Great Western Road

Lunch hour on Monday and I decided to go for a short walk to try to collect one or two more caches in Glasgow City Centre. I'm based at Charing Cross so after a quick look at the map I headed of towards Great Western Road.

My first target was to be Fantasy Family #5: Jorg. This oddly named cache is in an equally odd location. Arriving near the location I found I had no idea how to get right to the given coordinates as these appeared to be inside a building. Common sense told me this probably wasn't the case so I started looking for a close or lane which would take me around the back. Unfortunately I chose the wrong direction and ended up making an almost complete circuit around the block before finding a small muddy lane leading to the yard around the back of the buildings.

Aside from the dirt, the first thing I noticed about this location was just how overlooked it was. There are literally windows on all sides overlooking the GZ. I decided to take the bold as brass approach and walked straight in to the area where I suspected the cache would be hidden as if I was supposed to be there. This seemed to work, I passed a couple of people who didn't so much as give me a second look. Once in, I spotted the cache immediately despite it's camouflage.

This cache is close to the Woodlands Community Garden. This project has made use of an "Urban Gap" where some buildings have been demolished to establish a garden and an "Eco-Awareness Hub" for the local residents.


My next target for the day was a return to A Flock of Gargoyles which is located at St Mary's Cathedral just off Great Western Road. This is the third time I've been to this cache. On the first visit there was ongoing renovation work at the Cathedral and the area around the cache was fenced off. My second visit was a few nights ago after I'd been to the pub so I was hampered by both darkness and vodka. This time it was broad daylight which was equally problematic in that the area was swarming with muggles and is located right at traffic lights.

After a couple of minutes I was starting to feel a bit conspicuous, I'd already played the "on the phone" trick and employed the "shoelace" manoeuvre without success. My final weapon was what I call the "fence inspector". Armed with an IKEA pencil and a bit of paper I jotted down a bunch of meaningless words whilst pretending to examine the fence. There's a bit of damage to the railings slightly further along so I made sure I had a good look there too. It was several minutes before I finally spotted the cache and only down to the gap in the fence (hint!). A quick fumble to grab it, then I took it on a short walk around the block to sign before returning! Success at last!

As part of the recent renovation some of the Cathedral's collection of gargoyles were replaced. These new carvings have apparently been based on the local congregation. Personally I think that's a great idea, who better to watch over the church than it's own members.


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