After reading tarmacjohn's post on CacheWalker, branding this series as "fantastic", I knew it was a must-do (TJ's recommendations never disappoint!) Therefore, within a few days, we set off to tackle what looked to be a great series.
What a sunny day! Warm too! The day looked to be promising as we approached #1, where we meet a pair of cachers, Sulis and Asparagus. A quick chat and we went our separate ways, leaving the cache for us to find above a river, which was sparkling and glistening under the sun. This already looked to be a cracker!
On we continued, approaching #2. Ah, we had heard about this one: Only three finds found up to now, and seven attempts. Of course, we had caught up with Sulis and Asparagus, who had been searching extensively for ten minutes now. We joined in, and together the four of us had to admit defeat after another half hour. As we proceeded, I sent a text to tarmacjohn, hoping he'd read it to be able to give us a hint - perhaps we'd be able to come back upon completion, as GZ was right by a minor road.
The views were very rewarding as we continued along Norbury Camp, an Iron Age hill fort.
And the walk just got better the further we went along: The caches maintained their good standard, whilst the views improved. Had never cached around here before, but am certainly going to do so again, this is such a lovely, picturesque and untouched part of Gloucestershire!
About half way round, the sound of the tri-tone on my phone was a welcome one, as I took it off standby to see that tarmacjohn had texted me - with a little hint for that elusive second cache! Woohoo! We hoped that we'd see Sulis and Asparagus again to be able to pass the hint on so they could find the cache, and we did! Surprisingly, they turned around to go back to it, rather than to drive to it at the end - oh well, I guess the walk was so beautiful that they wanted to enjoy what had been a particularly special stretch from another perspective (reverse).
Several caches on the series (and some extras) and more super views later, and we were back in the village where we parked. Prior to driving up the lane to grab #2, we popped in to the pub where we cooled down with an ice-cold drink to reflect on what had been one of the best walks we've done in a while!
Using the hint, we were able to now promptly find the cache - what a clever hide, you really do have to think out of the box! Glad to see Sulis and Asparagus's names in the log too!
As I've said, a great series, highly recommended!
Griff Grof
