Doing the Doings
Another day of caching. This time I was continuing the Flower Power series in Shepshed. On the way home I stopped at Grace Dieu Priory to complete a quick set of Ad Labs.
Saturday is parkrun Day
First of all though, it’s a Saturday. So my morning began with a trip to Conkers for parkrun. I’m not talking about it much though. It was a poor run even by recent poor standards. It took me 5 minutes longer than last week, for some reason. Never mind.
Parking Up
I parked up in the big free car park at the park in the middle of Shepshed again. It was a lovely day today, but for some reason I decided to stay with the “big” coat. That proved to be a bad decision later in the day.
Through Town
My plan was to walk the northern “petal” of the series. That involved a bit of a hike through the village before getting to the actual series. I think I found four before I broke out into the open. Those were easy.
Issues began at the first one out in the country. It was an ivy covered tree, and despite the clear hint I couldn’t see it. I pinged the CO to see if she’d help. She did, but I’d moved on, so I had to come back to it later.
Clartybartfast
Hmmm! A big chunk of this loop was through a wood. I was expecting it to be a bit wet, but maybe not quite as wet as it was. It was certainly ankle deep in a number of place. The wood itself was quite dense and the paths narrow, so I couldn’t really avoid the poor path.
Anyway, I walked up the west side of that wood and made every find. Most were fairly easy and there were a few bigger ones than the previous loop I’d done (see Shepshed). So generally all good stuff despite the heavy going.
Don’t slow down, whatever you do!
Eventually I broke out onto the main road across the top, the B5234 I think it is. It proved to be quite a busy road, filled with people who like to break the speed limit. While I was walking alongside I got buzzed by someone in an Audi who was overtaking a large argricultural vehicle right as he passed me. They were coming from my back, and it was a bit of a surprise.
There were four along this stretch of road, of which I found three. The road passes under the M1 in the middle of this stretch, which was motorway-ish. The cache I missed was one where several people had commented about the high speed traffic and the proximity of GZ to the road. I furtled around for 10 minutes before giving up. During that time there were probably 60% of the vehicles that passed who seemed to be doing way more than the 50 mph limit. It’s the middle of nowhere, but presumably the limit is there for a reason. Ho hum!
Back to the Woods
So after the M1 I turned right (south) back towards Shepshed to start making my return. I followed completely the wrong route at one point but thankfully I realised at a point where it was easy enough to get from where I was to where I needed to be. Down a bank, and through a gap in a hedge. I didn’t find the cache that was there though. D’oh! Another miss.
From here I came back into the woods on the eastern side. I missed another one here. Lots of people had found it, but I didn’t. Too many trees. Couldn’t see the wood for the trees, in fact.
Repeat Failure
Hmm! Back at that first one in the countryside, I was newly armed with some hints from the CO. It didn’t help. I still couldn’t see it. To be honest, it could just be that I was having a bad day. Who knows. I don’t.
So that left me at the top end of the village. It was a fair walk back to the car, so I decided I’d go for a few more caches on my way. I found three of them, all urban in nature, and that helped me feel a bit better.
The car was where I’d left it. Quite a lot of the mud had come back to the car with me though. My first one of those for this year.
On to the Priory
I toyed with the idea of driving back through a bunch of villages to do more caches, but it was after 4pm already, so I decided just to go home. Halfway home though I had an attack of “not done yet” when I pulled off the road into the car park at Grace Dieu Priory. I knew there was a set of labs there.
They were sequential, which I don’t like, but it was a pleasant evening. It was also really the first time I noticed it was light at 5pm. It was a lovely evening to be honest. You can tell that from the photos below. You can also see how there’s a very stark difference in the light at that time of evening based on whether you are pointing towards or away from the sun.
The Reckoning
Not a massive day, as I only got to 27 finds. However it cleared another petal from the Flower Power series and it was a gorgeous day. It was pleasantly warm and brightly sunny all day, and I enjoyed the walking, even though I was slow and stiff.
