Shaking it all about

What a difference a day makes. The sun is shining, the skies are blue, and all is well with the world. I headed to a new series near Cambridge, the Hauxton Hokey Cokey. A flat, easy walk, great paths, no livestock problems, and caches set to be easy to find - and there was a Church Micro to pick up along the way as well.

Church Micro Hauxton

There were apparently a number of cachers in the area for the weekend attending an event, but I only came across two on the trail, Aldeneywomble and Dora Explorer. They were walking it the 'right' way round, whereas I as usual was traversing it in a contrariwise fashion.

Look both ways

I whizzed - well, ambled - around the 6.6 mile circuit in 3hrs25, then went off to grab a few drivebys - including the worth-visiting Sewer Croc, especially if you have little ones - before a walk up to the Obelix, an interesting memorial.

The Obelisk

Just time to pick up a puzzle cache before darkness fell. This gave me particular pleasure, as its geochecker showed there were just 5 correct answers out of 270 attempts - although the solution is, of course, trivial once you know how :)

Trudging, not Tramping

The southern half of the UK was awash under rain for most of the day according to the weather maps and latest forecast, so I cast my eyes northwards. From around Doncaster upwards the forecast was showing a much better outlook, so I headed up the M1/A1 to do a couple of series, starting with Trampz Trample.

Unfortunately weather forecasts aren't always correct - even when they're only a few hours old. On arrival at my chosen start point I had to sit in the car for 30 minutes whilst a particularly squally shower passed over. The skies remained dark and ominous but I was able to kit up and set off in a lull between the showers. Frustratingly, some 10 or 15 miles away in almost all directions, I could see blue sky. However looking in one direction, the sky was black; and you can guess which direction the wind was blowing from.

Sometimes I find walking in the rain invigorating; today, it was just dampening. There's not much pleasure to be gained in scrabbling around in wet leaves in wet hedges and under dripping trees looking for small bits of tupperware. Despite how good one's kit is, everything eventually gets soaked, adding to the misery quotient.

To compound my miserableness I'd chosen a series that included some awkward hides, such as micros in the middle of woods, that I'm not keen on at the best of times. In today's conditions, my usual enthusiasm for the search just drained away. The trail was a lot longer than I'd anticipated as well, taking nearly 4hrs to complete - so not much chance of doing the second series I'd planned.

With just 19 finds, and 8 DNFs, this was the most unproductive caching day I've had this year.

The forecast for tomorrow is sunshine nearly everywhere; I hope this time they get it right.

A game within a game

Today is Annual Church Micro Day, celebrating the publication of the first Church Micro in 2007. This series, the largest themed series known to the geocaching world, is truly a game within a game. I suspect the dedicated statistics page helps greatly with this; whilst the game is never supposed to be 'About the numbers', there is something about a league table that seems to gee people up to greater lengths. Many cachers will go seriously out of their way to bag a Church Micro.

Nottinghamshire Church Micros

I'd planned a route to take in upwards of 40 Church Micros today. In the end, I managed to visit 26 of them (they seemed much closer together on the map..), and actually found 23. And drove 170 miles.. - that's the penalty you pay for clearing out your local area of Church Micros at every opportunity. Fortunately more and more cachers are now placing them, hence the seemingly exponential rise in numbers in the last 18 months.

On last year's Church Micro day I found 17, so today was an improvement - and I managed to squeeze in a trigpoint as well.

Lab-ra-dawdle

Main mission for today was A Lab's Tranquility, a short series just to the South of Alcester. I'd read good things about it in previous logs, and I wasn't disappointed. An easy-walking, bovine-free trail and some nifty caches.

Tweet tweet!

This poor little birdie suffered a mishap when I was replacing it, involving a 30yd swim downstream before I was able to rescue it (the bird did the swimming, I ran alongside). I hope it dries out OK..

You'll pass by a small Church along the way, with great views from the Churchyard. Sadly it wasn't open.

St James, Weethley

Once I'd completed the main mission I went off and grabbed a nearby Church Micro, then some more Lab's caches (they seem to be permeating the whole area) along with the Kinwarton trigpoint. Finished off the afternoon with two delightfully constructed caches on the same theme, Stick It In and Stick It Out.

When organising today's caching I'd planned to do the Lab's Meander as well, but the days just keep getting shorter and shorter and I ran out of time. That wasn't a bad thing, as it will allow me to return to this area soon to do that trail, and others.

Some serious route-planning required tomorrow, as I prepare for Church Micro Day on Thursday.

Born too late

I received a letter last week informing me that I would not become eligible to receive the State Pension until my 66th birthday. If I had been born just 14 days earlier, I would have become eligible on my 65th birthday. Those 14 days mean that I will be missing out on pension income (at today's rates) of £5500.

Yah boo sucks.

If you're interested in your own circumstances, there's an online checker.

Bowling by Barrowden

A new izaakwilson series was today's mission, Barrowden and Back. Had to sit in the car for 10 minutes after arriving at my chosen start point, to outwait a squally shower (I think I've mentioned before my dislike of starting a trail in the rain). Happily I was only caught out by one brief and insipid shower on the way round, though it was a very breezy walk. 52 finds, 3 not-finds.

Took my last 5mg steroid tablet this morning. I'm not convinced the treatment achieved its purpose, but that doesn't mean it wasn't worth trying. I suspect I'll be discussing anosmia with my GP again in the not too distant future.

The medical community certainly takes steroid use seriously; I am to ensure that anyone treating me for any ailment over the next 12 months is informed that I underwent a course of steroid tablets.

Norfolk Nibbles

My deferred trip to Norfolk today, with the A14 now running smoothly again. First order of the day was a combined jaunt around the Great Ellingham Gallop and Fiddlers Forage circuits, which join together to make a figure-of-eight trail of some 28 caches.

Waterlogged layby

A wet start to the walk but most of the route was fine, although I was rained on near the end. I had no problems with the Gallop caches but a few of the Forages evaded my meagre searching skills. I did learn a new Latin word, Afrecta.

I then moved on to the nearby small Family Toolbox series of 8 caches all on a theme, and all quickly found on an easy-walking route.

I'd planned a number of drive-by Church Micros to finish off with, but only managed two of them before night fell. I'm not too keen on Church Micros after dark, lurking around Churches/Churchyards shining your torch everywhere tends to lead to Questions Being Asked.

A long way to go for 35 smileys, but it was good quality caching.

Tomorrow should be a bigger numbers day.