Millennium Country Park - Geocache

Having two visitors come and see us in Bedford this weekend, Matt and Adam. We decided to explore the local area and headed out for the Millennium Country Park in Bedford (or near)? I completely forgot to take pictures during this journey but luckily Matt had his camera. He may not have taken pictures of every cache we did but I'll use what I have to show our caching journey.

MVT Tree Man Letterbox (Stewartby)

The first cache has no hint, most of the caches in this area are explained in the name of the cache so you can easily find what you're looking for. This took us a while to find because we assumed the bird box was, well, a bird box. Never assume when geocaching. This was Adam's first ever find so congrats, Adams first cache and find!

This cache had a stamp inside but we hadn't bought any ink, it was a damp log but space inside to write in. It was a great hide, I just hope no little birds have tried to get inside to make a home only to be pushed out by a cache! 

MVT Bobbies (Stewartby)

All these caches are nice little hides, hidden among objects and luckily we found this little guy while moving some logs off the cache. He's a small little salamander guarding the cache and protecting it from Muggles!

Moving on!

MVT Horse Trail (Stewartby)

 This one we had to do a little "navigating" to get too.. Probably best for little ones or those that don't mind crawling along to reach the cache. Matt stayed behind so no actual cache pictures but Lewis retrieved a Kinder Egg toy because it looked exactly the same as the car on Matt's Sat Nav, so now it is stuck inside his car. Luckily it was a dry day for shimmying through.

MVT Bark Off (Stewartby)

 Finding this cache just by pushed this tree support, with no tree actually inside. An easy find but more venturing into bushes.

MVT Bluebird in a palm tree (Stewartby)

At first we thought this cache has been muggled as there were suspicious holes around the front area, the cache is found round the back, full but found!  

MVT 20 Jurassic Park (Stewartby)

 This is a great cache, hidden under a pile of logs, we got Matt singing the theme tune to Jurassic Park as we made the discovery!

Again we were greeted with a protector, a toad. It was very suitable considering Toads are quite dinosaur like.. ish.

MVT Caution! Crossing Point (Stewartby)

This last cache we did (but definitely not the last cache in this series) is the smallest of the finds yet. We actually couldn't sign the log because the log was so squashed into the tube we couldn't retrieve it. 

After this cache you can carry on the path and follow up until you can either turn left or right. Right takes you back to the car park whereas left can take you on to the next loop of caches round the lake. The route we took is about 2.2 miles and took us roughly an hour and 45 minutes, stopping to look for caches. It's a very nice route, nice even terrain despite some caches requiring ducking and crawling. Nice to discover a new area and will head back with Lewis sometime to finish the loop!

Scent - Geocaching in Bedford

I haven't been caching in quite some time but just took a stroll in Bedford Park to find a cache. It was such a great cache I had to make a quick post about it. It's just off the edge of the park, backing onto the tennis courts. You're nice and concealed so you can search without anyone watching! Finding the cache took us about 10 minutes, rummaging around in the undergrowth. 

Lewis found the cache and opened up the box, inside is a puzzle. A scent based puzzle! You're presented with 10 scents 0-9 and you have to find the correct smells to correspond with their number. 

We figured out the combination and managed to retrieve the Geocoin, Best of British inside! It's traveled around the world at least once so hopefully we can move it on when we go to Somerset in a couple of weeks!

If you're ever around Bedford this cache is definitely worth checking out, although you'll need a good sense of smell. Not worth attempting if you have a blocked nose!

Walberton - Geocache

We headed out to Walberton at lunch time so that we could try out the local pub. We had planned a lot of caches today so needed to fill our bellies! Walberton is a village in West Sussex; it only contains three Traditional caches and one Mystery. The only pub in the village is The Holly Tree. 

The outside is very charming and if you plan on stopping for something to eat while caching here (despite there not being many) this is well worth a visit. 

 I actually remembered to take a picture of the food this time! My pie was FULL of steak and not just small pieces of beef; these were big chunks cooked so nicely. Lewis' burger was pretty big and you could tell it was handmade fresh purely because of the shape and size. Really nice food and average pub pricing. My Steak and Ale pie was £11 and I think the fish and chips were the same price. Lewis burger was around £11 too. Staff were very friendly so I recommend stopping by for lunch or dinner.

On to caching! 

Piggy Cache

We parked in the village community hall's car park, free to do. The first cache was about 650 meters away from the car park located in some fields. The day was quite warm for a British Winter but quite muddy too. The first cache was very easy to spot, it's a larger ammo box full of all sorts! Great cache for kids.

 Doesn't Lew look lovely? 😎

Roman Villa - Walberton

Of course Lewis would pick a cache that was Roman related, you can see that the site of the Villa is very open; with a view far and wide all the way round. With Roman buildings the idea was to be on open plain or a site where you had a vantage point to the surrounding area. if I have Listened to Lewis correctly it was key that you could see all around you in case of attack, they couldn't sneak up on you!

You can see a lot of flint as you walk along the field as well as newer grass were recent trenches for excavating had been. Walking towards the cache Lewis picked up a piece of Roman tile (most likely roof); you can tell it's Roman because the clay isn't baked red all the way through. 

Upon approaching the tree you had to explore it to find the cache, It's attached to some string so it's required to dig your hand inside and pull it out. Favourite point for sure.

Church Micro 871 St. Mary's, Binsted.

Continuing along the path you reach a nice steep hill with a church at the top! The cache is located just outside the church grounds, and is the smallest cache in this village. It was a easy find and surprisingly nice and dry. This cache does take you through a golf course so keep your eyes open for an over head balls!

