I had to pop into Stafford this morning to pay in some cheques at the bank. Naturally I could not resist the chance to try for the caches we’d missed out on on Sunday due to the flood waters.
After I’d been to the bank I drove round to the first one, which was under 2-3ft of water at the weekend, with all the melted snow causing the nearby River Sow to burst it’s banks. The water had subsided quite a bit and I could see I should be able to pick my way round it to all the caches I needed to do.
The first one was close to where I’d parked and a nice easy one, hanging from a branch in a tree. I only had to stand in an inch or so of water to get it. The next one was on the wrong side of a (temporary!) pool so I left it for the way back to the Jeep. The final one was a quick and easy find.
One the way back to the Jeep I stopped to look for the one I’d missed out on. It was nowhere to be seen and I can only assume the water has washed it away. As luck would have it, the cache has only recently been relocated from a spot about 350ft away and the previous logs indicate the old cache is still in place. I wonder if I can find that one instead so at least I can tick this cache off the list? Needless to say I could – the cache was seriously damp but at least I found it!
The remaining cache in the area was not there at the weekend but the cache owner has since replaced it. I cycled down the path to it and found it quickly enough. I can’t help but feel it will blow off again as it’s only a tiny magnetic cache and it’s in an exposed location high up, with lots of wind. It’s already gone missing something like 4 times in it’s short existence.
On the way home I stopped for two quick caches along the old Stafford to Newport railway line (which is now a lovely cycleway and getting filled up with new caches fast) before heading off to the canal at Gnosall and try and find what would have been our 30th find on Sunday.
As I walked up to it I could see a cacher at GZ acting furtively. It turned out to be a new(ish) local cacher called Yagoobian – great to meet you🙂. The cache was a really quick find in the place we’d thought was the most obvious hide on Sunday, but the darkness had prevented us from seeing the less than obvious hole the cache was in.
Right, better head back home now and get some work done!
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