Caches No’s 218 to 229 – Conference and Genealogy

February 20th 2010 – St Matthew’s – Walsall Church Gems GC1MCXH – Cache #218
Another week goes by, another weekend comes along, and this time Angel78 and me were to be found at a conference in Walsall. Saturday morning while she was ‘busy’ I went for a walk into town to get some essential supplies, I didn’t even have to go more than a few yards out of my way to find this cache, hidden in the undergrowth by a church wall.
For some reason many of the caches in the Midlands are to be found in nylon bags. I suppose this makes them a little more camouflaged, a black or dark green bag doesn’t stand out like a grey click-lock box does, but the cachers elsewhere in the country don’t in general seem to have cottoned on to this idea.

February 20th 2010 – Retail Therapy Therapy!! GC1K2MP – Cache #219
A magnetic nano stuck on the underside of a bench in the middle of the pedestrian precinct in Walsall, the thing is that on a Saturday morning there is a market on in the pedestrian precinct and sitting on the end of the bench where the cache is hidden I could reach out and touch the nearest market stall, so it was a case of trying to look inconspicuous while I signed the log.

February 20th 2010 – Side tracked Walsall GC1K2MJ – Cache #220
I did my bit of shopping and was heading for the War Memorial taking a short cut through the Shopping Centre when I suddenly noticed that my GPS was indicating that I was near to this cache. SO a short detour took me out to the front of the station to this cache. The cache is a magnetic box hidden on the back of a street sign, the street sign had a bicycle chained to it, nearby three men were unloading some furniture from a van, and there were quite a lot of people around the station on a Saturday morning
It took a bit of stealth to avoid looking like I was stealing the bike and avoid being seen by the furniture removing men while finding the cache… and then again to put it back after retreating a safe distance to sign the log.

February 20th 2010 – Walsall War Memorial GC1MYF1 – Cache #221
Finding a cache hidden in a raised flower bed in a town centre is not the easiest of things to do, apart from the constant stream of public walking past you also have to accept that the first 20 things you see that you think are the hidden cache are actually just crisp packets, sandwich wrappers, drinks bottles and the usual detruitus that gets deposited by people too thoughtless as to walk an extra 5 yards to the nearest litter bin.

February 20th 2010 – Little Blue – Walsall Church Gems GC1MCZ4 – Cache #222
In the lunch break of the Conference Angel78 and I took a friend, Erik, out to show him what caching was all about, fortunately there were 2 caches only a few hundred yards from the hotel so we went looking for them, the first was an easy to find magnetic box, I think Erik was impressed at how easily we assessed the location as we walked up to it and “knew” where the cache was from experience… We didn’t look so impressive trying to get the log back in the box after singing it !

After this we tried and failed to find GC1MYHF – Don Quixote / Walsall Windmill, we know we were in the right place but the cache was missing – it should have been hidden in one of about a dozen small holes in a wall at ground level… Erik had a torch on his keyring, so Angel78 and I let him crawl around on the floor peering into the holes while we acted as lookouts for other people using the path.

February 21st 2010 – Paddy’s Cut! GC1ZHEY – Cache #223
Sunday Morning and I wasn’t booked in for the second day of the conference, I had some photographs to take in the Dudley area for the Genealogy project of streets and houses where my ancestors had lived in the mid 19th Century.
This cache was a quick drive-by, easy to find, but a bit muddy underfoot
At this cache I dropped off the Yorkshire Geocoin

February 21st 2010 – Dudley bypass bridge. GC206EJ – Cache #224
A magnetic 35mm Film Cannister hidden on a footbridge over a dual carriageway. It’s a well camouflaged little beast cos even though it is stuck in a place that is quite visible from the ground 25′ below under the bridge it is still difficult to see even when you know exactly where it is

February 21st 2010 – supermarket sweep series, tipton #1 GC1ZEJF – Cache #225
Driving back to the M5 from Dudley the GPS said I was coming up on this one, it’s a bit nasty to find, behind a fencepost suspended on a wire in a place that is totally impossible to see so you have to put your hand around the post and find the wire.

February 21st 2010 – Behind The Bandstand GC20PB2 – Cache #226
A box hidden in a black and red nylon bag in the ivy under a tree in a park, easy enough to find, hard to find without being overlooked by dog walkers, kids on bikes etc etc
At this cache I collected the Travelbug TB2JH48 – Ponci’s Travel Bug

February 21st 2010 – SideTracked – Hednesford GC1JKVH – Cache #227
Another photograph I was taking was of a house on Sation Road Hednesford, not a right long way away from this cache ! 35mm container hidden in the bottom of a tree… maybe it should have been hidden by a stone, but I think it had been found by a member of the public as it was just left out in full view of anyone who happened to be walking past on the path. As the place was covered in snow I couldn’t hide it very well as I couldn’t see where it should be hidden, so I just camouflaged it as best I could

February 21st 2010 – Motorway Mayhem M6 Stafford Services Northbound GC10K9H – Cache #228
Yet another 35mm cannister, this time hidden behind an advert hoarding at the entrance to the service station carpark.
Apart from the number of people & cars coming in and out of the place it was difficult to be inconspicuous as I was leaving footprints in the snow across the grass to the cache site, fortunately there were other footprints a few feet further away so I wondered around a bit disguising my trail !

February 21st 2010 – Scooby Snax GC10PE7 – Cache #229
Getting fed up road works on the M6 I turned onto the adjacent A50 and made one last drive by cache stop to pick up this cache. Again hidden at the base of a tree in the ivy, but a bit bigger than a film can !

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