Meeting the characters of Dynasty land

The week started with a trip out with the other half to find the cast of Dynasty! 

Ok, not quite! We didn’t actually travel to Denver, Colorado in the US, where the famous 80s soap was set, but to the village in Norfolk of the same name. 

There may not have been any shoulder pads, quarrelling families, oil rigs or UFOs in sight - yes in one ludicrous Dynasty episode, one of the cast was picked up by a UFO, which is possibly why the soap met its end soon after - but we did meet some equally colourful characters as we traversed the banks of the stunning river and admired the huge sluice gates. 

The other half had come along for the walk, eager to escape the confines of home, but also because I’d promised we’d pop to the coast after our walk, for a paddle and some fish and chips. 

Parking was great, with a free car park right near the giant sluice gates, and we were soon heading up the tow path towards Downham Market on Poshrule’s Denver Downham Doodah series. 

Caches came thick and fast, as like Poshrule’s many other series, they were easy to find, with accurate co-ordinates and good hints. 

The wildlife on the river was great to see. We spotted a beautiful pair of swans and a happy heard of cows as we neared the end of the first stretch. 

Once we reached the edge of the town we diverted to grab a mystery cache created by Disa urq, that I’d solved many moons ago. For some reason I had two sets of co-ordinates saved in my waypoints, and wasn’t too sure which was correct. 

Once in the vicinity of the first set, we quickly realised they definitely weren’t correct, but the second set looked more promising and it wasn’t long before we spotted the huge cache. One of the biggest I’ve seen for a while. 

Back on the Denver DD trail we set off on the return leg, along the east bank. This proved to be a little busier than the first, and it wasn’t long before we were greeted by a rather friendly dog. At first he appeared to be out alone, but then we saw a strange looking chap, in a small motorboat, heading towards the shore. 

He parked up on a rather broken pier just ahead of us and began calling out a name, which we presumed was the dog’s name. As we approached, he said something to us and waved, and we smiled politely and said hi. 

He then began talking away at us, so we politely stopped to listen, but to be honest I could barely make out a word. He might as well have been speaking Swahili, having such a broad Norfolk accent. 

We nodded for a bit, as the dog raced back and forth, up and down the bank between us and him. It soon emerged that he was asking for our help to get the dog into the boat. The other half wasn’t keen on going too near him or the dog having just come out of many weeks in lockdown. 

Refusing to touch the lead being offered, he attempted to try and usher the dog towards the boat, but the dog thought this was some new kind of game and just leapt about even more, running around us and completely avoiding his owner’s stretched out hands and instructions to get in the boat. 

In the end, we gave up trying to help and left him to it. As we giggled about the whole fiasco, we could see another chap approaching in the distance with a dog, so made a quick grab of the next cache near a gate, before he was upon us. 

Now, I’m not sure if the guy thought we were up to no good, or whether he was also another local character, but as he got near he also stopped to chat. 

He began telling us all sorts of stories about how some youngsters had tried to destroy a swan’s nest and how he’d seen them off. How he had a good friend who was a local policeman, along with other less riveting tales. 

We finally managed to make our excuses and escape, and walked as quickly as possible back to the car, grabbing the final caches, before any more locals could accost us. 

We rounded off the day with a nice sit down on the beach at Sunny Hunny, with some fish and chips, along with a huge number of daytripping families. Certainly no one was worried about Covid-19 here! But we made sure we kept our distance.

A few nights later, after logging off work for the day, I set off for another brand new series that had appeared since lockdown - I take my hat off to all these cachers who used their lockdown time so wisely. 

The Whelnetham Walk was a nice sized circular series set around the village near Bury St Edmunds. I was particularly looking forward to doing it as it has been set by COs SusieAndMaisy, who had set another series with some incredibly inventive caches, that I had thoroughly enjoyed discovering last year. 

Again, there was great parking right next to the first cache, which was soon found - a screw and bolt container, cleverly placed on the turning point of a gate. 

The next was a magnetic, cleverly hidden under a small roadside drain hole. I’ve thought of doing this myself, but was a bit worried it might get washed away in a storm. 

The next few caches were also great custom containers. They included a small tuft of grass by a gate post, and after walking through a very pretty estate, a small frog was soon in hand. 

A cache camouflaged by fake ivy blended in well to its surroundings and then came number 7, a brilliant field puzzle idea - a box filled with bottle lids! All bearing the same Union Jack icon, but one had the small log container on the other side. Clever! 

The next part of the walk took me out the other end of the village and onto the old railway line. 

More great caches followed including a fake pine cone, a very unusual small fake pebble, and another camouflaged by fake ivy that blended in really well next to the wood and earth steps where it had been placed. So well that it took me a few minutes to spot. 

It was also nice to see some colourful painted rocks here, which were clearly part of the rock painting craze that hit the country a year or so ago. 

The final cache was brilliant, carved inside part of an old tree stump. Again, it blended in so well to its surroundings that it was tricky to spot, and the container was only revealed inside the stump, once I turned the lid to the side.

I highly recommend this, and the COs other series ‘Lawshall Walk’, to other geocachers, who like to find more creative caches. Both are fantastic and don’t take too long to walk. 

Next week we’re taking a trip down memory lane, but until then, stay safe, and don’t forget the anti bac!