The Collingham Walk and More – Caches No’s 407 – 430

22nd April 2010 – Esholt Hall’s Lead Pipe GCHJD7 – cache #407
A nice sunny Thursday lunchtime, and I headed for what is really the last cache I can sensibly do at lunchtime, this one involved a 3/4 mile walk each way, so I didn’t actually manage it in the 30 minute lunchbreak, but hey, who cares !
Quite easy to find when I got there…

23rd April 2010 – Paddling Picnic GC276TN – cache #408
Friday evening, and the first chance to do evening caches for the year… it wasn’t going to get dark for about 75 minutes so I had time to go for a lttle walk.
Two new caches had appeared at a local reservoir, with no hints given until they had been found once.
I tried to find GC276QZ Fewston, we have a problem… first, but had no luck, the co-ords landed me right on top of a dry stone wall that was broken down and I didn’t want to disturb it any further, there was a stream and a few stones up against the wall a few yards away but no sign of the cache.
So I went on to the next one, which was in a spot you couldn’t actually get to without either climbing over a wall or paddling under a bridge… not ideal ! Then there were so many places it could be hidden that you would have to pull the site to bits to check them all. I was thinking it might be another wash out, but then noticed a stone that appeared out of place, I removed it and found a suitably sized cavity behind it but no cache, so I carried on looking a bit longer, then just as I was leaving I went back to the cavity and stuck my fingers in a little further and came up with the cache.

23rd April 2010 – The “P………” cache GCQV6T – cache #409
It was getting a little dark by now, but the two caches I had to find seemed like they would be easy to find, so I ventured on. This first was a puzzle cache that I had worked out the answer to months ago but had never been to find it, the hint made it easy to find even in the dark as it said exactly where to find it

23rd April 2010 – Fewston Reservoir GCH2N8 – cache #410
The final cache of the night and it was really dark by now, but just enough light to spot the stickoflage covering the cache

24th April 2010 – Harrogate Urban Micro #3 GCPZX1 – cache #411
Saturday morning and I had some spare time while shopping in Harrogate.
I hadn’t taken my GPS, but had looked before I went to see where it was… the google satellite map for the coordinates shows it on the edge of the gardens… about where a parking ticket meachine is… so knowing this I went to the parking ticket machine and while I was stood by the machine looking the other way while feeling underneath it I saw the cache… magnetic and stuck on the bottom of a bench a good 20 feet away from where the coordinates give it on google.

24th April 2010 – Curse of the FTF Wharfedale #3 GC2651J – cache #412
Saturday afternoon and I decided on a walk in the sunshine along a new series of caches that had been placed in Collingham, this was an extra cache that I had to drive past the end of the bridleway it was on to get to collingham so I stopped in the convenient layby and walked down to the cache… hidden in the roots of a tree, behind some stones
At this cache I dropped off the Lucy’s Cheesocoin Geocoin

24th April 2010 – The Bells! GC1KVC8 – cache #413
The Collingham Walk starts at Collingham Church, which also has this puzzle cache associated with it. Another one that I had worked out the co-ords of some time ago but hadn’t visited, co-ordinates that were a diversion of about 10 yards from the route of the walk, so it became the first cache of the walk. Hidden again in the roots of a tree, and at the edge of a field that immediately became full of people walking dogs as soon as I had pulled the cache from it’s hiding place.

24th April 2010 – Collingham Walk #1 GC26HF3 – cache #414
The first cache of the walk proper, a 35mm film cannister hooked over the signpost. I’d gathered from the hint it was on the signpost and found it quite easily

24th April 2010 – THE GOLF BALL GC2047G – cache #415
Next, another cache almost on the route of the walk. Hidden in a rotting tree stump which actually took some finding as the wood crumbles as you touch it, so it will soon be just a pile of woodchips hiding the cache.

