WMW #2

Today I went back to repeat the Wentworth Monument Wander series by Mr Truffles just as I had promised myself on Sunday.

This time it was a solo wander where I was aiming to do the entire series again (without actually touching the caches I had already found) and also taking a few diversions to pick up other caches around the area.

Mr Truffles has placed quite a few puzzle caches in the same area so I've spent the last couple of weeks occasionally looking at them, and then I had a concerted effort on Monday and Tuesday evenings to try to get them ready for today.

I like to think I'm pretty good at puzzles but of course we all have areas of strength and areas of weakness and unfortunately all four caches I was trying to solve fell into the latter category for me. I got some hints off my good friend Patrick and even with those two of the caches were unsolveable. Mr Truffles had beaten me good and proper. More hints and eventually I had to just give in on one of them. Patrick told me how to do it and even now I understand it I reckon it's impossible to solve!

I set off walking at 9:40 (again, coincidentally) and went to the two churches to get the answers for the first cache. This took me an age and I felt really uncomfortable wandering around a church graveyard. I know these poor people have been dead for 200 years but it seemed wrong, to me, to be 'playing a game' there. I never mentioned it on the log because I'm clearly in the minority and many people have complemented the cache which has been there for 7 years.

Then it was a long walk of almost 5 miles to the next cache. My legs started aching after about 3 miles and I was briefly worried but it soon passed - I think they were just loosening up again after Sunday.

It was a lovely day, a little cold, but lots of sun and strangey that was my biggest bugbear of the day...

With it being winter the weak willed sun didn't have the courage to leave the horizon and for the first 3 hours I was heading directly into it and consequently, because of the brightness and the way it lens-flares on my glasses, I ended up hardly seeing anything for the first third of the walk. I wonder if I've got a tan for my troubles?

I then picked up Wentworth Wanders #5 at Keppel's Column, turned away from the sun and headed north-east into the woods.

Another long walk on now familiar ground until eventually I had to make a diversion to pick-up the first of Mr T's puzzles. I was somewhat lost as to how to get to it but in the end just followed the arrow and (*looks around feeling guilty*) went through a fence and ignored the lack of footpath signs.

A good find ensued and then I headed back towards the proper path but again then detoured before I got back to it. A tricky find here and I had to sit down and look at my map, purely as an excuse, while four nice ladies stopped to chat to me - presumably a small walking club of friends out for the day.

I was then quite a way off the original track and couldn't see where to go to get back to it so I simply headed off to my next cache and eventually the tracks did meet. However I then had another, quite large, diversion to pick up the next puzzle cache. Unfortunately it was along roads but as the sun was out and the roads were quiet it was still a lovely jaunt.

By now the clock was at 10 miles and I was feeling as though I could walk forever. No blisters and only minor aches and pains. I was feeling good.

Back on the original course I was now at another monument where I had to solve an on-site puzzle. A rather strange puzzle given that it's about a bizarre and fascinating building - Hooby's Stand - yet the puzzle is about blummin' grafitti. Talk about missing the point. (This isn't one of Mr Truffles I hasten to add!)

Then further West-NorthWest along the hillside edge towards another monument - Needle's Eye. An easy find here and quickly onto the one I miscalculated on Sunday which I had to leave owing to light and time contraints.

Back across the fields and then into the woods on the outskirts of Elsecar.

At this point I was touching 13.5 miles and suddenly, without warning, my legs turned to jelly. They were all out of energy and I knew there'd be no walking through the pain this time because it wasn't pain.

I now came to my final detour - I missed out the last three caches of the original series to pick up the last puzzle I had (eventually) worked out. It was strange finding this as it was about 20 metres from a now-archived cache that I had picked up a few months ago; this is the first time I've visited a recycled spot both before and after.

Now back to the car and up a small, yet to my legs unrelenting, hill. It was now hard work.

I got back to the car at 15:25. This means today I walked 14.7 miles in two hours less time than I did 13.7 on Sunday - however that's primarily because I had approximately 35 less caches to find & sign.

Nine more caches in the bag but the best thing about today was SEEING the walk. On Sunday I knew from the start we would be pushed for time and I hardly actually SAW the sights, the monuments, the views and the countryside. Today I was walking with more time to spare and it made a huge difference. Much nicer.

My legs are now OK but still tired. I'm undecided what to do tomorrow. I ought to rest them to let them repair and get stronger but I want to get out because I wanted to do two consecutive days of long walks. Ahh well we'll see, after all I do have the 10 mile walk in Lincoln to look forward to on Friday.

Still no blisters!

Wentworth Monuments Walk

Wentworth Monument Walk (WMW)

On Friday evening, whilst in my local club, I checked my emails and was baffled to see over 50 had come in on my Geocaching account. Closer inspection revealed that a new series had been published at Wentworth and I recalled that Mr Truffles had mentioned he was planning something special in that area when we met at the Christmas Corroboree. He wasn't kidding - here were 45 new caches placed over a 12 mile circular route.

I knew I couldn't do this on the Saturday, because of the time the kids arrive, so I spoke to Patrick to see about doing it Sunday. Patrick wasn't too keen; the weather forecast was putting him off.

However I was really keen, and for a few reasons. Firstly it's a new series so there's likely other people doing it. Secondly it's 45 caches, with 6 others on or almost on the route. Thirdly, and most importantly, it's 12 miles and would make perfect practice for me doing the Yorkshire Dales Way walk - especially if I do it more than once on consecutive days.

