Caching in North Devon

As well as Way Down West, we did a few caches altogether.
We had a good walk round the lower half of a series called 'Below the Belt', the whole series was 7.5 miles which was too far for the kids to walk. The kids had a great walk and found a lot of the caches themselves.

We also took a walk up to Baggy Point near Croyde. This was a 2.5 mile cliff walk; it was so busy up there with hikers and families but again, the kids found most of the caches. Little QC did very well by walking most of the way. We had beautiful weather for this series, it was such a still, clear day that we could see for miles.

Whilst in Devon, we did 2 EarthCaches set around our favourite beach- Saunton Sands.  One of the Earth Caches required us to walk out half a mile along the cliff rocks, I got scared 400ft from the 'Erratic' so tunred back and sent Mr QC instead! I wasn't keen on the incoming tide or the cave! We also picked up a trig point half way round Baggy Point.

Way Down We(s)t

Way Down West; 105 caches over 20 hilly miles...it had to be done!

A few months ago I booked a holiday cottage in Devon, I sold it as a week of surfing (for Mr QC), playing on the beach (kids) and a spot of caching (me). As luck would have it, the cottage was situated just 10 minutes from the Way Down West (WDW) series!

I had planned on walking the series in 2 sections; other cachers have recommended walking the southern loop first as it is the most hilly. 

I picked the wettest day of the month to do the southern loop. I parked up and set off, climbing and descending hills, taking in amazing views and finding cache after cache. It was very wet though but my gear held up and I was relatively dry. 10.4 miles later and 4:05 hours later I arrived back at the car. What a brilliant walk.

(Stile, Devon style)

Today, it was even wetter than Monday! I parked up at cache #1 and set off round the northern loop. This was a very different walk to the southern loop; the terrain was more varied and the views very different. By cache #20 I was drenched. My Gortex jacket failed to keep me dry, my rain repellent trousers couldn't cope and the waterproof boots just filled up. I have had drier showers!

By cache #103, the finish came into view and I just grinned like a Cheshire cat, I was so elated at having completed the walk in such adverse weather conditions. The northern loop was much easier, it was slightly shorter than the south one though both had a similar amount of caches (105) on them. This loop was 3h20mins and about 8.5miles.

I would highly recommend this series. The time, effort and expense that the cache owner has put into creating the series is excellent. Many thanks for this series.