Pip and I started the trail from the northern end of Paulton, a town about 8 miles south west of Bath. I parked the car in the free car park near the start of the trail and then followed the path through some new houses being built on the site of the former Purnell’s print works which closed in 2006.

There were a few caches along the path, but it wasn’t too long before we joined “The Limestone Link”, a long distance route of 36 miles long, joining the Limestone of the Cotswold to that of the Mendip hills.

View from Langfords Lane towards Paulton

It was a nice woodland path along side a little brook, but we weren’t on it for long before we had to turn off and climb a small hill to reach Langford’s Lane.  Along the very quiet road were some great views looking back over the northern end of Paulton.

After a few more caches, I caught up with a group of other cachers, including the Somerset Smurfs who owned the Chilcompton Charms, and Up and Down on Cock Hill series that I had completed a few weeks ago. I joined their group and we walked the rest of the series together.

View over Paulton

After leaving the road section, we took a footpath which slowly lead us up hill and eventually we reached caches 16 and 17 from which there were some great views across the rooftops of Paulton. The local cachers had a great time locating places that were familiar when they grew up in the area.

At no. 19 we took a detour, down monger lane to pick up a few other caches including one called “Black Mountain Views” which was placed near to a volcano shaped slag heap known locally as “The Batch” and is reminder of the coal mining industry that once was so important to the region.

After our detour we rejoined the series and continued along “Bince’s Lodge Lane” to no.23 where there were yet more great views from the top of Welton Hill across the Midsomer Norton.  This was the most southerly part of the series and from here we turned back towards Timsbury.

Walking down hill from Emma's Not so Lonely Cache!

The next batch of caches continued to take us northwards along “Broadway Lane”, which is another quiet road that eventually brought us to “Emma’s not so lonely cache“, I think this may have been renamed since the series was placed!

We took a gentle downward walk to Upper Radford, unfortunately our navigation skills let us down and on a couple of occasions we found ourselves on the wrong side of the fence. At Upper Radford we took another little detour to “La Valle Verte” which was  a very suitable description for the cache.

View from the top of Timsbury Bottom towards the Mendip Mast

By this point it felt like we were on the final leg of our long walk, but first, one final detour, this time up a very steep hill called “Timsbury Bottom” to find “Half a Tree and you can see the Mendip mast” rather a mouthful and a bit of a climb, but the best views of the day.  We were all pretty tired by the time we reached the top so we took a 5 minute rest stop before the easier walk back down the hill.

We soon picked up the trail and rejoined “The Limestone Link” for the final few caches of the series.

The weather was beautiful, the company was great and caching fantastic, everything required for a fabulous day out.

REDs Tour Of Paulton

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For my second day in Warwickshire, I planned a route that combinded 3 of HKMHill’s series into a kind of double figure of eight route.  The weather had not improved much at all from the previous day but at least we started in the dry.

We began the day from Great Alne. It was quite busy along the footpath leading away from the pub, it would seem this is the place of choice for the local muggles out on their morning walks.

Tethered Gypsy Horses

Leaving Great Alne, we headed east towards Aston Cantlow, collecting the first 7 caches in the GAW series. I had to give number 4 a miss because a security guard was on duty very close by. He was there to stop gypsies from entering with their caravans onto the land, they had already managed to tether their horses. I found out from the HKMHill when I logged my finds that the guard was aware of the cache!

Looking back down the hill from Rough Hills wood

Just south of Aston Cantlow we crossed through a caravan holiday park which was buzzing with muggles on an Easter Egg hunt. It was at this point we switched onto the AC series, but the first cache was right at the entrance to the park so required a lot of stealth.

New born lambs in the fields around Aston Cantlow

We completed the AC series collecting all the clues for the bonus as we went along. The series took us uphill to the sound of the church bells which rang out as we walked.  We went up hill, through Rough Hills wood and down the other side to Newnham and then back into Aston Cantlow.

Village Hall at Aston Cantlow

We stopped in Aston Cantlow and eat our lunch whilst working out the co-ordinates for the bonus cache in the AC series. In the heart of the village is a 16th century village hall and parish church which we passed on the way to the bonus.

We rejoined the GAW series at number 8 and headed south through Aston Grove woods then onto to Walcote.

Church at Haselor

When we reached Walcote, we briefly left the GAW series once again to find the 7 letterbox caches belonging to Part two of the Animal Letterbox series.  This was a nice little series from Walcote to Upton and back again. On the route we passed St Mary and All Saints Church which sits right on top of the hill at Haslor.

