The Caley Cache Fest organisers had set up a puzzle series – the PAWS Series, and published them a few weeks before the even to give people chance to find them, I had a fun afternoon at work solving them, most were about various aspects of Scotland, some were easy, some of the geographical ones I was able to solve because of previous holidays in Scotland and some just took google and google image search to solve. But I had all the answers ready… as did Bev, so on the Sunday I went off to the forest where the series was located with Firefox3, Clare from the Linedancers and Big Fish. Caches were signed as Team Ted – Ted being the canine part of Firefox3’s team

28th May 2017 – Haggis Highway: Cardrona – GC4V9MW – cache #4307
Having a walk round on a sunny Sunday in Scotland. Came here for the PAWS puzzle series but it would have been rude to ignore the cache in the car park !

28th May 2017 – 01 : Paws For Thought – Welcome to Peebles – GC6ZAER – cache #4308
Start the series with number one, it took a while to find as our GPS’s were giving a large margin of error under the trees and by the steep banking – but we got there in the end

28th May 2017 – 21 : Paws For Thought – The Mountains Are Calling – GC6ZAGM – cache #4309
Rather than do the caches in number order we did them in what we thought to be the best order for walking round, so from Number 1 first we headed here to Number 21 second.

28th May 2017 – 22 : Paws For Thought – Discovery – GC6ZAGQ – cache #4310
Looking at the other team members logs apparently this was a quick easy find for me (they logged on their phones at the time, I logged the caches a fornight later !)

28th May 2017 – 23 : Paws For Thought – Where Am I #5 – GC6ZAGR – cache #4311

28th May 2017 – 24 : Paws For Thought – What’s The Story – GC6ZAGT – cache #4312
The only one of the puzzles that caused me any problem – googling the obvious gave me an answer that didn’t work with the others, but these days we don’t have PAF we have FAC (Facebook a Cacher) so I asked for a hint and was quickly pointed in the right direction

I do wonder how different it looked here when the cache was placed – and whether the damage to the box was done by the forestry work or by over zealous cachers trying to open it !

28th May 2017 – 25 : Paws For Thought – What Am I #3 – GC6ZAGV – cache #4313
Further off the path than we expected, but we got there eventually – well Big Fish did… in the brush, far side of the stream, we let him sign it and waited for him to come back

28th May 2017 – 26 : Paws For Thought – Ally’s Tartan Army – GC6ZAGW – cache #4314
Took a while to find, but we were determined and there were only so many hint matching places so we just fanned out and searched everywhere until we got it

28th May 2017 – 27 : Paws For Thought – Who Is This #4 – GC6ZAH3 – cache #4315

28th May 2017 – 28 : Paws For Thought – Where Am I #6 – GC6ZAHJ – cache #4316

28th May 2017 – 29 : Paws For Thought – There’s been a murder – GC6ZAHM – cache #4317

28th May 2017 – 30 : Paws For Thought – A New Kind Of Log – GC6ZAHN – cache #4318
This was a logarithm based puzzle, just think how you would have had to solve this 50 years ago… out with the slide rules !

28th May 2017 – 31 : Paws For Thought – Where Am I #7 – GC6ZAHP – cache #4319
A Picture puzzle of Eilean Donan castle on Loch Duich, apparently it’s not really Glenfinnan castle on the shores of Loch Shiel… as Connor McCleod told me it was in Highlander

28th May 2017 – 32 : Paws For Thought – Felis silvestris grampia – GC6ZAHR – cache #4320

28th May 2017 – 33 : Paws For Thought – Who Is This #5 – GC6ZAHT – cache #4321
This puzzle took the second longest of all to find the answer to, I knew where the character came from straight away (the policeman in the Oor Wullie cartoon strip), but finding his full title took some searching

28th May 2017 – 34 : Paws For Thought – Where Am I #8 – GC6ZAHV – cache #4322
We were looking for somewhere to stop and have lunch and just by this cache we met a couple of cachers doing the series the other way round (in proper numerical order, unlike us) and they told us of a bench a couple of caches further on with a great view over the valley… so we delayed the lunch stop for a while !

