Elemental my dear Odysseus

Tuesday 19/07/2011

(For a small change today I'm going to put times into my blog so I can reflect back on the evening more accurately.)

Working with computers. Playing with computers. Working with computers. Playing with computers. Working with computers. Playing with computers. Working with computers. Playing with computers.

It's taken me longer to spot that pattern than it has you dear Reader.

Feeling stressed from work I decided to get out and do an evening cache. I'd solved another of Patrick's excellent puzzles the day before called 'Elemental'. This turned out to be in the approximate vicinity of two caches at Roche Abbey, a place I visited last year to do a series. The two new 'Tales of brave Odysseus' caches fit neatly alongside the original 'Roche Abbey' series.

17:45
I got home from work, got changed and set off straight out with a plan to drive-by Patrick's puzzle and to then park at the abbey and get the two others. No such luck. After tootling down a tiny B-road for a while I got to the cache to find a farmer parked next to it surveying his land and animals; he looked like he was there for a while so I decided to skip it and go straight to Roche Abbey.

Driving a mile or so up the scariest B-Road I've ever seen (not one single passing spot) I got to the Abbey and parked on the main road, donned my rucksack and set off into the wild blue evening.

18:18
Taking a different route to the one I took last year, which I think was a big error back then, I walked around the abbey and towards a tumultuous noise.

Approaching the abbey

The other side of the abbey

...and again

I hadn't realised at the time (but have confirmed since) that it had been raining heavily most of the afternoon and this was the cause of the noise:

Despite its size this is possibly the noisiest waterfall I've ever heard

18:34
Crossing the stepping stones at the top (one of which was submerged) I headed off towards the first cache and carefully slid down a slope to what was quite a scary spot. The river at this point was a couple of feet deep, very turbulent, and the bank was of course slippy mud. With no path I took great care and got down to the presumed spot and my heart sank - the obvious location for the cache looked like it involved stepping into 20" of water. (Having not been here before I presumed the water was not normally this deep here).

I did a quick search around and then decided to back up, cross over the bridge/path and come down the other side. An easier route here and after a few more minutes looking I was despondent - I couldn't even phone-a-friend as I had no signal. There were fewer possible locations here so I crossed back over and around and after carefully sliding down the bank again I got out my torch and started examining all the nooks and crannies on the off chance that the cache wasn't where I'd first expected it to be.

Hurrah! Found the sneak hiding away and joyously signed the dry log book before scrambling back up the bank, pausing only to take another snap for the diary.

I can't swim but given the reasonably shallow depth I was more afraid for my iPhone!

18:49
Gathering my bearings I then headed off deep into the woods towards #2. A beautiful walk through a damp woods with a long gentle incline until you come out at some farmers crops.

18:59
Along the field edge, past a couple of old caches, and arriving at the cache site - a bench overlooking a valley.

View from the bench

Reverse view from almost the same spot
(Note dynamic 'I'm trying to be a photographer' angle)

19:15
So now what should I do? I'm about one and a half miles from the car with no caches to do except Patrick's and I'm in no rush to get home. A plan... Rather than walk to the car and drive to the cache why not do the opposite? It's a cirular route (a wonky triangle if you want to be more accurate) and the extra distance will do me good.

So for the first time in my Geocaching life I cut across a farmer's field that didn't have a public footpath. Feeling a little guilty I only let myself do this as there were two distinct tracks directly across the field where the tractor tyres had prevented seeds from being sown and I'm pleased to be able to truthfully say I didn't damage a single ear of barley/wheat/whatever.

The rest of the walk was pretty uneventful. I kept up a good pace along the road and arrived at Patrick's puzzle at 19:46, signed the log and quickly moved on. I followed a track across a field and around some woods before joining another track and then coming out onto the road at 20:10 which leads back to the Abbey, finally arriving back at the car at 20:20.

The back of the abbey again, this time taken from the road

Total distance covered tonight was 5.3 miles in two hours with about 35 minutes stop time (caching, writing and taking pictures.) Not bad going and do you know I felt great.