A little bit of deja vu
Determined to start the new caching year on the right foot I headed off up the A14 to undertake the ‘Cotton Trail’ return.
Arriving at the familiar Village Hall car park, having completed the previous trail a year or so ago with geomum and her dog Bobby, I headed for number one. It was a quick find, due to the same placement as it’s predecessor, in the end of a railing, and I was soon off on a quiet track to get number two.
A hanging pine cone and a magnetic micro on a gate followed before arriving at the Letterbox cache. I do enjoy a letterbox and this one was a nice size. Retrieving it from under the stile I was very excited to open it up and find a geocoin waiting to be moved on. After signing the log, out came my letterbox notebook and one pretty purple butterfly was soon stamped onto a blank page.
Next up was a cute duck hiding under a wooden footbridge which was soon spotted. The log was rather damp, but I just about managed to scrape a date and initials into it.
Now for the real challenge...number six, and a 5/5 difficulty and terrain! Oh heck! Knowing where the last clever hide had been in this spot, I was feeling confident. I made my way down the side of the steep ditch, clinging to branches of the big tree, doing my best not to end up face first in the water.
A few roots just above the waterline helped keep my feet try, whilst I conducted the search, but unfortunately it definitely wasn’t a like for like replacement of the last one.
I spent a while trying to examine every nook and cranny, but there was nothing that looked like a cache. In the end, after reading every past log, I figured I was going to need to get into the ditch, and possibly need some taller help. Just not equipped today, I decided I’d leave it for a return visit in warmer weather.
Heading back down the track, I soon re-joined the circular walk and picked up the next cache, a cute little bird in a tree. The smells from the nearby sewer works were rather potent so I didn’t hang around, and headed off to find the next cache, the brilliant ‘shake rattle and roll’.
Created out of some old plumbing pipe, the well camouflaged, clever pipe maze was a unique find - i’d not seen one like this before. Thanks to its title I knew what to do to get my hand on the log container, a bit of shaking, rattling and a roll and it was in hand. Brilliant idea, great fun.
‘A trolls home’ was a quick find at a little footbridge further up but then came ‘Walk this Way’! I clearly didn’t. No my GPS and I got hooked on a rather different sign and after examining every inch of it, I back tracked to the main road for a rethink. Looking about I suddenly spotted a much smaller footpath sign, ah ha! And there it was, the clever little bolt micro in a wooden post, below the black footpath arrow. Sneaky!
The next cache was a quick spot, despite the dreaded ivy and before I knew it I was at the brilliant ‘hook a cache’. The cleverly placed long hook was swiftly retrieved and I slowly lowered the rather springy cache from its hide some 7 metres or so above me.
With it finally in hand I was rather disappointed to find the bottom of the cache and the log were missing. Noting how much it flung back up through the air when I let go I realised searching the deep leaf litter ditch, over quite a vast area, to find the missing parts was just not an option. Luckily I had a spare bison in my bag so set about hooking the remainder of the cache again and replacing it.
Just as I was doing so, a couple approached...oh dear caught red handed! Or so I thought. They actually turned out to be cachers and as we stood chatting we both signed the make shift log and replaced the cache.
Funnily enough I bumped into them a couple of times afterwards as they drove round to pick up the handful or so they’d missed doing the previous day. The cute toadstool at the next GZ was such a case. As I arrived they were already in the ditch at GZ hunting out the little cache, so I gladly took a break, pen at the ready to sign the log.
Soon I had bagged the penultimate two caches and made my way to the familiar final, an exact replacement of the original, which was just as impressive as last time. Magnetic lid in hand, slowly, but steadily the cache inside the tube travelled up the tube and into my hands.
A really great trail and a lovely walk. I completed it in under two hours even with the slight delay at number 6. It left me just enough time to grab four caches on the way home.
These included the large ‘Ever ONwoods’ stowed a few feet up in a tree; the Manchester United themed hide in Old Newton and the Village sign. The final cache off the day was the cache and dash ‘360 Views’.
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