But things seemed to be against me doing this. The weather did look pretty bad with 40% chance of light rain, Adam had been sick on Saturday morning, and when logs started coming in on Saturday night from the first people who had done it they were speaking of having done 15 miles which I thought too much for the kids. (It turns out that this was from adding in extra caches.)

So my plan was thus: go to bed and see what time Adam wakes up. If he's up at 7am playing on the PC (as per usual on a Sunday) then he's well enough to go! We'll go to Wentworth and if the weather is dreadful we'll come home, if it's half and half we'll drive-by the Wentworth Wanders (WW) series that's dotted around and if it's good we'll go for it!

I prepared by copying and pasting all the helpful walking directions from each of the 45 pages and also the description of each cache - it's amazing how much easier it is to look for something when you know if it's a tube or a box or something so small there's no room for a pencil in it. I seperately also printed out a map, the on-site puzzle instructions, all the hints (time and therefore light would be an issue so I wanted all the help I could get) and finally details of the five WW caches. I also double-checked my workings on the two puzzles that you have to solve before setting off.

Up at 8am on Sunday I finished packing, made sandwiches and a flask of tea to go with my 2-litre 'platypus' water holder, and set off at about 8:45 with two highly unimpressed kids. I was a little worried about my overly heavy rucksack - with waterproof coats for the kids, and food & drinks for three it was very heavy - more so than I was used to carrying.

We arrived at 9:20 and immediately spotted some Geocachers just leaving their cars. I quick equip and we caught them up at the first cache, neatly hidden in the car park, introduced ourselves and set off the wrong way. Peter & Di and AldoCandy (and their dogs) headed off in front and it was about 50 metres before I looked at my GPS and wondered where they were going. I turned around just as they did the same and we went back in the correct direction with us now in front.

By this time I had already decided not to do the WW series, I knew I would be back shortly, and I didn't want to 'waste' time as I wanted to complete the entire WMW series in one go.

We set off on the route a good 100m or so in front of the other team, the weather was overcast but dry, the ground was good at this point although clearly wet.

By the 8th cache the two teams had joined forces and it was nice to chat with new friends and also all search for caches as a group. The 9th cache contained a devilish little trick of a puzzle to solve the coordinates for the 10th and I must have done it correctly (or at least accurate enough!) as we soon had that one in hand too.

The trouble with a route of this size and duration is that all the caches blur into one and it's pretty hard to remember any specifics.

After #11 the others headed off to do a WW and we went directly to 12 to solve an on-site puzzle. Quickly calculated and off to the actual cache we were hindered by a loitering dog-walker so we out-loitered him by having a sandwich, during which time the other team caught us back up.

We then remained together for about 20 caches, which did include a standalone cache by someone else and also WW 1 which was not a puzzle and we were walking directly past. Bonus.

Solving the next on-site puzzle the other team left to pick-up two unrelated caches, which I had done previously, whilst we headed for the actual cache. We said our goodbyes, just in case, even though I thought they'd likely catch us up later but this turned out not to be the case. It was lovely to meet them all and once again I have to thank AldoCandy for lending me his spare batteries after I went through 3 sets! (One set half used and eventually ran out, second set just dead, third set lasted 1 minute. Time to throw away and replace all my rechargeables!) I left his batteries under his car wipers later.

A couple of caches later we had our first disappointment of the day; I had miscalculated an on-site puzzle and it wasn't until we were at the supposed final location that I knew I had done it wrong. However time was pressing upon us and I resolved not to be too disappointed, I would recalculate and find it another time and we'd move on. It was already almost 4pm and sunset was at 4:20.

We found the next two easily and then lost the path through a wood and ended up simply "following the arrow" out the other side. Not good as the kids had clearly had enough by this time and Jade was also complaining about her heel hurting. However we found the next two caches easily and then the next two by torchlight.

More bad news - we'd just found the penultimate cache and we were missing one coordinate that had been hidden in amongst the previous 44 caches. The final was a mystery and looked like remaining one. We headed back toward the car, not yet beaten and I hammered some figures into the GPS. The area it was coming up with approximately didn't include any mention of the hint item for the final cache, it looked bad but I wanted to go there anyway.

Walking in total darkness I left the kids behind so I could quickly, with failing hope, examine an area and lo and behold - the hint item was there. I called the kids over and 2 minutes later we had got the final cache! Such elation to finish an epic series on a high note.

We then headed back toward the car, again, with the kids finally realising their ordeal was coming to an end.

We had walked 13.7 miles, found 46 caches, solved two pre-puzzles, solved 4 on-site puzzles and only had one missing cache. It had taken us 7 hours 40 minutes - seemingly slow but if you consider let's say 4 minutes per cache to find it, sign it and replace it then you're looking at three hours in 'downtime'. We'd started early morning and finished in the dark. We'd been drizzled on for an hour and rained on for an hour and we'd met three new friends. The kids legs were 2/3 covered in mud - even inside Adam's waterproofs. We'd eaten our sandwiches, drunk all the water and tea and we were all hungry again. Happily I'd also coped with the rucksack however Jade's heel was a mess - it turns out she was wearing flipping training socks which didn't protect her heel from her walking boots.

They were both tired, aching and fed up but I was so proud of them.

Truly a Wentworth Monumental Walk. Thank you Mr Truffles for all your hard work and time in planning and arranging this series.