After a rather late Saturday night I woke up in this hotel in Walsall to find it had snowed but the sky was blue and sun was brightly shining… so I went for a little walk round to grab the local caches

19th February 2012 – monkey hills GC22D88 – cache #1409
The first of these was a two part affair, a magnetic nano on a signpost which held the co-ordinates of the final cache. The final co-ordinates were in a stand of trees and GPS signal wasn’t good, so I ended up walking around the outside of the wood then climbing the fence and scrambling down a steep banking to get to the cache.

At this cache I dropped off the Go Far I…. travel bug, (I’d had it for 3 weeks and wasn’t sure I would find another cache big enough to leave a TB in… so even though this cache that hadn’t been found for 4 months previously I thought I should drop it off)

19th February 2012 – buzzards trail 1 GC26YA5 – cache #1410
The next 3 caches were in the same area as GC22D88, an area that used to be railway maintenance depot and storage yards, but has now been ‘countryfied’ and opened to the public as a nature/Wildlife type place. (You put down a few paths, keep the undegrowth under control and keep down the worst of the litter) – The caches are called ‘Buzzards Trail’ because apparently Buzzards live in the area. (It wasn’t a surprise that I didn’t see any)
The first cache was easy to find, hidden under a tree root next to an old manhole.

19th February 2012 – buzzards trail 2 GC26YAF – cache #1411
The second cache was more of a trial, I tried several paths to get from one to the next only to be met by paths that ended in large pools of water… eventually I retraced my steps altogether right to the road, and started in again on a path higher up on the banking. This took me to the right place and a cache again in the tree roots.

19th February 2012 – buzzards trail 3 GC26YAP – cache #1412
The final one of the trail was difficult to locate due to poor GPS coverage, but looking round there were only a couple of obvious places to hide the cache – and it was in the second of them I tried that I found the cache.

19th February 2012 – Millennium Lock GC1E8K8 – cache #1413
After that it was back to the car and along the A38 to the M1 on my way home… stopping of course for a few more caches along the way.
There once was a canal in Lichfield, now there isn’t, however there is a flight of locks and these have been under volunteer restoration for many years…

This cache is a magnetic nano hidden on one of the posts near the lock
… One day the locks will be fully restored and then there’ll still be no canal in Lichfield !

19th February 2012 – This is not a speed camera GC25CNA – cache #1414
There’s a dual carriageway with a parking spot and a footpath on one side… guess where the cache is ? 200yds down the road in the armco barrier on the other side of the road.

19th February 2012 – Darnford Park cache GC2HVWB – cache #1415
Back to traditional finds in Lichfield’s Darnford Park, hidden in the tree roots, covered by a rock – at least it was bigger than a 35mm film tub

19th February 2012 – Fradley Business Park – Lunchtime Diversions 7 GC1YG1W – cache #1416
Another slight diversion off my route home (the A38) brought me into Fradley Industrial Estate and this cache which shoud have been easy to find being on a public footpath, however the public footpath sign did not match the position of the footpath on the OS map and the GPS was putting the cache nowhere near the sign – in fact the cache appeared to be in a field behind a barbed wire fence…
Then I noticed a sign telling that the footpath had been diverted, which sorted all the discrepancies and enabled me to get into the field and walk back to where the cache was.

After this I failed to find Lunchtime Diversions 6 GC1YG0K – The GPS put ground zero in a litter strewn bramble patch, no obvious sign of a cache and I didn’t fancy a fingertip search through the thorns and trash.

19th February 2012 – Sale, Cycle but No Fishing GC2Q1MV – cache #1417
There are a few Roadside caches between Fradley and the A38 at Alrewas, not all have good places to park, but this first one was okay. A very strangely camouflaged cache – in the winter with no leaves on the bushes the camouflage made the cache stand out rather than blend in !

19th February 2012 – Get your fix on Route 54 GC2PAAD – cache #1418
I had to stop in the gateway to a farm for the next cache, fortunately there was no-one wanting to come out or go in. I found the cache in full view just sat in the hedge bottom, I hid it back out of site behind a post

19th February 2012 – Kweens ingerlish GC2PAAX – cache #1419
The previous finder said that this cache had been left out in the open when he found it (maybe it was put out from hiding by the squirrels like the ‘on yer doorstep’ bonus cache was) and so he said he had hidden it better… Well it was hidden under a large pile of stickoflage which made it obvious where the cache was, but at least you couldn’t see it before moving them

19th February 2012 – A Micro in the ivy, why???? – Wander to Alrewas 2 GC2P5FC – cache #1420
The last cache of the day, hidden at head height in the ivy around a tree… around the back of a tree – and I had to wait for a jogger, 3 cyclists and a couple of horseriders to pass before I could come out from behind the tree back onto the road ! It got busy all of a sudden