Ilmington Jubilee Walk

ILmington Jubilee Walk, 3.5 miles, 11 caches, Ilmington, Warwickshire
The cache page links to this walk guide. 

Hello,

I knew that we'd be a little busier this weekend so I decided that a shorter series would be ideal. Clearly, we were very pleased to see this new series being published on Thursday, as it certainly fitted the bill. After a day of relentless rain, and more forecasted for later today, we decided to head out to complete the series in the morning as a sunny interval had been forecasted.

Arrived in Ilmington where we initially struggled somewhere to park. It was then along some pretty streets and past the idyllic church, which had its bells ringing for its Sunday service. We were soon on the footpath, which was flooded! The little stream running across the field had burst its banks so we had to dodge the water to get to the first cache, which was quickly spotted.

Before too long, we made an ascent up the northern face of the Cotswold Edge. We were rewarded with some spectacular views and we stopped to have a snack whilst we admired them for a little longer. There were plenty of other people up here today, from fellow walkers, to cyclists - great to see people enjoying the outdoors as well, and the sunshine whilst it's still here!

Looking back: some nice views

We spent ages searching for the fourth cache. The hint stated that it was in the bottom of a wall, which confused us as one of the cache placing guidelines says that caches should never be placed there. Knowing this, we widened out search but eventually, having almost given up, we spotted somewhere where the cache could be and I can confirm that there is no reason to move any stone associated with the wall whatsoever - I'll make a note of this in my log. How did we miss it to begin with?!

It was then across a couple of crop fields, and, with the recent rain, our boots were extremely muddy by the time we got to the other side. There wasn't really a path through the field either, so hopefully people will still be able to find their way across in the summer months once the crops are fully grown.

A nice lane with some great views

The next section of the walk led us down a quiet lane, where we enjoyed the great panoramic views ahead of us. It was surprising to see daffodils and snowdrops in flower, just goes to show that we really have had an unusually mild (and wet) winter.

It was very interesting to pass a healing well, which people used to heal their eyes in. It's a shame that a landowner diverted a stream into the pond in the eighteenth century which muddied the water! Unfortunately, we didn't finish the series soon enough as the rain caught us. Luckily, it didn't last for too long, and the sun was soon out again - talk about changeable weather!

The old healing pond

We were soon back at the car, having completed a good, pleasant walk in some lovely Cotswold countryside. The views were great and the caches were good, some were even a little challenging as they took longer to find than they should have. The route was quite muddy, though, but as you'll gather from my other recent posts - it's muddy everywhere! We really enjoyed the series.

Griff Grof