the fun started! It was a maze cache! To open the container we needed to slide the upper and lower part around a maze. It took us some time to do this but once opened we signed our names for the 3000th time!
We’ve encountered maze caches before, so we drew the maze out on a sheet of paper, and followed it in reverse to close the cache! A fantastic puzzle cache – first the jigsaw, then the cache container. What a way to reach 3000!
We didn’t try to find any other caches. We had achieved a First-to-Find (only the fourth time we had done this), and found four caches including a fabulous cache for 3000. Why find another? It would wait for another day!
PS If you are wondering why we went wrong at cache 17. we mis-transcribed the co-ordinates when we solved the associated jigsaw. We had to redo the jigsaw to get the correct coordinates!
sandhurstgeocachers 