Lollygagging in Lincolnshire

Recent caching outings have been short both in distance and in caches found so I felt I was due a long cache-rich walk, before the weather takes its inevitable turn for the worse. Scrolling the geocaching.com UK caches map I found the Woodhall - Bardney Circuit; 80+ caches over 14 miles, this looked ideal.

I knew I wouldn't have enough daylight to do the whole thing so decided to concentrate on the larger loop. I chose the Southrey parking waypoint as my start and planned a route from there south to Woodhall Spa alongside the river, then off up the Viking Way, via Stixwould, back into Southrey. I pulled into the parking just before midday, after picking up a few drivebys on the way in.

Whenever I start a new trail, I re-position a saved waypoint on my Garmin (whichever one I'm using; currently it is the light, and very accurate, Garmin Dakota), called Landy. It's often interesting to note the distance from my last parking waypoint; today it was 102 crow-flown miles.

Interesting artwork at the disused Southrey station:

Mmm, what's for lunch..

Then it was onto the hard-paved cycle path for the long trek into Woodhall Spa.

Easy-walking hardcore cycle path

River Witham, nr. Southrey station

By the time I'd completed the first 8 caches (from #55 to #62) I'd only found 3 of them. Realisation quickly set in that this was unlikely to be the major cache haul I was expecting. On long caching trails I like the caches to be easy finds, so I am not delayed. This route was anything but; there were some really awkward hides, and hints were either irrelevant or non-existent. I was very soon fed up of seeing the hint "disguised nano"; primarily because these were the caches that I was usually going to DNF. In fairness, the listing does state that not all the hides will be straightforward, although to my mind most weren't!

There was some more artwork on this part of the route, which helped divert attention from my miserable cache count.

Can you tell what it is yet?

There's a cache in that first one..

Dusk falling as I made it to Woodhall, then it was off up the Viking Way to Stixwould. By the time I reached there it was full dark and I was navigating by headtorch, which only served to add to the cache-finding difficulty level. Up until then the walking had been fine; flat, easy terrain. The section past Willow Farm, from #21 to #23, wasn't quite so much fun; this was cow country (thankfully, no cows about) and both tracks and fields were quagmired. The yappy dog at the farm didn't help soothe my passage either.

The last part of my chosen route, across the fields back to Southrey via Abbey Warren farm, was easier - although passing any farms at night headtorch-equipped has me skulking, rather than rambling as I wish to avoid any potential farmer confrontation.

With 17 DNFs and a couple of no-tries, I think I've set myself a new personal record for abject failure. It certainly wasn't a quick-and-easy caching route. However it was a nicely set out trail. I enjoyed the cyclepath alongside the river, and I dare say I would have enjoyed the latter parts of the trail as well had I been able to complete them in daylight. The listing suggests this would be a good trail to cycle; I'd agree, apart from that one shortish section past Willow Farm.

I've left myself the shorter top loop to complete, so I shall return to Lincolnshire in the next few days.