Great Alne Mill

Back at Walcote, we walked through the village with some very nice and large properties to the entrance of the church on the other side of the hill. From here we went north and crossing the River Alne, we arrived at Great Alne Mill, which are now luxury apparments but was once a working water mill. From here it was just a short walk through some paddocks back to the car at Great Alne.

In total we walked just for just over 5 1/2 hours and although the weather wasn’t the best it didn’t rain too much. All the caches on the trail have been placed by HKMHill and the 3 individual series combined together provided and excellent day’s caching.

Great Alne and Aston Cantalow Geocache Trails

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I was in the area camping over the Easter weekend when I completed this trail.  Over recent years we have had nice warm sunny weather, however this weekend it was forecast to be damp and dreary and it certainly started off that way on this trail. With 9.5 miles of footpath and 40 caches to be found ahead of me, I went prepared for whatever the elements could through at me and took my trusted geo partner, Pip the geohound along with me.

Quick history lesson before we start, the whole series centres around an ancient Roman area called Hobditch. At Deans Green, is an embankment known as the Hob Ditch Causeway. The name, Hob Ditch, appears on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map, 1831. Excavations in the area in the late 1960s apparently revealed evidence of Romano-British occupation and the Hob Ditch Causeway is believed to be a Roman Road.

Railway Crossing at Dean's Green

The series can be broken into 3 loops so after parking the car up on the grass verge at the side of a quiet lane, we headed off across some paddocks and crossed a railway line at Dean’s Green and then walked around northern loop.

We had to wait for the muggle farmer to feed the sheep before getting the cache here.

After the northern loop we retraced our steps, crossing back over the railway line and heading north east as far as Mows Hill Farm, walking parallel to the Hobditch and crossing under the railway line this time. The north east loop is almost a figure of eight and brought us to Botley Mill stables where we had to cross a field containing a herd of cows.

As we entered the field and started walking across it towards the railway line the cows saw us and started running in our direction, it was a bit scarey at the time but we stayed calm and crossed the field slowly. After I shouted at them, they stopped advancing on us for long enough for us to get out of the field on the other side.

Daisy and her mates, more were around the corner!

Catastrophe avoided, we crossed the railway line at Blunt’s Green and headed south west towards the 3rd loop. On the way we passed by our parked car and sat in for lunch before setting off to complete the last 10 or 11 caches of the series.  The last loop took us towards the village of Ullenhall and around to Mockly Manor, this loop involved several road sections but there were very few cars along them to worry about.

This is a great series and a fabulous full days geocaching. It is clear to see that a lot of effort has gone into the series and I loved the novelty caches along the route which made a change from the norm.

Hobditch Hunt Geocache Trail

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As the title of the series says this is a charming series starting and finishing in the village of Chilcompton, Somerset.  This was my second series of the day in the area, as I had traveled some distance and the weather was great, I wanted to make the most of my time here.

I parked outside the co-op in the village which was quite handy for picking up a quick bite to eat before heading out on the trail.  The series owner, The Somerset Smurfs, provided some great directions to the the first cache and then guided us around the walk.

River Somer through "The Street"

Chilcompton is split in two by a small river/brook and and a now disused railway, the walk began along side the brook then eventually lead us to “The Street” where the River Somer flows alongside the road. The river is formed from a series of springs on the western side of Chilcompton.

From Chilcompton the river flows in a north easterly direction to an­d through Midsomer Norton where it joins the Wellow Brook, which flows through Wellow and joins the Cam Brook at Midford to form Midford Brook before joining the River Avon close to the Dundas Aqueduct and the remains of the Somerset Coal Canal.  We had our first DNF of the series along this stretch and it subsequently turned out to have gone missing.

Walking along the disused railway

After a short walk along side the river, we headed up hill across farmland to reach a disused railway. This section used to be a double track of the Somerset and Dorset railway.

Downside Abbey

The next section of trail took us around the boundary of the stunning Downside Abbey, a Catholic Benedictine monastery and the Senior House of the English Benedictine Congregation. Adjacent to the Abbey is school for children aged nine to eighteen. Unfortunately, I had another dnf along this section.

As I walked along the main road, I got my first proper glimpse of the Abbey through the main gates, it is quite impressive I have to say.

Forget about the Petrol Shortage - worry about the beer!

We visited this area at time of the petrol crisis and when there was a lot of panic buying going on, so it was quite amusing to see the landlord of the pub suggesting that there was a also a beer shortage!

