For my birthday Angel78 had invited me for a day out with her, so we decided to go to a couple of National Trust places in Cheshire, which is roughly half way between our places of residence. First we went to Little Moreton Hall, which is one of the best (and most complete tudor half timbered houses in the country, and then from there we went to visit the nearby Biddulph Grange Gardens. The National Trust are getting into geocaching in quite a big way, using it as a marketing tool to bring geocachers onto their properties, usually the properties with caches are the ones with big areas of parkland, but this is a 15 acre Victorian ‘formal’ garden, and yet still has it’s set of caches.
I was visiting Biddulph Grange for the first time is 20 years – I thought the plants and trees had grown since then… with Angel 78 who hasn’t been for even longer – she says it all looks much smaller now (though she probably was only little when she came before)
27th April 2013 – Biddulph Grange #3 – The Arboretum & Place To Rest GC30BRJ – cache #2443
We made a meal of finding this one mainly because there had just been a rain shower and neither of us wanted to get our hands in and get wet and dirty !
27th April 2013 – Biddulph Grange #4 – Beyond The Sugar Bowl GC30BPT – cache #2444
Angel78 and I sat on the bench by the Sugar Bowl (an exceedingly large urn) in the sun until the people around had gone away… we nearly stayed there basking !
In the end though we got up, went to the gate and had a quick find – which was good as more people were approaching !
27th April 2013 – Biddulph Grange # 5 – Woodland Walk Mini Stumpery GC30BY4 – cache #2445
Angel78 found this while I was looking on the wrong side of the path… much bigger cache than I expected (and more ‘buried’ than I would have expected too !)
27th April 2013 – Biddulph Grange #1 – The Golden Globes GC30BV9 – cache #2446
This took us a while to find… I was getting GPS reading that said the cache was outside the park, which I didn’t think could be right, so we looked around the gate where the Golden Globes were… then read the last log which said the cache was 20ft inside the gardens
It wasn’t in any of these places, but we did find it in the end !
27th April 2013 – Biddulph Grange #2 – Pinetum Stones GC30BTM – cache #2447
The GPS was all over the place here, Angle78 and I were on top of a mound looking round the roots of a big Yew tree to no avail… then we saw an obvious looking pile of camouflage a few yards away
27th April 2013 – Biddulph Grange #6 – Flowing Over Biddulph Grange GC2GDKQ – cache #2448
After doing the caches inside the gardens we went off to a local pub for lunch, leaving my car in the car park. Angel78 had to leave then so fropped me off back in the car park so before leaving mysekf I walked over to the overflow car park for a fairly straightforward find, though I did wonder what the visitors to the graveyard just the other side of the fence thought about me poking about in the bushes !
27th April 2013 – Biddulph Grange #7 – A Cache In A Bush Is Worth? GC2GDKX – cache #2449
I felt a bit conspicuous walking over the grass and then ducking into a large bush… on a busy Saturday afternoon with cars streaming in and out… but the cache was easy to find
27th April 2013 – Himalayan Walk GC2BRKZ – cache #2450
After having done all the caches in Biddulph Grange I went for a walk in the adjacent country park to find the other local ones. Not as cultivated as the Grange gardens, but the walk along the stream side was very pleasant none the less.
27th April 2013 – Beyond Wellintonia Avenue GCJ917 – cache #2451
The GPS signal was a bit flaky round here so I went with the hint, and then had to use intuition as with all the tree cutting that has gone on around here the hint was as difficult to tie down as the GPS signal !
27th April 2013 – Big Pool , Small Pond GC2F38M – cache #2452
Having read the hint it was pretty obvious where the cache had to be from a long way away. I was suprised at how close this was to “Beyond the Sugar Bowl”, only 160 ft rather than 160yards apart, but I guess the security fence around the gardens means that cachers can’t go as the crow flies, so walking distance is about a mile !
27th April 2013 – Bateman Bridge GC2F38M – cache #2453
This is neither in the Grange gardens or the country park, but the original bridge over the stream (as shown in the photograph) was formerly in the grounds, though now is the other side of the road in somebody’s back garden !
The cache here is a difficult drive by, though it took me only a few seconds to spot it… I guess the camo tape has worn off as I saw it standing out shiny against the dull background
27th April 2013 – Mill Lane trail #7 (the last one) GC3A0HW – cache #2454
As I was driving home up the A34 in no particular hurry, I had planned to do a few drivebys, this series seemed straightforwards, a little loop off the main road with plenty of caches, the first of which was a quick easy find
27th April 2013 – Mill Lane trail #6 GC3A0GW – cache #2455
The second cache on the loop wasn’t much harder – except there wasn’t really a place to pull right off the road, just onto the verge , and as I had to climb a stile and walk along the field side of the hedge to get the cache I was parked there longer than I would have liked
27th April 2013 – Mill Lane trail #2 GC3902F – cache #2456
Cache #5 of the series I could see nowhere to park other than the entrance to the nearby house, cache #4 the nearest parking place appeared to be 100 yards away and again there was a nearby house that I would have to walk past and for cache #3 the cache itself appeared to be in the entranceway to a house – I’ve found this before with ‘drive-by’ caches in Cheshire, a lot seem to be placed overlooked by houses and with nowhere good to park… so I ignore them.
Cache #2 though was easy, a nice wide verge and a tree stump to hide a cache and not a house in sight
27th April 2013 – Mill Lane trail #1 GC38NX2 – cache #2457
Another wide verge that I could pull right off the narrow road onto and a cache that was not too hard to find, though as the cache page warns there were spikes (thorns, barbed wire) and nettles about
27th April 2013 – Skeg to Ness #172 GC240Y1 – cache #2458
This cache was just off the loop I was driving around, so I thought I might as well pop up and get it… but the closeness of the car behind me and the lack of potential turning spots on the narrow road anyway meant I had to drive about a mile to find somewhere to turn round and retrace my way to the cache… which was a quick find in a gateway (avoiding the nettles whoch will be a problem to future finders if they et established)
27th April 2013 – Skeg to Ness #171 GC240Y6 – cache #2459
A prescriptive hint, base of signpost, so an easy find, and with a nice place to park
27th April 2013 – Skeg to Ness #170 GC240YB – cache #2460
So I park my car in the obvious place look at the cache hint and set off to where the cache has to be… search round and find nothing… then realise that the GPS is saying I am 140 ft away from the cache and that there are more than one hint objects !
I have done sections of the S to N series from the M6 to Ness and frm the M1 to Skeggy, but of the section from the M1 to the M6 I have just done three drivebys down this lane… one day I will have to do the rest !
27th April 2013 – Stumpy GC3A0ET – cache #2461
The last cache I did on the loop was a quick drive by find… With a name like that you don’t really need a hint to find it
27th April 2013 – Buckstones Moor #4 – March Haigh View GC251MX – cache #2462
My drive home then took me through Stockport and Oldham where I detoured to drive back over Saddleworth Moor rather than along the motorway, so I could grab a few more caches.
This one was a quick find as I could see the obvious camouflage from the road
After this I didn’t find GC2ME92 say cheese, there is no accuracy to the GPS signal when near a vertical rock face as the satellite feeds get bounced aroud… then you have a hint that says ‘half way up to the left’ you ask half way up which bit ? to the left of what ? 30 minutes scrambling about the rocks, no cache found.
27th April 2013 – Buckstones Moor #3 – Cupwith Hill GC2F6BQ – cache #2463
A descriptive hint, a nice place to park, and I quickly found my last cache of the day
That is now 3 months completely green !
