Oooo, spooky!

Today we set off round a section of the Aldbourne Circuit. This is loop of 12.5 miles. We did one section of just over 5 miles. We had a lovely walk on the hills. We spotted a longbarrow and tumulus en route. For once, this was a route where we didn't get lost as we basically walked in a straight line!

Just off the main circuit was a puzzle cache called Tom Riddle. I left Daddy QC with the kids and walked down the byway to get to this cache. I have never felt so spooked or uneasy in an area! I walked into the wooded area and within 25 meters, I had spotted a grave. It was about 2 meters wide, edged in large stones with smaller gravel covering the middle. A small memorial stone and flowers were placed within the gravel. My heart leapt as I wasn't expecting this in the middle of nowhere. I quickly found the cache, wrote down the riddle, left a riddle* and left quickly. Every snap of twig had me turning 360 degrees! As I left the woods I met a very strange, eclectic group of walkers who did not greet me. A very bizarre cache!

After we finished the circuit we headed up to the Cotswold shop. We picked up 2 more caches here to round our total up to 900!

*The riddle we left was one Big QC made up when she was 3.5yrs old:

Q- why do French people wear cabbages on their feet?

A- because cabbages are choux!

Caching around Ashdown

This morning, Little QC and I headed out to the National Trust Property of Ashdown House. There are 4 caches around here, one of which being an EarthCache that we'd completed a few months ago.
Our first cache was a multi, this involved a climb up Weathercock Hill. Once upon a time, a huge weather cock was placed on top of the hill so that hunters could determine the wind direction. However, when Little QC and I finally reached the top, we discovered the weather vane had been sawn off! We found the cache and then descended the hill.

Our next cache involved a lovely walk around Ashdown House and woods. We enjoyed the walk down to this cache. Ashdown house is a 17th Century building that looks very 'dollshouse' like. It resembles a traditional Dutch building.

We had a small amount of time before we had to be home, so we took a walk up to the Ashdown Traditional Cache. This was a very well hidden cache, but worth the search after another great walk.

Even though it was absolutely freezing this morning, we had a really good, long walk. My legs are still tired from the climb!

Our new caches

Tonight, we had two new caches published. One of which is a Puzzle Cache that Big QC set, the other is a short 'cache and dash multi'.

Big QC is very proud of her puzzle cache- you can see it here. It isn't overly difficult seeing as she is only 5 years old but she thought of the idea herself, knew where she wanted to hide the cache and found her container. It was found 30 minutes after the cache was published!

The multi is a cache I set. The area has been crying out for a cache or two for ages, so I made a multi to show off the area. There are spectacular views at both ends, plus a bonus trig point for those who collect them.

This now takes our caches to 14 - a series of 9 traditional caches, a short dinosaur series of 3 trads, plus these two new caches.

Dreaming of caching

Not me, but Big QC!

She was calling out in her sleep and crying so I went in to see her. In her half dozed state she says "Percy isn't letting me get to the cache, he keeps blocking my way...I want to get to the ammo can but Percy is there".

Percy is our cat!

Week round up!

This week has been a very good week for caching with 53 finds! After hitting the 800 mark, I had a quiet day on Wednesday. Thursday, however was a great day. I had met, via Facebook a cacher who lives quite near by. I had seem her name in logs and found a few of her caches. We decided to meet up and go round the Hampstead Norreys series. This is a series of about 4 miles with 10 caches. We walked past most of the caches as we were too busy chatting! We finished the walk and decided to go and find a puzzle cache that we'd both recently solved. We found the 5 star difficulty rated cache and then went for lunch to celebrate! It was a fab day and we've already planned our next meet.

Friday was a local day so I picked up a few caches along the canal whilst Little QC slept off his music class! That evening we added a new cache in Swindon to our list. Joining us for that cache was a friend's daughter (also a cacher).

Saturday we met with an old friend of mine. We have known each other (via online and then in person) for about 6 years now. She and her husband have recently become a cachers so we headed over to a series near Winchester. This was 4 miles with 12 caches. The series was set by the top cacher I met last week. We had a great walk round and then we headed for one puzzle cache near Marwell Zoo.

Today, we were meant to spend the day at Paultons Park, but Big QC was not at all well. We left our hotel and did a few local caches around Southampton. Every small green space/park in Southampton appears to have a cache placed in it. We found a few and then headed home.

800!

It hasn't taken long to go from 700 to 800 caches, perhaps 2 weeks. Yesterday we started the day on 787. I was determined to make it to 799. I headed over to a Wellie Walk series on the pretence of a Tescos trip. This was meant to be a circular walk; my circle however, resembled a spirograph drawing! I had written the co-ordinates down in the wrong order, taken a wrong path and just generally got lost. I ended up dog-legging 4 of the caches as I was that lost. This wasn't the fault of the CO (cache owner), more just a bad day for me! This route gave me 7 caches, so I knew I had to find another 5. I did a few drive bys for the numbers. I do not like drive bys, preferring to walk a route or circuit, but needs must etc etc!

I hit 799 easily...and then finally went to Tescos!

That evening I headed out to another Cachers Meet Up. This was my 800th smiley face. I celebrated with a beer!

My September challenge is still ongoing, I can't quite stop now! There are some days where time is an issue or the weather is bad or I just feel tired, but something says 'get out, you'll love it once out walking'. We are hitting upon a small problem now though. There is only one cache left in our 5 mile radius to find and 40 within 7.5miles. My caching streak will come to an end in a few weeks when we head to France. There is a real dearth of caches in our area (less than 40 in an entire county) so I can see us missing a few days here and there.

10 caches for 10-10-10?

Nah, why find 10 caches on 10-10-10 day when you can add the numbers together and find 30...well, 32 in fact!
We left both kids with Granny today. This was our first attempt at leaving them both for a day. Daddy QC and I headed over for a 'Sloshed Walk'- named because there are 3 or 4 pubs on the route. We had a great walk and a nice lunch. We then headed back to pick the kids up grabbing a few extra caches on the way over. We'd given Big QC the task of finding a cache with Granny. We had previously DNF'd a local cache because it had been muggled. Big QC knew exactly where it was from our last attempt, but was still very proud of herself for finding it with techno-phobe Granny!

Coffee dreams

For years, both Daddy QC and myself, have had a dream of owning a camper van and touring round the UK and Europe in it. My more recent dream is to cache my way round various countries in a mobile home.

Today I met someone who is living that dream! Little QC and I headed over to Cirencester today to complete the Driffield Ring- a short series of 11 caches. As I approached cache #8 I saw a person in the distance. Not wanting to draw attention to the cache that might have been hidden in the bushes, I checked my email and pretended to look busy. The speed of which the person approached was very very quick, a cheerful "so, shall we look for this together" was said and then introductions were made. I haven't met many other cachers out caching so it is always nice to stop and chat. It turns out the person I met is one of the top 5 cache finders in the UK with a staggering 12,500 caches! My paltry 745 pales in comparison. We hunted for the cache but could not find it, it transpired later than it had been 'muggled'.

As we returned to our car we spotted the motorhome of the cacher and I wistfully sighed...one day!

September Caching

Big QC set me a challenge for September: to cache every single day in the month. If she can succeed at her challenges, then I can fulfill mine....and I did! I found at least one cache every day for the entire month.

September naturally has been our best caching month so far with 164 finds.

This weekend we walked round a series near Basingstoke. Of the 16 caches, 15 were micros which wasn't ideal for Big QC; she enjoys rifling through the goodies and swapping things. However, we really enjoyed the walk.