Downside Abbey & School

The next couple of caches were located around the western side of the Abbey and school from where you get the best overall view of the size of the building. It was a weekend so there were not too many people about the area. This section is definitely the highlight of the series in my opinion.

Cache 13 took us completely off track and up a very steep hill and back down the other side and is an optional deviation within the series.  The OS map has it down as a disused tip and there were some great views at top. The cache was called “The Alternative Coal Cache” ans a little bit of Googling when I got back turned up that the area had quite a big surface coal mining business at one time.  After this detour the remainder of the series lead us back to Chilcompton.

Although I had more than my fair share of DNF’s (3 in total) it was still a very enjoyable series with some interesting features, most notably of course being Downside Abbey.

Chilcompton Charms Geocache Trail

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I completed this series in April but haven’t had time to update my blog for a while. I arrived in the area quite early so it was still quite crisp but it was looking like it was going to be a sunny day ahead. At the parking spot I took the opportunity to grab a quick C & D to get my eye in.

Heading out from Benter Cross passing an unusual water trough!

The series begins from Benter Cross, a little hamlet south of Stratton-on-the-fosse along the top of a hill side which was still wet from the early morning dew. The trail takes you north west towards and around Cock Hill stone quarry, along ‘Gurneyslade Bottom’ along ‘T’Other side the Hill’, to Neighbourne and back to Benter.  These are all names recognised by Ordnance Survery, check them out on the map!

Following the Stream - but were we right to?

There was one short section through a wood betwen caches 6 & 8 where I thought I had taken the wrong path as we didn’t appear to be tracking the one on the OS map. But, it seems all paths lead to GZ so I need not have worried about it.

I think we are safe!

Caches 10 – 14 were a blast! They guided us around the top of Cock Hill stone quarry which fortunately was quiet today, then down the hill to Gurney Slade where we briefly passed the entrance to the quarry.

Heading Back to Benter

The last stretch of the walk took us through several fields, some contained sheep so Pip had to go back on the lead. I had to skip one of the caches along here due to several muggles nearby chatting, never mind. We arrived at Benter leaving us quite a steep uphill climb back to Benter Cross and the finish point.

This is a lovely series and we enjoyed it, but if you have a dog some of the stiles are not that easy to get them through. Overall though it’s a lovely location and a great series. You can combine it with the Chilcompton Charms series and do them both in one go, or do as I did and do them as separate series.

Up & Down on Cock Hill Geocache Trail

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Start of the Trail

This wonderful series is called Life Begins.., it is a nostalgic, autobiographical look back over first 40 years of Simply Paul’s life. There are 41 caches in the series including a bonus that starts and finishes in the village of Steeple Claydon where he lived for 9 years of his early childhood and has fond memories. The trail is very cleverly put together looping back through the village on a couple of occasions, so plenty of opportunity to break the trail down and do over a few visits.

I loved the way that this series has been put together, each cache represents a year in the life of Simply Paul, the caches pages contain interesting snippets of information about his childhood experiences and reminders of what was happening in the wider world in the same year.  Unfortunately though the stories stop at 1983 when he got to the age of 12, which is a real shame as this is a great idea.

Pip on the Varsity Line

The trail is set along varying terrain including footpath, roads and also partly of the disused railway line dubbed the “Varsity Line or “Brain Line” because it was a route between Oxford and Cambridge, but which was closed in the aftermath of the restructuring of Britain’s railways by Dr Richard Beeching in the 1960s. This section ceased to be used for passenger traffic in 1967 but continued to be used for freight carry refuse to the landfill site at Calvert into the 1980′s. All that remains of Claydon station now is the platform but this line is set to be revived in 2017 under the £250m East West Rail scheme.

All Saints Church, Hillesden

The trail starts from Steeple Claydon with a multi cache the goes south and along the disused railway then back up through the village passing the Parish Church and another multi-cache.  The multi-cache leads you Northwards out of the village through the countryside to the village of  Hillesden, passing the 100 acre deer park and the medieval church, built in 1493 and saved from the ravages of the English Civil War, however the scares of Cavalier bullet holes can still be seen in its door.

A 1 mile completely straight path leads you down hill from Hillesden towards Kings  Kingsbridge Farm. During the Civil War when Charles I was fleeing from Cromwell’s army he crossed the brook at a point near the farm hence the name “Kingsbridge”,  we crossed this bridge on the way to the way back to Steeple Claydon.

