Dan Q

Woodward Draw

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Daniel Linssen (via itch.io)

Woodward Draw by Daniel Linssen is the kind of game that my inner Scrabble player both loves and hates. I’ve been playing on and off for the last three days to complete it, and it’s been great. While not perfectly polished¹ and with a few rough edges², it’s still a great example of what one developer can do with a little time.

It deserves a hat tip of respect, but I hope you’ll give it more than that by going and playing it (it’s free, and you can play online or download a copy³). I should probably check out their other games!

Footnotes

¹ At one point the background colour, in order to match a picture word, changed to almost the same colour as the text of the three words to find!

² The tutorial-like beginning is a bit confusing until you realise that you have to play the turn you’re told to, to begin with, for example.

³ Downloadable version is Windows only.

Dan Q found GC54E29 WAG 16 – Elvendon Valley

This checkin to GC54E29 WAG 16 - Elvendon Valley reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

The poor little geopup’s only got tiny legs, and the 8km we’ve walked so-far has got her pretty tired-out, so this’ll be the last cache of the series before we go and find ourselves some lunch and go home. It’s been a very enjoyable series so far, and I fully intend to return to complete it (and perhaps find some of those earlier caches that I failed to spot).

For this final cache of the morning (well, afternoon: barely!), I found the likely spot straightaway and picked up something that looked out of place. Nope, no sign of the cache though; that’s strange. It took a few seconds to realise that yes, the cache was hidden behind the thing I’d picked up… it was just also covered with leaf little and detritus. Soon had it retrieved in the end, though.

A huge number of butterflies flocked in the field to our right: it was quite impressive. I’ve snapped a picture showing just one, so that I can later look up what kind of butterfly it is!

Dan Q found GC54E1W WAG 15 – Action!

This checkin to GC54E1W WAG 15 - Action! reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Sometimes the geo-sense “just works”. This was one of those moments. I was approaching the area and checking the distance. Then I walked straight to a likely location. Then I picked up the cache. Done and done.

Dan Q found GC72TZ5 WAG 14 – Wander through Wroxhills

This checkin to GC72TZ5 WAG 14 - Wander through Wroxhills reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Turning South and crossing our own path, the sun came out at last and we were bathed in glorious warm light. Between that, and the familiarity of the trail we passed, the geopup and I completely forgot for a moment that we were out to look for this next cache and overshot it: we had to turn back to get to the coordinates and find the cache. TFTC!

Dan Q found GC54DR7 WAG 9 – Sausages & Bacon!

This checkin to GC54DR7 WAG 9 - Sausages & Bacon! reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Worra lorra porkers! The geopup is a huge fan of sausages but I don’t think she understood that the cornucopia she was looking at across the field was the same thing, just a few years off being ripe. Great cache container too. TFTC, and let’s chuck an FP in because this series as a whole has definitely earned another one in my mind by now…

Dan Q found GC54DTF WAG 10 – Track-able

This checkin to GC54DTF WAG 10 - Track-able reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

The geopup and I tried a couple of likely hiding places before we found this one. A nice-sized container and well-suited to its hiding place, here, TFTC!

Dan Q couldn’t find OK00F7 Pig City Vista

This checkin to OK00F7 Pig City Vista reflects an opencache.uk log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Came by this location while doing the nearby WAG series. Was delighted to see that an OpenCache was on the route too so the geopup and I dedicated the time to a decent search. We think we found what was once the hiding place, but the cache itself was sadly nowhere to be seen.

Dan Q couldn’t find GC54DW0 WAG 11 – Panorama

This checkin to GC54DW0 WAG 11 - Panorama reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Between nearby GC7QC7R, which acts as a spur to this series, and OK00F7, which sits on (and predates) this series, I was feeling confident of a find here… but after an extended search the geopup and I had to admit defeat. To be honest, she was willing to give up and press on immediately, having seen a muddy puddle up ahead that she wanted to play about it, and her persistent lead-pulling in that direction might have reduced both my patience and the efficacy of my search! But we found a few things that might match the hint and didn’t see success, soo… 🤷‍♂️

Dan Q found GC7QC7R Lothal

This checkin to GC7QC7R Lothal reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

As a quick diversion from the nearby WAG series, the geopup and I meandered out this way to find this cache. Once I was in the vicinity of the cache something stood out to me as unusual, so we went to pick it up… it turned out to be a chunk of wraught iron, but finding it soon pointed me in the direction of the cache. TFTC.

Dan Q found GC610PB WAG 12 – Wroxhills Wood

This checkin to GC610PB WAG 12 - Wroxhills Wood reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

A quick and easy find: we walked straight to where the coordinates said and there it was. My phone, having been rebooted during the last leg, was now behaving much better at narrowing down a satellite fix!

These woods are really quite amazingly beautiful and serene. It’s quiet and calm here, and both the geopup and I really appreciate the excuse to have come here.

Next, it’s time for a quick diversion from the series to find nearby GC7QC7R!

Dan Q found GC54DXQ WAG 13 – Oh deer!

This checkin to GC54DXQ WAG 13 - Oh deer! reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Took several attempts to find the correct hiding place and the poor geopup – who didn’t like the tight-knit undergrowth here except when it suited her (when she wanted to chase after a pheasant!) – eventually had to be tied to a tree while I pressed-on without her to get the cache in hand. Phew! TFTC.

Dan Q couldn’t find GC78WN6 WAG 8 – Battle Farm

This checkin to GC78WN6 WAG 8 - Battle Farm reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

This was the moment when I found myself wishing that my dedicated GPSr unit was with me and working, as my phone’s GPS fix started jumping all over the place. The geopup and I made a few valiant attempts to search in the obvious places, criss-crossing our way through some quite fierce brambles as we did so, but without success. Eventually, we had to move on and chalk this one up as a DNF. I’ve no reason to believe it’s not out there somewhere, but it’ll be a job for somebody whose satellite navigation kit is playing ball.

Dan Q found GC54DF1 WAG 7 – Fuming!

This checkin to GC54DF1 WAG 7 - Fuming! reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

The geopup made herself useful for this cache, running straight to the cache location. (I suspect that some prior canine visitor may have left their mark somewhere very near to the cache, and she was more interested in smelling that than she was at helping me find the container, but I can dream of a dog who’s a useful geocaching assistant, can’t I?) TFTC.

Dan Q posted a note for GC54DEF WAG 6 – Water Break

This checkin to GC54DEF WAG 6 - Water Break reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

Working our way through the first part of the WAG series, we unfortunately had to skip this one without an adequate search: the area was crawling with ramblers, consulting their maps and chatting with one another, and I didn’t have a good excuse to stop and search. Maybe next time!

Dan Q found GC9BYME WAG 5a

This checkin to GC9BYME WAG 5a reflects a geocaching.com log entry. See more of Dan's cache logs.

The geopup struggles to understand why I sometimes insist on stopping our walks to go and poke around in the nearby trees, and this time was no exception. The hint could refer to one of several hiding places, and like a previous cacher I worried for a moment that the hiding place might have been destroyed by some recent logging work in this area, but nope: it’s still here! It was a little more-challenging to retreieve than it perhaps was originally, though, as a pile of branches has been placed between the path and the hiding place, but we found it in the end then pushed on across the road, waving to some friendly cyclists as we did so.