Chatburn

Length	Estimated Duration	Difficulty
8 miles	4.5 hours	3
Max Elevation	Terrain Types	Smiley Rate (Caches/Distance)
437 feet	footpath / roadway	2

After the scorching sunshine of last weekend all fingers were crossed it would be the same for the Jubilee weekend. The great series around Waddington last Saturday gave way to a nice relaxed event cache GC3CFB2 in Preston on Sunday (thanks NW 2012 Mega Committee. The Good Wench and Mrs T from the Tennants started conspiring about what we should do for our 1000^th cache and it was decided we (by this I mean Mr T and the Captain had no say what so ever in it) would get together next Sunday (3^rd) and we would head off to do Cynaphobia (a 5/5 of Magna Defenders - GC2CD1R). All well and good but that means we need to bag 16 on Saturday so we are at 999 in readiness for Sunday.

The Captain went back home to start the planning and looking at the Waddington route he had just done he noticed a rough circular route around Chatburn that had some caches along it. Counting them up and bingo 16 of the bleeders – must be fate!

With the route planned we set off early Saturday morning so as to miss any muggles in the village where we planned to park.First stop is GC2FRJ5 and there is ample parking on the surrounding roads plus a well know little ice cream shop called ‘Hudsons’nearby.As we pulled up we couldn’t believe it… two coach loads of ramblers (that’s like geocaching without the fun) pulled up and all started heading in the same direction we wanted to go.Brilliant, a hundred confused map readers cluttering up our day is all we need! Luckily they seem to be heading onto a different footpath so we make our way to the first cache outside what is the local photography club’s clubhouse.Sounds grand but if you imagine a 40 year old B&Q shed with wired windows you’ll get the picture….get it…get the picture / photography club???? Never mind.

We then head for GC2F8VD which is along a quint covered pathway and we are getting nicely into our stride.The series has a mix of CO’s as the hope is that it will become a communal series with people adding to the route as they see fit.This means you don’t know from one to the next what style of container to expect as some prefer small bottle types and some clip lock boxes.. just adds to the appeal for me.

Which log do I sign?

At this point we are intersecting where we were last week and so we skip past a couple of caches we have already done but then we hit a rough patch.We DNF four caches virtually in a row.This is the most we have ever passed up on but each with good reason.Some just didn’t make sense (such as the clue related to something that wasn’t there) and some may have been disturbed or lost as the plants have grown back thick this year.It sets us into a panic as we aimed at getting 16 today and now we are down 4. The Captain has a spare on route up his sleeve but this still leaves us needing 3 extra today…grrrr.For anyone interested here are the ones we skipped on (and I know my good pal stevebm will be laughing at me as he did them recently so chances are it’s me and my one drunken cachers eye that’s letting me down today) – GC2EX31, GC2F8RZ, GC2F8TR& GC2FKYZ.

Took TB left child

GC3GKRR is the next stop and finally we find one! It’s up a little banking and the Captain is up there like a mountain goat to grab it. From this point on we are back into our groove and we collect cache after cache. The walk is 75% on road way with decent paths so we are making really good time. The kids haven’t moaned once so there is a promise of an ice cream at the end of it for them. We arrive at the last but one stop of the day which is an old quarry site overlooking the valley across to the Castle cement works.The clouds are rolling in and it’s a different look than last week when the sun was out.We decide to set up camp and refuel.This gives the Captain chance to tally up the days caches and work out how to bag a further three.There is another series close by called the Treasure Hunt series and it’s last couple are not far from where we parked.We decide to walk to them and then double back on ourselves to the car.If you look at the Everytrail route you can see the detour we took.This made it a much longer walk then we anticipated but in the end we got the magic 16 we needed.That’s us at 999…for now.


Tomorrow we will be meeting up with The Tennants to do some 5/5s in the area and then back to ours for meat n’ tatty pie… and maybe a little grog to wash it down…after all it is the Jubilee. Now where did I put my union Jack…?