Once back in Steeple Claydon a third and final multi took lead us back out of the village again head south west this time to bring us back onto the railway line for a second time, before returning back up hill with good sight lines of the church steeple.  There is a bonus cache that can be found but you will need to be able to answer questions to a general knowledge quiz.  A great series, that I found very interesting on and off the trail.

Life Begins Geocache Trail

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Let me start by saying this is one of the best trails that I have ever done, save it for a warm, sunny day, take a picnic and enjoy it. Fine views, lovely countryside and several fine examples of Cotswold villages.

Snowshill Village

For this trail, we parked in the National Trust car park at the far end of Snowshill, it may be some way from the first cache on the series but it’s a perfect place to start. From the car park we enjoyed the walk through the village, passing the village pub and the church along the way, it is a wonderfully well preserved Cotswold village.After walking through the village we were soon on to the Snowshill Scramble trail, no.1 was a nice quick find to start with. I always love my trips to the Cotswolds and right from the off I had a very good feeling that series was not going to disappoint.

From no.1 it was a gentle walk up the road and past a guest house with painted sheep in the garden and real sheep in the fields penned in by traditional Cotswold dry stone walling. After a short walk along the road, we turned onto a track and were soon out in the Cotswold countryside. We somehow managed to completely miss a gate or stile onto a footpath and had no way of getting out of the field, apparently this is quite common according to a passing horse rider and to prove the point a mountain biker appeared behind me wondering where she had gone wrong!

Lidcombe Wood

We found our way back onto the correct path and then turned into the wood where Pip could run off the lead for the first time on the trip.  I had to hang back a bit and let a muggle get ahead of me, something that I found I had to do quite a bit throughout the walk; it seemed like the sunny weather had bought everyone out!

The next section of the trail was up hill and by the time I reached the top, I was really feeling quite warm and I was a little out of breath but the reward was some nice view.  Another quick find at the top before entering Lidcombe Wood meant that at this stage we had found 7 caches .

After picking up the “Twill Surely Rain” cache on the north side of the wood, we had to double back to pick up the trail through the wood from the Northwest corner through the South West corner. It was a gentle downhill trek which was a little slippery along a sand and stone path.

The peace was quickly shattered by the banging of the hydraulic ram that is used to power the fountain at Stanway House, I can’t believe that they can’t make a quieter one!  Fortunately the noise from the pump soon disappeared as we walked along the bridle way and uphill again. There were more fine views across the valley and Papermill farm, on the way we passed the outflow from the pool in Lidcombe Wood that used to feed the former mill on the Stanway estate.

Stanway House

Eventually, we left the wood and walked down B4077 a short way before picking up the Cotswold Way National Trail at Stanway. We passed through a very unusual carved swan kissing gate at the approach to the village, the first one I’ve seen quite like this. The sun was shining on it which had brought out the ladybirds, at least a dozen of them.

Stanway is a lovely village typical of the Cotswold but the 17^th Century Stanway house and neighboring church dominate the village.  We continued through the village and into parkland, which would be a nice place to stop for lunch but not for us, although we did have to take a seat to let some very sloooooow muggles pass us so we could retrieve the cache. Its lovely parkland and the views got better as we walked up the hill.

Stott Lantern, Stanton

We followed the Cotswold Way taking in the fine views until we reached the village of Stanton another good example of a Cotswold village, there was also a nice looking pub here that looked very busy. From Stanton we briefly left the Cotswold way and embarked on a mile uphill climb, which seemed to go on for longer but we did get to see some of the best views of the series.

The final stretches of the trail were all downhill and yes some more fine views over Snowshill village. This trail took so much longer than I had planned for several reasons, firstly the views, which were fantastic,  then there were the Cotswold villages of Snowshill, Stanway & Stanton, which were so interesting. Thirdly, the muggles, which were so plentiful, the change in weather had most definitely brought them out and finally, the tricky hides, of which there were several. Save this series for a nice day, take a picnic and enjoy it. This is one  the best walks for a while.

Snowshill Scramble Geocache Trail

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Bremhill Village

After completing the Cherhill series in the morning Pip and I decided to head over to Bremhill and also complete this little series as it has been on our list for a while. We parked in the small village beside the gate to the church yard. We started the trail by walking through the church yard, passing the impressive church and leaving through a little gate that leads into the countryside and the top of Dumb Post Hill with some great views, it was a little cloudy but we could still appreciate it. Dumb Hill is a small hamlet containing an 18th century inn of rubble stone with a tile roof. It got its name because there was originally just a post for a sign to the hamlet with no name on it.

