As the sun was streaming through my window this morning, I fancied an early morning walk with a difference. I decided to go back to the wood I visited yesterday to look for a geocache. This one hadn’t been found since January, so I wasn't very hopeful.
I’m not very good at finding caches in woods, as they’re usually at the base of a tree, and there are far too many trees to look at. It doesn’t make it any easier when the co-ordinates are slightly off, as mobile GPS signals can be wrong. Anyway, even if I didn’t find it, I’d still have a nice walk in the wood.
I parked my car further down the road than I did yesterday, in a small lay-by. While I was there, I had a look at the Boundary Stone. Eight stones were erected as part of the new millennium celebrations in 2000. These represent the eight compass points, plus there is a central obelisk stone situated at the local village hall. That’s the only one I’d seen before now. All eight stones are inscribed with two words along with a compass point. When the words are put together, they form a short poem. I could just make out what was etched on the stone.
'BS Our Record South East 2000 AD'
'BS' means Boundary Stone.
'Our Record' is part of the poem.
'South East' is the compass point.
'2000 AD' is when the stone was erected.
I’ll have to look for the other stones at some point.
Anyway, I made my way to the padlocked metal gate, not knowing if there was any way to enter the wood. The cache wasn’t too far away, and the hint was ‘hollow’. At least there would be nobody watching me wandering around like a headless chicken trying to find it. Let’s go!
Thankfully, I spotted a footpath at the side of the locked gate that led into the wood. I looked at my phone app and pressed “navigate” to show me which way to go. If I stayed on this footpath, it should take me straight to the cache.
There were a few more bluebells in this part of the wood.
Sure enough, my phone vibrated, letting me know I was within 10 metres of the hidden cache. Remembering the hint was ‘hollow’, I thought it would most probably be in the nearby tree stump. As I looked down into the hollow stump, I could see the cache.
There weren’t any treasures inside, just a piece of paper to sign and date to show I'd found it. It was a nice, easy find in the end, but all good fun!