It was the great Dartmoor Geocaching Weekend, in the company of Rockin’ Rob and The Lovely Miche, a.k.a. Team Paws for Thought. They picked me up on Friday evening and we headed for Devon, stopping only once on the way to take on essential nutrition at a pub. It was a bit odd really – the couple at the next table wanted to order a bottle of wine, but the waitress apologetically explained that the pub’s licence conditions meant that they’d have to order at the bar. A few minutes later they asked a waiter, who told them the same thing. When we left they were still wine-less, and still grumbling to each other.
Hunter’s Lodge B+B at Dartmeet is officially fabby – although it’s in a mobile phone dead spot, which made it a bit awkward when we wanted to report back to family members that we’d arrived safely. Still, a ten-minute drive up the road found us some signal.
Update – Saturday’s route map is available here
Saturday was dry with bits of sunshine, and we’d planned a ten-mile circular caching walk: First, and not far from the B+B, was Badge(r’s) Holt, where Miche slipped on a rock and hurt her knee – and worse still, tore her jeans. After a fair trek – and some stepping-stone-related hilarity – we came to The Judge’s Chair, which took some searching.
More stepping stones and some moorland walking brought us to our most remote cache of the weekend, This Will Be The Ruin of Us: In fact it didn’t ruin us, it was a really nice cache alongside a ruined cottage in the middle of nowhere. Even that wasn’t as nice as lunch at The Forest Inn, Hexworthy
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After lunch, we failed to find at Splash and Dash, but some more stepping stones brought us to our final planned cache for the day, A Quick Dart Across the River. Back at the B+B I discovered the advantage of letting Rob and Miche have the room with en-suite: While they had a shower in their lovely en-suite, I had to go to the shared bathroom and use the whirlpool bath. Shame.
On our way back to the Forest Inn – for evening meal this time – we went to Venford Reservoir, a drive-by cache that Rob and Miche had done on a previous visit.
Sunday had been allocated to some further-afield caches, although we started with Holt Badger’s Crossing, half a mile downriver from Hunters Lodge. Back to collect the car, and drive to the start of the walk to Boom Boom Bang, a cache hidden close to a now-derelict gunpowder factory: We amused ourselves on the walk by “moo”-ing at the coobeasties on the way.
Admire the View and North Hessary Tor came either side of Sunday lunch: both are really nice caches, the tor is a climb up to a trig point and cache alongside a HUUUGE TV transmitter mast. Want one!
Sadly we ended the weekend with a fail to find at Town Quay, one of the Blog Standard series owned by our chum Lord Hutton. Still, a great weekend with good mates, and nine caches found – that’ll do me! Pictures online soon, with a bit of luck.