Unfortunately number 2 is archived so we headed to number 3 so quite a long stretch without a cache. First of all it was down hill (nice and easy) then into the field.  As we walked across  the field there were more fantastic views and we even spotted an otter, a bit bigger than normal so don’t know what they eat, then it was into a little wood where we spotted two deer, a goat and a couple of brown bears, we just couldn’t believe it. They all were very friendly and Pip didn’t know quite what to make of them. I was a bit worried by the sign by the cache warning us to take care and stick to the path due to archery practice! I hope the wildlife got away!

Dumb Post Inn

The next field was home to a herd of cows, but thankfully they were occupying part of it so we nervously passed through.  Most of them were feeding in the middle but one huge beast stood blocking our exit through the gate. We got within a walking pole’s distance of her but she let us pass without any problems, but I kept one eye on her as I found the cache and signed the log. This stretch of the trail was along the top of Wick Hill with some great views on a fine day.

The monument to Maud Heath sits high on the top of Wick Hill and as you would expect there is a cache nearby. I was passing by so close that I thought I’d pop by and see Maud, she looked a bit cold so high up. People around these parts like putting columns on top of hills don’t they? I had no problem locating the cache and then admired the views before heading back to the road.

If you go down into the woods today.........

This was a pleasant walk over the top of the hills and some lovely views. Pip needed to stay on lead for a fair amount of the walk but she didn’t mind and enjoyed herself when she was able to run about. I really enjoyed this walk; I think it is the views that made it so special oh and seeing two black bears in the wood!

Bremhill & Back Geocache Trail

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Village Church and start of the series

I can’t believe that it has taken me quite so long to get out and do this wonderful little series. It was good to come back to the village of Cherhill because it is such a lovely place. I was out with Pip the geodog again and parked in ‘The Street’ near the church.   Having Pip with me, I was a little worried that roughly half the series takes you along roads but as it turned out they are quiet lanes and mainly running through the village with very few cars.

The first cache was near the parking spot, then it we set off up “The Street” then we turned on to a concreted track leading to a dairy farm at the end.  It wasn’t long up the track that we caught our first of many glimpses of the Cherhill Monument and White Horse chalk carving.

Character cottages in the village

Once past the dairy farm there was a short walk across the top of a hill with some great views before we dropped back down onto a woodland path to bring us back into the village along “Marsh Lane” and then back onto “The Street”, I think there were only 1 or 2 cars that drove past.

As we walked back through the village I couldn’t help but admire all the individual cottages, including the Old Smithy and Old Post Office.  A lovely little series along a mixture of country lanes and footpaths. The caches were quick to find but well hidden and a lot of effort has gone into making this a very enjoyable series. Definitely one I’d recommend.

Charming Cherhill Geocache Trail

It was a nice sunny morning back at home in Swindon so I decided to do a spot of Geocaching but by the time I got things organised and arrived at the start I think the best of the day had gone, but still perfectly good enough for Geocaching.

Village Hall

The Moonraker series had been placed over a period of time last year and now forms 16 caches on a circular route.  Adjacent to the Moonraker series is Ring Around the Docks, a smaller series of 7 caches including a bonus.  With only a small bit of back tracking it is possible to combine the two series to make a total of 25 caches including a few extra caches along the route.

We started the trail at Moonraker 1, where the first cache was only yards from the car parking spot.  First of all the route enabled us to find Moonraker 1 – 9, plus Little bridges 12 and Five Lanes before switching onto the Ring around the Docks an older series placed in 2008.  My plan was to find all the Ring Around the Docks caches and collect the clues for the bonus, but unfortunately no.1 was missing and we seemed to have missed out no.6 so we were not able to find the bonus on this occasion which was a shame.

Keeping a watchful eye!

After Ring Around the Docks no. 5, we went through the small but spacious village of Poulshot where one of the Red Boxes caches can be found, a very quick and simple multi. There were a few character buildings in the village and an interesting manikin outside somebody’s house.

The trail almost the whole way around was very wet and muddy today, the snow from the weekend had melted and the ground had thawed making it quite slippery and hard going in places. However, I thought that it was a very interesting and enjoyable trail despite conditions on the ground not being ideal. Good boots are a must at this time of year.

The whole trail took in total just about 3 1/5 hours to get around them all and despite lots of mud which I came prepared for it was a great afternoons Geocaching.

Moonraker & Ring Around the Docks Geocache Trail

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