This checkin to GC6H7JG Herbology reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.
I get precious little time for geocaching lately: between work, childcare, household and volunteering commitments it’s a challenge to squeeze in a quick expedition here and there. That’s doubly-true as the days get shorter: after finishing work, feeding the children etc. it’s already starting to get dim, and caches that I know will be more-challenging to find – like this D4.5! – become a race against time.
A fortunate side-effect of my unusual living arrangement is that I’m only needed for bathtime and bedtime story-reading duties two nights out of every three, and so when this evening achieved the hat-trick of me not being on bedtime duty, not being urgently needed for work in the evening, and the weather looking good, I leapt onto my bike to come and find this cache. I’d found its sibling Geology a fortnight ago without two much difficulty, but – knowing that Herbology would be much harder! – I’d planned to come out and perform a dedicated search for this and this cache only this evening. I cycled to South Leigh and then up the old Barnard Gate road, stopping at N 51° 46.366, W 001° 25.259′ to lock my bike to a wooden footbridge at the point at which a footpath crosses the road. From there, I jogged North up the path to find the GZ (bringing my front bike light for use as a torch, should the need arise).
I had anticipated that a search would be needed and had a few ideas about the kinds of things I might be looking for, but when after approaching half an hour I’d found nothing at all and had resorted to poking at candidate hiding places with a stick while I shone my torch around, I was worried that this expedition might be a bust. Swallowing my pride, I messaged the CO to see if they might be able to provide a further hint. Amazingly, they were not only online but able to give a hint that pointed me at exactly the kind of thing I ought to be hunting for… because it turned out I’d already moved the cache container while hunting elsewhere in its hiding place!
Upon returning this expertly-stealthy cache to its hiding place, I realised that I might just have time to find the third of this triplet, and so I took off at top speed for Zoology.
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