A New Year, But the Same Habits
So, time to start of my caching year. I needed to get out this week because there’s not much time available to grab the “First of 2025” souvenir. I decided to head for Castle Donington, as there seem to be loads of caches there. Certainly enough to make the 37 total finds I needed to clear January 5th off of my Shifty-Fifty Challenge, anyway. It turned out to be a day of contrasts. Contrasts of architecture and land use mainly. Not a lot of contrast between the various caches, as there was a single series running through the village that are all much the same.
The weather coming into today looked iffy at best. Yesterday would have been good – it was cold all day but it didn’t rain. Today looked decidedly dodgy, and indeed when I got up it had obviously been snowing overnight. Not a lot, but snow means cold. The forecast was for the weather to stay poor all day. As a result, I certainly wasn’t up for anything too “agricultural” in nature. Something with solid footing beneath would be best.
Looking around, there are good options in Castle Donington and also Kegworth, but Castle Donington looked better as it would be easier to reach 37 finds there.
Starting Out
So off I set. Through snowy rain and with a bit of slushy muck on the road. Not a lot, but some. I’d been to Castle Donington before a few times and seemed to remember there are a few places to park down the main street, so that’s where I headed. I found myself a nice free parking strip on the main road and sorted myself out with some boots, a hat, gloves and the big coat. I was expecting to get cold and probably wet too.
The first cache was back down the hill a little bit from where I parked and the walk took me down into the centre of the village. So here was architectural style/environment #1. The old centre of the village is typical of the East Midlands – a mix of 2, 3 and 4-storey buildings in brick or rendered, with some nice churches and occasional “old” stone buildings.
Uphill, for the first time
I found four caches down here before turning back and coming up the hill towards the airport. So here I found architectural environment #2. This corner of the village is a housing estate probably dating from the 60’s or 70’s. There’s a few smallish dwellings that I’m guessing were built for private sale, and quite a big area that was clearly built in the style of 60’s/70’s council housing. Not that it’s bad, it’s just you know what I mean when I mention that style. Uniform sei-detached boxes. At the top of this estate was my first “Moby Dick” of a cache. One that everyone said was really easy, but I couldn’t find it for love nor money. Ho hum! Obviously the spidey sense isn’t working just yet.
This led me nicely through some mucky woods (environment #3) up to the airport perimeter, where I turned right to head towards the aeropark.
Busy
The next environment (#4) was a new loop road that runs round the west side of Castle Donington village. They built a bunch of warehouses down at the bottom (in the Trent Valley) as well as a route through to the A50. It’s also a convenient perimeter for a new housing estate. Anyway, down this road the caches were of variable quality (meaning “I couldn’t find half of them”). Progress was quite slow, to be honest, as it often is in urban settings.
Halfway down the hill the caches seemed to switch over to agricultural fields, but when I got there it was in fact a huge new housing estate (Environment #5). That meant at least I wasn’t walking knee-deep in mud. It was a bit quirky though, as it’s a housing estate that is still very much being built. At least the caches were easy finds.
At the bottom of the hill I attempted three more on the loop road but missed two of them. To be honest, time was moving on by this point and I was beginning to think 37 wouldn’t be reachable.
More Houses
The north-west corner of the village is very much of a 1980’s (maybe 90’s) housing estate (Environment #6). This is given away by the integral garages and block-paved drives and is another contrast of style. It was generally newer the further west you go.
There was a steep hill in this section and also the quirkiest cache of the day. It was one that the owner of the “main” series I’d been doing put out in his/her own front garden. I had to read the description a few times to be sure, and then it took me a little while to spot it.
And so from here I headed back east towards the old village, via a handful of other caches in housing estates.
Bottom of the Hill
I came out on the main street at the bottom of the hill and failed to find a cache that I’m sure I’ve failed with before. This left me a bit short on the target number, so I walked north down the main street for a coupe more. I found oin but then couldn’t find the other. By now it was nearly 3pm, so only an hour of light left and still needing another 8 finds to make target.
I didn’t think I had time to venture much further south, so I was sort of resigned to not getting my 37. There were only a possible 7 more between me and the car and I needed 8. So whilst trudging back dejectedly towards the loop of 7 I decided to check the local “salvation” site. There’s a monster series of lab caches over in East Leake, which is maybe 10 minutes away. I’ve done loads of them before on previous trips (see Notts Labcache Pool), and it’s always worth checking for new ones. And behold, a new set appeared overnight. That meant 5 “free” extra finds essentially. So I should get over my 37 target easily then.
Clartibartfast
Oh yes! Clartibartfast, the brother of the better known Magrathean planetary designer. He’s well known for his invention of sticky mud, which to this day is still referred to as “clart”, especially in Scotland. He’d been busy here on the footpath taking me east of the main street into the fields. Environment #7 (and maybe #8) – a muddy path surrounded by ivy covered trees, followed by a grassy field with a very steep slope. I assume the slope is the edge of the Trent Valley. It’s kinda steep at this bit, to be honest. I was puffing and blowing a bit by the time I got to the top.
And this very neatly brought me back into the village (via one more failed hunt). And then up the hill slightly to where I’d left the car. It was still there, which is always good.
Afters
When I got back to the car I’d made 35 finds. All of them were trads. That’s rare these days, but I’ve been here before and cleared most of the other types. It was early enough though for me to complete my day of contrasts by driving over to East Leake for the new set of labs. Adding them onto the trads made 40 finds, and hence comfortably past the 37 target.
So tick, I’ve now made more than 50 finds on January 5th. 185 days done, 181 to go, with a minimum of 6,585 finds required to complete them all. I suspect I will probably find more like 15,000 in finishing, assuming I live that long. I tend to tick the days off at about 15-20 a year, depending on how often I get to go out caching. Maybe being single again will make for a few more days out.
