Ron's last one (or not)

On Saturday we met up again with Patrick, Donna and their kids, along with my two pests newly returned from a long holiday in Orlando, to do Easiron's series entitled TTTWHSFTCP - a humorous acronym of his That's The Third Walk He's Started From This Car Park.

Starting from the same small car park in Ridgeway we used for a walk I blogged only two weeks ago, we set off on what *was* Ron's last series and was the only caches of his we hadn't yet done. This is another spectacular walk of 11 hides (the last being a calculated bonus) taking in over 6 miles of woodland, farmland, hedgerows and paths. I commented in my logs at the time that Ron had excelled himself with this walk and I think all agreed.

The kids were all quite excitable, as usual, but I do think Christmas is already creeping up. Aside from this we had been to see Paramore at the Sheffield Arena two days before so Jade and Christianna had lots to gossip about.

We stopped at the pub, like last time, when back at the car park but this time we only had coffee and biscuits to help us thaw out - once the sun had set it turned very cold.

The sun was disappearing behind us as we walked down this field.

I don't know whether it was because we've cut back on the walking over the last couple of weeks (bad weather and bad diaries), or whether it was because this walk took in a couple of hills, but the next morning my legs and even my arms(!) were aching quite badly.

Roll on the spring when we can get out more often!

As for Ron, the sneaky chap, he published another series of 8 whilst I was logging these so it looks like we've got another good walk to look forward to!

(Total for the day: 11 of Ron's plus a random nearby cache so the total for the day was 12 caches over 6.6 miles.)

Bradfield take two

After a lazy Saturday (not planned but as a result of a needlessly long Friday night session with several friends from work) we set off on Sunday to do two separate series around South Bradfield. We had originally planned a long series around the North side of Doncaster but the bad weather made us think twice so Patrick (he of Team PADS fame) came up with a plan of two small series split by a pub meal - this way we could stop if the weather was too awful.

We met at 11am in light drizzle, on the Damflask reservoir wall (where we were only two weeks ago) and set off to do A Stroll Around the Brickworks. This was a nice 2 mile series of 6 caches with some lovely views and unfortunately some heavy mud.

Once again the children had been bribed at 50p per cache but to avoid in-fighting between the 5 of them I came up with a new plan; the kids would share £1 between them... they initially thought this was a bad deal until we explained they had five times the chance of getting 20p each.

This also meant the adults had to try harder to save some dough!

We finished the first series and went to the Nag's Head Inn for a fabulous home-cooked meal each, and then decided to continue onto another series called Storrs Circular. This was a longer walk of nearly 4 miles, 4 caches, a little more hill-climbing involved but the view were staggering and made all the more beautiful by rainbows.

The drizzle was on and off all day but not really bad at all; I think we got more drenched from wading through a couple of cow-pat soaked fields! We had a great day caching, chatting and walking and for once I also think the kids enjoyed it too!

Overall result: Kids 6, Adults 4.

Actually I'll put this in more detail to put Patrick and Donna, in fact the Hills overall (except star Bethany) to shame:

The Kids
Bethany 3
Adam 2
Jade 1
Christiana 0
Jorden 0

The Adults
Mark 3
Hannah 1
Patrick 0
Donna 0

Special thanks to the Hill family for their company and also their map which we needed for one of the puzzles. Cheers all.

Mad dogs and Englishmen

Hello there.

With the intention of meeting up with my sister and her new dog I planned a short walk along the Trans-Pennine-Trail at Thurgoland today. My sister was concerned about the pup walking too far for it's young age.

Dexter, for tis his name, is a collie-cross-labrador and runs around like the Tasmanian Devil on speed. I do understand it's all a big act though, and once back home he crashes down dead for two hours. He's an adorable thing and is just at that age where everything is exciting and interesting; whether it's a piece of grass, a butterfly or a pile of horse droppings. I think when he grows up he will become a weaver - I've seen how, at only 3 months old, he can tangle 10 human and 4 dog legs in seconds.

We had a nice stroll for a couple of hours at a leisurely pace and found three simple caches. The highlight was probably walking through a long disused train tunnel that I hadn't seen for 20 years. They've spoiled the fun by installing lights; originally it was pitch dark in the middle where you couldn't see either end because of the bend and had to stumble forwards carefully feeling your way in front for fear of bumping your head. Now it's all lights and concrete paths - blasted health and safety!!

We popped off at a local pub for Sunday lunch after and almost got ourselves in a pickle when we found out they didn't accept credit or debit cards. Luckily we had just enough for food and a jug of water. Shame really... I'd like to have seen someone actually getting the kids to do some washing up!