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.