28th May 2017 – 35 : Paws For Thought – The Big Yin – GC6ZAHW – cache #4323

28th May 2017 – 36 : Paws For Thought – Welcome to Craiglang – GC71YGZ – cache #4324
Stopped for lunch on the bench near this cache – lovely view over the valley

28th May 2017 – 37 : Paws For Thought – Where Am I #9 – GC71YH3 – cache #4325
A nice easy puzzle for me as I went there many years ago ! (it was a picture of Smoo Cave)

28th May 2017 – 38 : Paws For Thought – Battle of Renfrew – GC71YH7 – cache #4326

28th May 2017 – 39 : Paws For Thought – You Take The High Road – GC71YHV – cache #4327
Well off the path, but only one item near that matched the hint. So Big Fish and I went down to find it

28th May 2017 – 40 : Paws For Thought – Who Is This #6 – GC71YHZ – cache #4328

28th May 2017 – 41 : Paws For Thought – F‡ilte gu na h-Alba – GC71YJ5 – cache #4329

28th May 2017 – 42 : Paws For Thought – Where Am I #10 – GC71YJ9 – cache #4330
So, we had got here by going from cache 1 to cache 21 then on through the list to 42… now we had 2 to 20 still to find, so on to the next – which was number 14

28th May 2017 – 14 : Paws For Thought – War Bear – GC6ZAGD – cache #4331
Easiest one of the lot to find – as we met other cachers at the cache and they had it in their hands

28th May 2017 – 13 : Paws For Thought – Who Is This #2 – GC6ZAGC – cache #4332
Took a bit of searching around to locate the cache, well it took a bit of searching around to find our way to the cache, doing them in the reverse order meant we weren’t just following a path at 13 so from 14 we headed down the hill on a mountain bike trail and made our way to 13 when we got back onto a major trail

28th May 2017 – 12 : Paws For Thought – Kings of the Picts – GC6ZAFX – cache #4333

28th May 2017 – 11 : Paws For Thought – Stone of Destiny – GC6ZAFW – cache #4334

28th May 2017 – 10 : Paws For Thought – Don’t Come Home Too Soon – GC6ZAFV – cache #4335

28th May 2017 – 09 : Paws For Thought – Hole In One – GC6ZAFT – cache #4336
The most Nettley cache on the trail

28th May 2017 – 08 : Paws For Thought – Where Am I #2 – GC6ZAFR – cache #4337
It might be 263 miles as the crow flies from my house to the bridge pictured in the puzzle, but I recognised the city (Inverness) straight away – I had to google the bridge name though

28th May 2017 – 07 : Paws For Thought – From A to B ? – GC6ZAFN – cache #4338
Oh look, a cachers trail – easy to find the cache then

28th May 2017 – 06 : Paws For Thought – I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) – GC6ZAF9 – cache #4339
you can get fed up with all the hints being the same in a forest (base of tree)!

28th May 2017 – 05 : Paws For Thought – Who Is This #1 – GC6ZAF1 – cache #4340

28th May 2017 – 04 : Paws For Thought – What Am I #1 – GC6ZAF0 – cache #4341

28th May 2017 – 03 : Paws For Thought – Strawberries & Cream – GC6ZAEZ – cache #4342

28th May 2017 – 02 : Paws For Thought – Where Am I #1 – GC6ZAEW – cache #4343
And so we get to the last of the series… 4.5 hours walking around this forest
I am somewhat glad we did these last few in reverse order – I think it must be a lot easier going downhill from 2 to the car park than going up !

28th May 2017 – Caley’s Gameshow Quiz Night – GC6V5WT – cache #4344
Attended the final event of the weekend… and won the quiz – well we were helped by Richlay’s love of pasties so he has intimate knowledge of the Leeds “Cornish Pasty” shop where they have a photograph of the sign at Land’s End that tells you how far it is from Lands End to John O’Groats

It was a long day for me, I walked around the PAWS series in Cardrona Forest during the day, grabbed a kebab on the way back to the campsite, a quick change then straight back to town for the quiz… then after that I drove the 185 miles back home, with a couple of stops for coffee to keep me awake !