After this cache you can head back the same way and easily follow the roads back to the car park. I once again forgot to reset the GPS but we were most likely walking for 1.5-2 hours. I calculated 2.08 miles but that's with straight lines unlike the paths actually traveled being quite windy and around fields. By this time my FitBit was around 6400 steps at a guess. 

We did then travel to Firmile Bottom in Arundel which we planned to collect 2 series but as it was getting dark we collected 2 caches of one series that were far out and plan on the rest of the series another Saturday!

The River Run at Arundel - Geocache

Heading over to Arundel to build up some caches again, doing the series that runs round the Arundel. We thought it would be nice to do as it was also the day of  Arundel by Candlelight. So we thought we'd do the series in reverse and end up in the town to see the Christmas market and when returning to the car, retrieve the rest. I shall be posting the caches in the order that we did them to save myself getting confused!

The River Arun at Arundel Amble #9 - Home Run 1

The first cache is located at a bridge running over the river, it's a nice spot to start a walk! I actually keep forgetting to take pictures of the actual place we visit which is pretty silly as it's so nice to visit. 

The River Arun at Arundel Amble #8 - Tributary

We couldn't find this cache at all, the co-ordinates are off and tells you it's in a field that you can't get into. After reading comments people agree they're off and to back track. We searched the whole path and every tree with no luck at all. Quite disappointing! 

The River Arun at Arundel Amble #7 - Sneaky Sluice

This cache is very easy to find, it's so obvious in fact that I have no idea how it's stayed hidden. Just shows people don't really pay attention to their surroundings!

The River Arun at Arundel Amble #6 - Rosy

This cache lays just down the bank a little!

The River Arun at Arundel Amble #5 - Tufty

Lewis openly admitted he likes seeing his face on my blog, how vain is that? ;)

The hint for this cache states that it can be found opposite the red sign on the other side of the river, we definelly, couldn't see a red sign but it was easy enough to find with a huge piece of expanded foam and a pen sticking out. saying "Take this pen"... 

The River Arun at Arundel Amble #4 - Fence Post 2

A nice container that blends in!

The River Arun at Arundel Amble #3 - Fence Post 1

The cache is supposed to be located at a fence post, the fence post is no longer around and the cache is probably too obvious to spot. This could easily be found by passers by...

The River Arun at Arundel Amble #2 - Meander

Unfortunately it appeared this cache has been taken or lost. The location was easy to spot but alas the cache was no where in sight, with other previous people agreeing we moved on and have tagged this cache for maintenance. 

The River Arun at Arundel Amble #1 - Bon Voyage!

A little pot in a little place...

The River Arun at Arundel Amble #10 - Home Run 2

Slightly off the main path but still easy to find, especially sporting that bright yellow colour!

arundel amble halfway shortcut

Although we didn't take the short cut we didn't want to leave one out of the series, this seemed like the most visited log book even though its completely of the course! 

It was a shame that two of the caches couldn't be found as it means we have an incomplete series which bothers me! I don't like looking at the map and seeing an unfinished series of smiley faces! Although there are still more caches to be found around Arundel so we'd be visiting again in the future and hopefully they'll be fixed by then! The series is estimated to take an hour (not sure if that includes the halfway) I didn't track the time as we went into Arundel as well. It definitely a nice walk and an easy series of caches. Hopefully it gets fixed up so that others can enjoy it!

Winkle Walk - Geocache

Me and Lewis decided to do a small series of caches that were recommended to us by Kashpop. The series is found in Southbourne (or Nutbourne I'm not really sure as it's located directly between the two villages but heads into Southbourne!) *note this is Southbourne of Chichester not Dorset. We visited a local pub, The Traveller's Joy, for lunch before which was quite a nice meal. Forgot to take pictures but the portions are great and it's usual pub prices! It was nice to have a warm meal before we headed out into the slight drizzle of British November weather. 

#1 Winkle Walk

The first cache took longer to spot than usual for a magnetic, mainly due to the height of the cache. As you can see the sign is quite high up so it involved stepping back and jumping to see the cache! 

#2 Winkle Walk

 A clever little cache, hidden inside the rock itself! Surprisingly nice and dry.

#3 Winkle Walk

 This cache took us longer to find, looking at the logs you'll see a lot of "DNF" because it's not too easy to find a rock along a shoreline.. especially when it's autumn and all the leaves have fallen and grass grows brown. We had to navigate a bit but found the cache in the end!

#4 Winkle Walk

 Nice and easy cache to see if you're looking for it! 

#5 Winkle Walk

 Quite a nice sized container, surprisingly very dry too. Not well hidden but I don't think any passer by would notice if they were just taking a stroll through the narrow lane. This cache does take you about 30m off course so you do have to back track afterwards. 

#6 Winkle Walk

A nice little camo bag for this cache, there are 2 trees to choose from but it doesn't take long to find the suspicious pile of sticks!

#7 Winkle Walk

 Last but not least, a large container that was hidden under sticks and leaves, in quite a vulnerable spotting sight too. Covered in little slugs, not nice! I tried my best to cover it back up but ducking down under tree in rain is quite difficult.

The series takes in an almost loop, with a short walk back to the lay-by to park. Parking is pretty easy and the walk is quite nice for the view. Haven't posted any of the view purely because it's nice to experience it yourself than through pictures! A lot of dog walkers take this route and it can get quite windy because it follows a shoreline. It didn't take us long to do at all, maybe an hour or so. It's a 2 mile walk so a few caches to gain for a small series!