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.

A quick almost-CnD on the school run. I’d love to come back and do the series someday! Found easily (although the hint object is nowhere in sight!), but container was challenging to open! Luckily the edge of the carabiner I use to clip my GPSr to my belt was up to the task! TFTC.

“Solved” all the puzzles some time ago, then came out to find this cache as a drive-by (on the minor, not the major, nearby road, of course!) while in-between other errands nearby. Was looking for something smaller when I laid my hands on the cache container, which I thought looked “out of place”, but the weight balance of the thing I’d picked up felt wrong… like something was loose inside? That’s when I realised I was holding the cache! Signed log and returned it to its spot. TFTC.

A quick and easy find in spite of the growing dark, significantly helped by my having correctly interpreted the name of the cache and knew exactly at I was looking for TFTC.

This cache’s siblings might have to wait until another day, when I have the light on my side, though!

The M6 Southbound got blocked by a crash this afternoon so I diverted to Knutsford Services and took a walk out to the local caches while I waited for it to clear. I had a feeling what kind of thing I’d be looking for when I got here and I turned out the be right, making this a much quicker search than the 20 minutes or so it took me to walk up here! I possibly wasn’t helped by my choice of route, though: thanks to a badly signed footpath through the lower part of Tabley Hill Farm I ended up off-course and found myself in the cattle yard at N 53º 18.345′ W 002º 24.147’… right as the cows were heading to the milking parlour! Got there in the end, though. TFTC!

I was in the vicinity of this cache while taking a rest break on a long journey South down the M6. Coordinates seemed off by about 8m but the hint quickly set me straight and after that it was an easy find. SL, TFTC!

Came as a mini layover during a long drive South down the M6; specifically picked this cache because it fulfils a Wonder collection for me. ;-) A quick and easy find, once I got past the cache’s spooky guardian! TFTC!

Made an extended search amongst the nettles, including in the place where the hint suggested we look, without success.

Good camo here! We honed in on the GZ quickly but it took us a few minutes of searching before the container was in hand. Greetings from Oxfordshire!