Monday 5 May 2014

The Scouting Trail

I was very excited to learn recently that the Scouts have designed a Geocaching badge, and have offered my help/support to a local Scouting group, should they need it. With the May Bank holiday upon us, Everyonesmum and I decided that a day out was needed, and we planned to head to Spalding to visit the outlet shops and then go onto some Geocaching. I had originally screwed my nose up, thinking there weren't many Geocaches around Spalding, but after a quick search we discovered the newly placed Scouting Trail!

The plan was set, and after a morning's shopping we decided to grab a bite to eat and then head out. The shopping centre was heaving with May Day shoppers, and we had ended up parking on the road. We were fairly certainly we knew where it went and so begun to follow the road out, but quickly we realised it was not where we thought it would be! I was quick on the ball here though, sure I had seen a cache on the map a little further down and a quick check of the GPS kicked out GC2AVBT - Cormorant Corridor.

We pulled up at GZ and climbed the bank. Already, Everyonesmum and her false knee had decided there was no way that she would be scrambling down any bank, and I didn't like the look of the waist-high nettles that now occupy every inch of the slope. We decided to try from the other side... where we had slightly more luck! The GPS settled nicely on a tree, and after hopping carefully over the barbed wire, barely supported by a broken fence post, I had a good search. Unfortunately, after all of that, it was still a DNF. :(

Regardless, we doubled back on ourselves and headed back to the Scouting Trail. I know this area exceptionally well, my best friend having grown up living in the houses near the bridge, so we parked up here and started with #3. (Well, I'm hardly known to do any series chronologically!)

All caches were well maintained and relatively easy to find; there were a few exceptions here and there. The scouts have made these caches themselves and it shows, but sometimes it's nice to see the more home-made caches and it is really clear they had a lot of thought put into them - we loved the cache with sticks attached to to it by rubber band! Equally, the slightly "scruffy" look to a lot of the caches helped take the unnatural edge off the fact that they are plastic pots and blended them more kindly into their surroundings.

We also collected GC1H2BV - Coronation Wander and GC1Z2D3 - Almost Pecking Order as recommended around our walk. Almost Pecking Order gave us a chance for Everyonesmum to have another swing at a multi, which she found easier this time, and it was a beautiful little nature reserve. After a false start on the co-ordinates, we collected this one up too.

Beautiful Bluebells at the nature reserve!

Certainly, once thing that can be said for this walk is that it's beautiful for bird watching. Unfortunately, my phone camera did not capture the animals at their best, but highlights among the walk included a mother duck fussing over her duckings;
A kestrel which shot out of the sky and caught a mouse (or another small rodent) not 100 metres in front of us; a cormorant who spent some time diving underneath a pair of swans and openly confusing them no end, and a pair of grebes either fighting or courting, I'm afraid I'm not experienced enough to tell!

It was a really enjoyable walk and with a full string of finds to smile at me, the out-of-the-way Cormorant Corridor excluded. Very highly recommended from us!

-RFF
-Finds today; RFF - 13, EM - 14 (She logged one of my owned caches as a find while I did some maintenance!)
- Finds total; RFF - 447, EM; 109 (Woohoo! Crossed 100!)