24th April 2010 – en route to Wetherby GC1X31D – cache #416
Another cache on the route, another rotting tree stump

24th April 2010 – Collingham Walk #2 GC26HF4 – cache #417
Back to the newly placed caches, and another chunk of rotten tree stump with a cache underneath

24th April 2010 – Collingham Walk #3 GC26HF5 – cache #418
As the footpath goes across fields it comes to a hedge, with a stile next to a gate, only there isn’t a gate there anymore and the stile is redundant… except for it’s use as a hiding place for this cache

24th April 2010 – Collingham Walk #4 GC26HF6 – cache #419
In the bottom of a hedgerow, ‘behind the ivy’ the hint said, though there is about 25 yards of hedge getting overgrown with ivy. but the last people to find the cache hadn’t replaced it very well so it was easy to spot where it was… I hid it better !
At this cache I dropped off the Travel Bug Dog Tag

24th April 2010 – Collingham Walk #5 GC26HF7 – cache #420
Not in a rotting tree stump, but in the fallen rotting tree tunk

24th April 2010 – Collingham Walk #6 GC26HF8 – cache #421
The hint said Magnetic and the only metal visible for miles around was an old abandoned and rusty harrow… I needed the hint as it was right next to a rotting tree stump, but I couldn’t find the cache there so needed a clue to find the 35mm Film Canister that formed the cache.
This was the last of the Collingham Walk caches, and I should have collected a number at each cache that would form the coordinates of a bonus cache, but I had memorised them rather than writing them down and found I had forgotten one of the numbers.
Memory Map showed me that there were only two possibilities for the cache, one on a footpath and one on the side of a road – so it wasn’t a disaster that I hadn’t got all the numbers

24th April 2010 – en route to Compton GC22J6D – cache #422
I decided I would try the option on the side of the road back to Collingham first, as I was going to go that way anyway to get this cache which was on a bridleway… it was a bit of a rush as I could see two girls on horses coming my way so had to grab the cache, sign the log, photograph it, and put the cache back in the minute before the riders could see me.
At this cache I dropped off the Light in the dark travelbug… and decided that I wasn’t going to bother with travelbugs and geocoins anymore as it’s too much of a faff to log them in and out and remember to take them out with me.

24th April 2010 – Collingham Walk the Bonus GC26HF9 – cache #423
I’d gone for the side of the road option, but it was the wrong one, I could see no sign of a cache hiding place on the verge, but across the other side of the field I could see the footpath with a clump of bushes and a telegrah pole… so I walked down the path to the spot and quickly found the cache.

25th April 2010 – Via Ducks GCK193  – cache #424
Sunday afternoon, nice and sunny, decided that I had a couple of hours spare so I would go and clear a few local caches… get to this one, get out of the car, and the thunder cracks and the heavens open… totally soaked by the time I get back to the car, fortunately the wind was blowing strongly so I could shelter the cache with my body while I signed the log

25th April 2010 – All in the past. GC1JKV9  – cache #425
After sitting in the car for a while the rain subsided so I drove to the next cache. I had had a brief look for this before and not found it, a couple of people had logged it in the meantime so I knew it was still there, this time I went straight to it… in a place I had discounted on the previous visit

25th April 2010 – One Degree of Separation-Two Trees GC1AN6R  – cache #426
The last cacher had logged this one as missing, so I wasn’t holding out too much hope of finding it. it was supposed to be behind one of the two trees in the title, which are up against a wall so there’s no doubt where it should be.
I couldn’t find the cache behind a tree either, so I kicked around in the dead leaves on the ground and came up with the end of a black plastic tube, which turned out to be an APS film cannister – The cache.
I dug it out of the ground, cleaned the mud off it and rehid it behind the tree… under a stone

25th April 2010 – Final Approach GCWKB8  – cache #427
Next on my list… a cache at teh end of the runway of the airport… and I mean at the end of the runway… no more than 20 yards from the tarmac. Apparently it’s a bit noisy if you’re there when a plane lands, but there was nothing coming in while I was there

25th April 2010 – Greetings Pop Pickers GCVZBN  – cache #428
Another puzzle cache that I had worked out the co-ords to ages ago. This one is a magnetic nano (the one in the headline photograph) but was easy to find as the hint said exactly where it was once you had the right location.

25th April 2010 – Two Finger Tree GC26R3A  – cache #429
A new cache this, only placed earlier in the week. The co-ordinates are 50-60 feet off, but there’s only one tree that matches the description, so it was easy to find the right place. The tree grows on a steep bank which was very slippery after the earlier rain which made it entertaining to get to.

25th April 2010 – A Truckers Delight – A660 – Bert GC23YB7  – cache #430
Some people had said that they had searched for ages to find this cache, a small camo bag with a film cannister in. I was just walking to the cache site and just caught sight of the camo bag out of the corner of my eye, took no time at all to find it.

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